WPT Gardens Poker Championship Belt
WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table takes place March 12 in Las Vegas (photo: World Poker Tour)

The World Poker Tour will be in Las Vegas on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for three consecutive final tables at the HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor Hotel & Casino. The first is the finale of the WPT L.A. Poker Classic on Monday, and it will be followed by the conclusion to the WPT Gardens Poker Championship on Tuesday. We previously previewed the WPT L.A. Poker Classic final table, and now we’ll do the same for the WPT Gardens Poker Championship that features Shannon Shorr, Steve Sung, and Brent Roberts.

This inaugural event featured a $10,000 buy-in and took place back in January. When the final six from a 253-entry field return to action on Tuesday, it will have been 55 days since they last played. Frank Stepuchin has the chip lead, and along with Shorr, Sung, and Roberts, Ray Qartomy and Jonathan Abdellatif make up the final six.

Click here to read how the WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table was reached.

What Are They Playing For?

Up top is a $548,825 top prize that includes a $15,000 seat into the season-ending Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions. The final six are guaranteed at least $110,225. As this event is also a televised WPT event, the winner will also score a luxurious Hublot Big Bang timepiece.

1st Place: $548,825
2nd Place: $355,885
3rd Place: $259,880
4th Place: $192,465
5th Place: $144,595
6th Place: $110,225

How To Watch the Season XVII WPT Gardens Poker Championship Final Table

The final table for the Season XVII WPT Gardens Poker Championship will play out on March 12, starting at 4 p.m. PT at the HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The event originated at the Gardens Casino in Southern California and will be filmed for broadcast as part of the WPT’s televised schedule of events. You can wait for that airing on FOX Sports Regional Networks, or you could tune in live to the stream of the events that can be viewed on PokerGO. If you don’t have a subscription to PokerGO, sign up today using the promo code “POCKET5S” for $10 off the PokerGO annual plan.

Let’s meet the Season XVII WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table.

Shannon Shorr
Shannon Shorr (photo: World Poker Tour)

Seat 1: Shannon Shorr – 1,710,000

Shannon Shorr recently moved to Las Vegas and will now get to play for this first World Poker Tour title in the comfort of his new hometown. Shorr’s career had him at $6.744 million in live tournament earnings entering the final table, but that’s really $6.854 million with the sixth-place payday worked in.

Shorr has been on the cusp of joining the WPT Champions Club before. His best WPT finish was a second-place result in the Season XII WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open. In a field of 415 entries, Shorr finished runner-up to James Calderaro and took home $190,039. Shorr also placed fourth in the Season IX WPT Southern Poker Championship and fifth in the Season VII WPT World Championship for $144,985 and $408,550, respectively.

“Winning a WPT title would be incredible,” Shorr previously told PocketFives. “I’ve had tons of final tables in big events worldwide but haven’t won a ‘major.’ Maybe this is the one.”

Shorr comes into the WPT Gardens Poker Championship second in chips with 1.71 million.

Frank Stepuchin
Frank Stepuchin (photo: World Poker Tour)

Seat 2: Frank Stepuchin – 4,065,000

Frank Stepuchin is the final table chip leader. Much like Darren Elias’ chip lead entering the WPT L.A. Poker Classic final table, Stepuchin’s lead is sizable. He holds just more than 40% of the chips in play entering the finale and has more than 2.3 times the second-biggest stack held by Shorr.

Stepuchin hails from Park City, Utah, and entered this event with $354,625 in live tournament earnings. He was the big stack of the tournament right out of the gate, finishing atop Day 1a with the chip lead, and is now in line for his first WPT title. The largest live tournament score of Stepuchin’s career isn’t too far off either. Previously, his best cash was for $149,220. Finishing fifth will be less than $5,000 short of that and finishing fourth or better will give him a new career high.

Stepuchin enters the WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table with 4.065 million in chips and is the chip leader.

Brent Roberts
Brent Roberts (photo: World Poker Tour)

Seat 3: Brent Roberts – 1,385,000

Brent Roberts comes into this final table with just more than $2 million in live tournaments earnings. Like Shorr, he’s been close to a WPT title before. His best WPT Main Tour finish was in the Season XIV WPT Legends of Poker. In that event, he placed third from a field of 786 entries to win $251,035. Roberts does have a WPTDeepStacks title that he won in 2016. In the WPTDeepStacks event he won, Roberts topped a field of 696 entries at Parx Casino to win $205,944.

