Over the years, the Wynn has emerged as one of the best organizers of live poker tournament series and it is easy to see why. Just recently, this year’s Wynn Millions Main Event, which was offering massive guarantees and lots of tournament options for the participants was concluded. This year’s tournament consisted of 20 tournaments that ran from February 21st to March 20th and offered a collective guarantee of more than $15 million.
What we cover
How It Went Down
In a marathon table that featured some of the best poker players of our time, Tony Sinishtaj managed to outlast all other participants for the top prize of more than $1.6 million. The second-place finisher, Isaac Kempton, did not have a bad payday either as he took home his own million that day. For most of the tournament, however, it was Vanessa Kade from Canada that was the star of the show.
When the professional poker players sat down at the final table on that fated Friday afternoon, none of them expected that the final tournament would last for 12 hours. At the start of the final table, Kade already had a slight lead while the tournament winner Sinishtaj was positioned somewhere in the middle of the group. Other notable players in the pack included Michael Stembera, Sean Perry, Roland Shen, Tony Tran, as well as a short-stacked Neng Lee.
As the star of the show from very early on, Vanessa Kade maintained pressure for most of the initial action. Neng Lee, who only kicked off the poker tournament with $300,000 did his level best for close to 17 hands. However, Lee was kicked out of the running on hand 18, thus forcing him out of the Wynn Millions at 9th place.
With Lee out of the running, Sean Perry would soon become the short stack. Perry would be kicked out in hand 19, causing him to leave the tournament in 8th place and with a payday of $202,908. After Perry left the table, things pretty much stayed the same for a long time. The only constant, however, was Vanessa Kade’s lead.
Every once in a while, Isaac Kempton would take the lead from Kade. However, the female poker professional would always take back the lead. One of the most defining moments of the final table came on the 110th hand when Sinishtaj found a fold that allowed him to start playing on the offensive. Sinishtaj practically tripled his stack; he defeated Stembera for a pot of $6.2 million.
Sinishtaj continued to rise the leaderboard knocking out several players before players finally took a dinner break. By the time the finalists were breaking for their dinner, Sinishtaj had over $8 million in his stack. His biggest threats at this time were still Vanessa Kade and Alex Livingston.
After the players returned from their dinner break, Sinishtaj continued to play in exemplary fashion. But still, Vanessa Kade was proving to be a very tough opponent. Kade and Sinishtaj would battle it out for hours, which would consequently gradually grind down Kade’s massive stack. Eventually, though, Sinishtaj managed to capture the lead he had been looking for on the 251st hand.
It was the back and forth between Kade and Shinistaj that was the highlight of the tournament. Unfortunately, after playing impressively the entire night, Kade would lose out to Sinishtaj in a blind VS. bling head to head during the 272nd hand. Although this would push Kade to the fourth position, Sinishtaj on the other hand picked up the colossal pot.
At this point, Sinishtaj boasted more than half the chips in play, worth an estimated $26 million. The only opponents that were a threat to his pot were Kempton, who still had $11 million, and Livingston, who was playing with $6.6 million. To put away his final 2 challengers, Sinishtaj tried his best to amp up the online poker competition.
Kempton and Livingston would not give up easily though, which made for a very interesting competition. Livingston even managed to momentarily snatch the lead away from Sinishtaj during the 325th hand. The trio would challenge each other for another 100 hands before the next elimination occurred.
Livingston would eventually be eliminated from the festival in third place before a heads-up play began between Sinishtaj and Kempton. By the time Livingston was being eliminated, Sinishtaj and Kempton both had the same equal stack- 22 million worth of chips for each finalist. It looked like the duo would battle it out for hours.
However, the battle was very short-lived and was concluded in three hands. Sinishtaj finally took the lead on the 383rd hand before Kempton finally announced that he had been beaten. On this hand, Kempton put up a pair of Jacks, which would typically be a great option in a heads-up setting. But Sinishtaj went up against Kempton’s pair of jacks with pocket aces and with just one blow, the tournament was called with Sinishtaj as champion.
In the end, Sinishtaj walked away with $1,655,952 while Isaac Kempton would finish the tournament in second place with $1,093,314. Alex Livingston walked away with $745,749 while Vanessa Kade, who had been leading the tournament from the start finished in fourth place and winnings worth $527,481.
As the 5th place finisher, Michael Stembera finished the tournament with $390,053 while Tony Tran came in 6th with $304,161. Roland Shen finished in 7th position and a final prize of $244,541 while Sean Perry closed the night with $202,908. In last place came Neng Lee, who despite struggling from the start of the night, still managed to take home a decent $171,280 in winnings.
Final Thoughts
The Wynn Millions Main Event has so far been one of the largest tournaments in a live setting that have been organized this year. After a thrilling final table and a tough battle, it was Sinishtaj that would emerge the winner. This is Shinishtaj’s largest live prize of his career and taking the lead in a final table that consisted of some of the best poker stars in the game will certainly help his career further moving forward.
