Volpe Goes Back-to-Back, Seidel Threatens at Bay 101
Paul Volpe has made back-to-back final tables on the WPT after making the final six at WPT Bay 101 in San Jose last night.
A massive winner online under the nickname paulgees81, Volpe finished second at last week's WPT LAPC and followed up with an equally impressive performance at Bay 101 to take the chip lead heading into the final table.
Volpe bagged up 5,525,000 to take pole position for the $1.1 million first-place prize but he'll have a major obstacle in poker legend Erik Seidel to overcome to win it.
One of the highest-earning poker players of all time, Seidel had an impressive day yesterday to bag up 3,435,000 and start right behind Volpe at the final table.
Seidel will be looking for his second career WPT title and his first since the Foxwoods Poker Classic in 2008. Volpe and Matt Salsberg are the only players to make back-to-back final tables on the WPT this year.
Kuether, Johnson Among Experienced Tablemates
The rest of the final six is an interesting mix of veteran players looking for career-defining scores.
Third in chips is Joe Kuether, a tourney vet with 13 WSOP cashes since 2009 including a third-place finish in a $1k event in 2011. He'll start the final table with 2.8 million in chips.
Right behind Kuether in fourth at 2.7 million is Chris Johnson, a Vegas pro with a WSOPC title to his credit.
Fifth is WeiKai Chang, another tourney reg with $750k in career cashes, and sixth is Joe Nguyen - the least experienced of the bunch but still with several solid tourney runs to his name.
The official final six and chip counts:
- 1. Paul Volpe 5,525,000
- 2. Erik Seidel 3,435,000
- 3. Joe Kuether 2,830,000
- 4. Chris Johnson 2,740,000
- 5. WeiKai Chang 2,590,000
- 6. Joe Nguyen 2,175,000
Notables to make the final 44 but miss the final-table cut yesterday included Antonio Esfandiari (9th - $64,450), last week's LAPC Champ Paul Klann (11th - $48,890), Matt Stout (12th - $48,890), Christian Harder (13th - $37,780), ElkY Grospellier (15th -$37,780), Maria Ho (20th - $26,670) and Isaac Baron (21st - $26,670).
Final-table action begins at 4 pm PT today. Follow along with the WPT Live Updates here.
matt stout deserves nothing
Imagine what Stout could do if he wasn't high all the time.
Man Matt Stout deserves a win on the WPT, or at least he should be one of the ones to watch! So many deep runs but I guess you gotta get lucky at the end when it really counts.
Seidel is in my top 5 best players in the world. Such a boss.
