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Kade Finishes Fourth and Sinishtaj Wins 2022 Wynn Millions

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on
Jennifer Newell

The Wynn has become a leader in Las Vegas tournament series. Its Wynn Classic series – Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter – brings big guarantees and lots of tournament options four times each year.

Last year, the Wynn tried something a little different by hosting the Wynn Millions…with a $10M guarantee. It was a part of the Wynn Summer Classic. They hosted it at the time of the year that would normally – in pre-pandemic times – have seen poker players descend upon Las Vegas for the WSOP Main Event. With that scheduled for fall last year, the Wynn tried a $10M guarantee with a $10K buy-in. And it was a huge success. With 1,328 entries, the prize pool soared to $12,483,200. And in the end, after a three-way chop, Andrew Moreno won the trophy and $1,460,106.

This year, the Wynn did something a bit different. Instead of putting that tournament in a Wynn Classic, the poker room decided to give it its own series.

The 2022 Wynn Millions offered 20 tournaments from February 21 through March 20. Every event had a guarantee, putting the cumulative guarantee over $15M.

Main Event Hits Guarantee Again

The Wynn Millions Main Event this year offered the $10M guarantee again. There were three starting days March 3-5. All players needed was $10K to buy-in.

Day 1A delivered just 199 entries, and Day 1B added 332 to the total. It was Day 1C that delivered 544 more entries to put the grand total at 1,075. And that lifted the prize pool over the guarantee to make it $10,105,000.

There were two Day 2 flights to handle the 315 survivors. Day 2AB thinned its field from 143 to 67, and Day 2C worked its 172-player field down to 87.

Getting to the Money

Day 3 brought the 154 players back to the Wynn tables, though only 116 would be securing a spot in the payout line. The minimum payout was $22,029.

Ultimately, Ali Imsirovic was the bubble-bubble player, out in 118th place, and Jake Schindler followed on the official bubble.

Payouts then began with names like Landon Tice, Gianluca Speranza, and Brent Roberts. Exits came quickly for a short time, but later in the evening, names like Athanasios Polychronopoulos, Jason Wheeler, and Ben Yu busted. JC Tran and Faraz Jaka followed, Nick Schulman, Jonathan Jaffe, and Johan Guilbert eliminated at the end of the night.

The final 54 returned the next day, with players like Jess Sylvia and Chino Rheem falling fairly fast. Later in the day, Chad Eveslage and Sam Soverel busted, each collecting $48,665. Daniel Buzgon departed, and Katie Lindsay and Shannon Shorr followed later in the evening. Returning champion Andrew Moreno departed in 23rd place for $71,657. And after Sofia Lovgren took 17th place for $94,272, the final 16 players bagged their chips.

Isaac Kempton led the two tables, but it was Alex Livingston who started strong by eliminating Debbie Lee and Shankar Pillai in one hand. Tony Tran took out Daniel Moran, and Vanessa Kade busted Ian Matakis. Livingston did another double by ousting Shaun Deeb and Sylvain Loosli in one hand. And Kade stepped back in to bust Thomas Boivin to end the day atop the leaderboard.

Nine to One

Kade started the final table with 10,355,000 chips, followed by Livingston and his 9M. Tran had 6,145,000, Tony Sinishtaj had 4.47M, and Kempton had 4,345,000. Michael Stembera had 3,835,000, Roland Shen 2,875,000, and Sean Perry had 1.7M. Neng Lee squeaked in with 300K.

Action started with Kade extending her lead with some of Livingston’s chips. Meanwhile, Sinishtaj sent Lee out in ninth, and Kempton bid adieu to Perry in eighth place. Stembera put Shen out in seventh, and Sinishtaj made Tran the sixth-place finisher and Stembera the fifth-place guy.

Kade led the final four but lost ground quickly. Sinishtaj gained momentum and finally put Kade and her diminishing stack to the test. Kade had pocket aces, but they didn’t beat Sinishtaj’s flush. Kade accepted fourth place and the largest live tournament score of her career.

The only other Canadian in action, Livingston, doubled through Sinishtaj to stay alive, but the two tangled again soon after. Sinishtaj and his A-K dominated the K-J of Livingston, and the latter took third place.

Stacks were even going into the final duel, but Sinishtaj continued to play strong. With a bit of a lead, Sinishtaj had pocket aces to the jacks of Kempton on a board of 6-7-7-6-K. Sinishtaj won the second Wynn Millions.

March 3-11 $10K buy-in Wynn Millions Main Event
Total entries: 1075
Total prize pool: $10,105,000 ($100K GTD)
Players paid: 116
Minimum payout: $22,029
Final table results: 1st place: Tony Sinishtaj (USA) $1,655,952
2nd place: Isaac Kempton (USA) $1,093,314
3rd place: Alex Livingston (Canada) $745,749
4th place: Vanessa Kade (Canada) $527,481
5th place: Michael Stembera (USA) $390,053
6th place: Tony Tran (USA) $304,161
7th place: Roland Shen (USA) $244,541
8th place: Sean Perry (USA) $202,908
9th place: Neng Lee (USA) $171,280

 

 

 

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