2020 Winter Poker Open in Review

Max Young, 2020 WPO Main Event Champion

No one was completely 100% sure what to expect with the return of a big poker tournament series in Tampa. Whatever expectations there were, they were blown away by the Winter Poker Open turnout.

The numbers were fantastic across all eight tournaments; a testament to our fantastic base of regulars and a schedule that attracted a large number of out-of-state players. Along the way, we found some great stories.

Kenneth Goldfarb won the first multi-flight tournament on the schedule only a few days before celebrating his 77th birthday. Jason Block defeated Alex Vazquez heads-up for the Event 4 trophy and Vazquez followed that up the next day with a victory of his own in Event 5.

Raminder Singh made the trek from the east coast of Florida to win Event 6 and his nephew Harmeet Chawla closed out the series with the Black Chip Bounty trophy.

But the Main Event was the headliner of this series. The tournament featured a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool that was matched early in the first flight. The turnout went on to put more than $1,000,000 on top of that guarantee for a $1,207,450 prize pool. Max Young, a recent Oregon-to-Florida transfer, topped the 779-entry field in the Main Event to claim the $226,510 top prize.

Congratulations to all of our WPO Champions and those who made the money. Thank you and thank you again to all the players who came out to make the Winter Poker Open a success. We hope to see both old friends and new the next time around.

And that time is coming soon with the Tampa Poker Classic returning early in 2021! Mark your calendars and start making your plans to return for the next big series running February 17th through March 1st. We will publish a detailed schedule as soon as it is set.

Event 1 ($300 NLH): Irfan Khairi – $18,063
Event 2 ($400 NLH Multi-Day): Kenneth Goldfarb – $31,267
Event 3 ($200 NLH): Ryan Hogan – $6,500
Event 4 ($150 NLH): Jason Block – $4,860
Event 5 ($400 NLH): Alex Vazquez – $6,936
Event 6 ($600 NLH): Raminder Singh – $17,931
Event 8 ($400 Black Chip Bounty): Harmeet Chawla – $9,707
WPO Main Event: Max Young – $226,510

Irfan Khairi, Event 1 Champion
Kenneth Goldfarb, Event 2 Champion
Ryan Hogan, Event 3 Champion
Jason Block, Event 4 Champion
Alex Vazquez, Event 5 Champion
Raminder Singh, Event 6 Champion
Harmeet Chawla, Event 8 Champion