Also on Roberts’ record is a WSOP Circuit gold ring when he won the $5,150 Championship Event in Atlantic City in 2008. That win was the largest live tournament score of Roberts’ career, but he does have a chance to better that at the WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table.

Roberts enters the WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table fourth in chips with 1.385 million.

Jonathan Abdellatif
Jonathan Abdellatif (photo: World Poker Tour)

Seat 4: Jonathan Abdellatif – 555,000

Jonathan Abdellatif hails from Belgium and will bring some international flavor to the WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table. He’s the shortest stack left, though, so he’ll have some work to do when play resumes on March 12.

Ahead of his run in this event, Abdellatif had three WPT Main Tour cashes. His highest result of those three was a 17th-place finish in the Season XV WPT Montreal Main Event. He also has a pair of fourth-place finishes that came from a WSOP event in 2018 and the PokerStars Championship Panama Main Event in 2017. Those finishes netted Abdellatif $163,404 and $119,480, respectively.

The largest live tournament score of the young Belgian’s career is a victory from 2017 when he won the £2,700 8-Max tournament at the partypoker MILLIONS in Nottingham. For that victory, Abdellatif earned $275,655.

Again, he’s the shortest stack returning for this final table with 555,000 in chips.

Ray Qartomy
Ray Qartomy (photo: World Poker Tour)

Seat 5: Ray Qartomy – 820,000

Ray Qartomy is a fixture on the World Poker Tour. He can be seen at almost every stop on tour, but he’s yet to win a WPT title. That could all chance on Tuesday, but, like Abdellatif, Qartomy is going to have a bit of an uphill battle ahead of him as he enters the final six in fifth chip position.

Qartomy has 12 cashes and three final tables on the WPT Main Tour. His three final tables came in the Season XIII WPT Borgata Open, the Season XIII WPT World Championship, and the Season XVII WPT bestbet Jacksonville. However, his largest live tournament score doesn’t come from one of those events. His largest live tournament score of $639,925 came when Qartomy took fourth place in the $5,300 buy-in Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in 2013.

Qartomy will almost never be found without a smile on his face. Come Tuesday, that smile will be behind 820,000 in chips to start the WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table.

Steve Sung
Steve Sung (photo: World Poker Tour)

Seat 6: Steve Sung – 1,580,000

Steve Sung has more than $5.5 million in live tournament earnings, two WSOP gold bracelets, and three WPT Main Tour final table appearances. He’s never won a WPT event, though, but that could all change on Tuesday.

Sung’s best WPT result coming in the Season VI WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event when he took second to Brandon Cantu and won $585,000. Sung also has a pair of fourth-place finishes on the World Poker Tour, first in the Season VI WPT Spanish Championship for €117,400 ($164,943) and then in the Season VII WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $396,205.

The largest live tournament score for Sung came in 2013 when he won the $25,000 Six-Max Championship at the WSOP for more than $1.2 million. His other bracelet came in 2009 when Sung topped a huge field of 6,012 entries in a $1,000 event for $771,338.

“Winning a WPT title means that my goal has been finally accomplished,” Sung said when asked what a winning a WPT title would mean to him. “I’ve expected to win one over a decade ago and had to come back from self-inflicted setbacks in multiple aspects of my being.”

Sung enters the WPT Gardens Poker Championship final table third in chips with 1.58 million.

Hublot WPT Player of the Year and Baccarat Crystal
Hublot WPT Player of the Year and Baccarat Crystal (photo: World Poker Tour)

Hublot WPT Player of the Year Implications

With a prize pool of $2.428 million, the winner gets 1,200 points in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race, with the rest of the point earnings for the final table as follows.

1st Place: 1,200 points
2nd Place: 1,000 points
3rd Place: 900 points
4th Place: 800 points
5th Place: 700 points
6th Place: 600 points

The points could mean the most to Qartomy, who already has 650 points on the season. Sung also stands to benefit well from the Hublot WPT Player of the Year points earned at this final table. Entering the final table, Sung has 500 points.

Roberts enters this final table with 175 points, Stepuchin 100 points, