2022 Pinktober Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, Florida
$1,700 Pinktober Championship (Re-Entry)
$400,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  358
Prize Pool:  $537,000
October 14-17, 2022

The 2022 Pinktober Poker Open Championship headlined the two-week festival, and it drew a great group of players. After getting through a tough field and a talented final table, Matthew Leecy won the Championship outright for $111,240.

The $1,700 buy-in tournament drew 358 entries to push the $400,000 guarantee into a prize pool worth $537,000. That is the biggest PPO Championship prize pool in our history, and the last 45 players earned some money.

Leecy bagged the biggest stack coming back for Day 2 on Sunday, and he closed the day with the chip lead coming back for the final table on Monday. But it wasn’t all easygoing for Leecy; several times along the way he lost the lead and dropped to the bottom of the counts.

“I came in as an overwhelming leader,” Leecy said after his win. “But with six people left, I was last.”

“Having the history, being a little older now, knowing it’s not going to be perfect,” he continued. “The tournament doesn’t have to go perfect for you to win it, but you have to keep your head.”

Even with a big lead starting the final table, it wasn’t an easy path to victory for Leecy with Debbie Lee taking a commanding lead of her own with half the chips when it was four-handed.

Leecy battled back, got hot at the right times, and took the title with an outright win against runner-up Jebhar Patterson.

This is Leecy’s second major Tampa title, another guitar to go along with the one he picked up for his Tampa Poker Classic Main Event win in 2019.

Results:

• Complete PPO Championship results (PDF)