The Bahamas Sun Is Shining During the WSOP Paradise
Picture this: you’re on home soil, sitting by your computer and paying taxes. Outside the rain is pouring and you’re about to do grocery shopping for the entire month to come. Just when you’re about to leave your apartment and head to the supermarket, you get a notification on your phone. You look down and you see that your favorite poker player just reached the final table of a high roller live poker tournament. He’s at the other side of the globe sipping drinks on the beach and cracking aces.
This is the feeling we get when we’re watching the action from the WSOP Bahamas. It was December 3rd when GGPoker Ambassador and poker icon Daniel Negreanu voiced “shuffle up and deal!” and since then the cards have been flying at the Atlantis Paradise Island. Boy, do we wish we were there.
Poker players have now spent one week at the tropical paradise, and a lot has happened. Let’s take a look at what’s been happening at the WSOP Paradise so far!
A Fitting Start
There’s been a lot of familiar faces during the WSOP Paradise so far. All the famous poker players – Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho, Jason Koon… – are there, as well as some well-recognized celebrities.
WSOP Paradise kicked off with the $1 500 Mystery Millions event. 3 446 entries were made distributed on five different start flights, which created a $5 169 000 prize pool. After the initial flights and a long day two, 34 players returned to day 3. One by one they fell and when it was time for the final table, Mario Ho went on a hot streak. In fact, she had busted all but one player when they were only three left and was the chip leader. A while into three-handed play, she eventually lost the majority of her tack to Jin Hoon Lee, who eventually became the tournament winner.
WSOP Paradise $1 500 Mystery Millions – Final Table Payouts
| Position | Player | Payouts |
|---|---|---|
| 1. |  Jin Hoon Lee | $420 000 |
| 2. |  Max Pinnola | $257 100 |
| 3. | Maria Ho | $200 000 |
| 4. |  Konstantin Maslak | $160 000 |
| 5. |  Drew Scott | $127 000 |
| 6. |  Thomas Santerne | $101 000 |
| 7. |  Kartik Ved | $80 000 |
| 8. |  Davidi Kitai | $64 000 |
| 9. | Hyunsup Kim | $51 000 |
Seidel Takes Number 10
Like he couldn’t cement his legendary status even more in the poker community, Erik Seidel won the $50 000 Super High Roller and took his 10th WSOP bracelet. He now joins Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson in the “10 Club”, and they’re all chasing Phil Hellmuth and his 17 bracelets.
WSOP Paradise $50 000 Super High Roller – Final Table Payouts
| Position | Player | Payouts |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Erik Seidel | $1 704 400 |
| 2. | Seth Gottlieb | $1 052 800 |
| 3. |  Orpen Kisacikoglu | $778 300 |
| 4. | Jason Koon | $582 100 |
| 5. |  Koichi Chiba | $440 500 |
| 6. | Alex Foxen | $337 300 |
| 7. | Jonathan Jaffe | $261 400 |
| 8. |  Adrian Mateos | $205 000 |
The Main Event Is Afoot
The $5 000 had its first live flight this weekend out of total four. It should be mentioned though, that an online flight went down on GGPoker earlier the previous week. With these two flights being done and dusted, 224 players have already bagged their chips and will return on day 2. The tournament is already halfway of filling the guarantee, and that’s saying something about the success that has been WSOP Paradise so far.
There’s still a lot of poker to be played, considering the WSOP Paradise continues until the 14th. It will be a pleasure railing all the action!
