The 2022 Poker Showdown series kicked off on March 24 and had an incredible three-week run that featured plenty of game options, huge payouts, a lot of great poker, and some terrific champs. Here’s a quick look at the raw numbers:

Primary Events: 50
Entries: 20,359
Guarantees: $7,450,000
Prize Pools: $20,833,340

We ran 50 primary trophy events over 20 days, and the players came out in big numbers. In fact, the 20,359 Poker Showdown entries are the most we’ve had come through the door in our history for any single series, and $20,833,340 in prize money is our third-most ever.

On a historical note, during the series we had our 400,000th entry take a seat in one of our major events (that total is now up to 404,812) dating back to the 2011 Poker Showdown series, we have awarded more than $380 million in prize money.

Those big numbers were, of course, made possible by the players. But poker is more than the bottom line, and we had three weeks full of great stories.

The headlining event of the series was the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship, and it attracted a lot of top players. The $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour event drew 2,010 entries to create a prize pool worth $6,432,000. It is the second-largest field for a WPT main tour event, with only the 2,482 from last year’s Poker Showdown Championship topping it.

The Championship played down to the six-handed WPT final table, and the final tablists will travel to Las Vegas to play for the title on May 25th. The headliner is four-time WPT champion Darren Elias, who holds a massive chip lead with 129 big blinds in his stack.

In addition to the Championship, we had two High Rollers with Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger winning the $50,000 event, and Brian Altman taking down the $25K High Roller.

That trophy represents the seventh time Altman won a major Hollywood title and the second-most wins in our history. The leaderboard for career wins saw a lot of movement this series.

Altman and Gabriel Ramos began the series with six wins each, sitting behind David Prociak and Raminder Singh. Ramos picked up his seventh in the $600 Double Black Chip Bounty.

Yuval Bronshtein wasn’t about to be left behind. On the same day Ramos won #7, Bronshtein topped the $600 Eight-Max PLO field for his sixth win and picked up his seventh just a few days later in the $1,100 H.O.R.S.E. freeze-out.

Those three players moving up the leaderboard would be a great story on its own, but Raminder Singh still had something to say about it. The Poker Room regular was tied for most trophies at the start of the series, but now stands alone in the top spot after winning the $150 Big Stack for his eighth trophy.

All-time trophies:
Raminder Singh – 8 wins
Brian Altman – 7 wins
Yuval Bronshtein – 7 wins
David Prociak – 7 wins
Gabriel Ramos – 7 wins

With all seven of Bronshtein’s wins coming in the last 15 months (first during 2021 LHPO) and Singh booking at least one win a year since 2018, we expect to see more changes to this leaderboard before next year’s Poker Showdown.

April 6th was a historic date for us, as we had two female champions win trophies in open events on the same day — Valerie Novak won the $1,100 Deep Stack, and Jennifer Aguilar captured the $200 Double Green Chip Bounty

But that’s just part of the story. Over the course of 50 tournaments, we crowned six female champs (they won 12% of the events) and we think that’s fantastic. In addition to Novak and Aguilar, trophies walked out the door with Nancy Birnbaum, Nohad “Nu” Teliani, Lisa Levy, and Judy Bielan.

Those are only a few of the great stories during this series. John Binns won two tournaments in the first half of the series, James Collins won the opening event for $130,682, and Michael Nye took down the $600 Deep Stack for $328,683.

Matt Bretzfield and Matthew Lambrecht won events on the same day, and both dedicated their wins to their late fathers. Four-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Madsen and 14-time WSOP Circuit champ Maurice Hawkins each earned Showdown titles.

There were far too many stories for a single write-up, but you can find links below to all 50 tournaments for full results and recaps.

By multiple metrics, the 2022 Poker Showdown was a huge success, but it would not be possible without our players, both old friends and new, coming out to play in our events.

Thank you to everyone who came out to play, and we look forward to seeing you again during the 2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, which runs from July 28th through August 9th.

2022 Poker Showdown Schedule and Results

Event 1 ($400 NLH): James Collins – $130,682
Event 2 ($400 O8): Michael Bozeman – $11,330
Event 3 ($400 H.O.R.S.E.): John Simcox – $6,543
Event 4 ($400 PLO8): John Binns – $10,720
Event 5 ($400 NLH): Zoltan Czinkota – $12,255
Event 6 ($1,100 NLH): Nick Palma – $41,050
Event 7 ($200 Big Stack): Vendel Johnson – $26,497
Event 8 ($400 Bounty): Maurice Hawkins – $7,895
Event 9 ($400 Big O): Anatolii Zyrin – $10,950
Event 10 ($400 6-Max NLH): Nohad “Nu” Teliani – $9,986
Event 11 ($400 OE): Gary Kosakowski – $8,645
Event 12 ($400 8-Handed NLH): Enreko Fracassi – $14,490
Event 13 ($400 6-Max PLO): Nancy Birnbaum – $11,830
Event 14 ($200 Bounty): Richard Coppola – $5,943
Event 15 ($600 NLH): Michael Nye – $328,683
Event 16 ($600 O8): John Binns – $14,540
Event 17 ($600 H.O.R.S.E.): David Shmuel – $13,890
Event 18 ($600 PLO8): Jeff Madsen – $16,335
Event 19 ($400 NLH): Aaron Ang – $14,686
Event 20 ($1,100 Bounty): Matthew Lambrecht – $24,065
Event 21 ($600 Mixed PLO): Matt Bretzfield – $11,475
Event 22 ($400 Seniors): James Calderaro – $20,265
Event 23 ($600 Bounty): Gabriel Ramos – $11,174
Event 24 ($600 PLO): Yuval Bronshtein – $20,630
Event 25 ($150 Big Stack): Andre Bryan – $6,379
Event 26 ($1,100 O8): Leonard August – $18,000
Event 27 ($600 6-Max NLH): Scott Carragher – $37,630
Event 28 ($600 6-Max Bounty): Steven Steinmetz – $10,245
Event 29 ($400 Turbo): Georges Boyadjian – $12,327
Event 30 ($1,100 NLH): Valerie Novak – $91,835
Event 31 (Super High Roller): Andrew Lichtenberger – $638,223
Event 32 ($200 Bounty): Jennifer Aguilar – $5,095
Event 33 ($1,100 H.O.R.S.E.): Yuval Bronshtein – $21,645
Event 34 ($2,200 NLH): Andres Jeckeln – $126,541
Event 35 ($150 Big Stack): Raminder Singh – $5,008
Event 37 ($250 Ladies): Lisa Levy – $4,015
Event 38 ($600 Turbo): Michael Bagdasarov – $10,343
Event 39 ($400 NLH): Francois Gagne – $20,753
Event 40 ($1,700 Bounty): Eugene Kotlyarevskiy – $54,155
Event 41 ($1,100 PLO): Frank Lagodich – $26,575
Event 42 ($1,100 Seniors): Judy Bielan – $19,285
Event 43 ($600 NLH): Prithvi Rudrappa – $31,873
Event 44 ($25K High Roller): Brian Altman – $692,661
Event 45 ($150 NLH): Oscar Arrieche Sierralta – $7,270
Event 46 ($1,100 Turbo): Nicholas Rigby – $44,355
Event 47 ($1,100 5-Card PLO): Kirk Steele – $21,620
Event 48 ($400 NLH): Igor Evseev – $12,142
Event 49 ($5K One-Day): Brandon Lulov – $246,125
Event 50 ($200 Bounty): Gene Hughes – $6,034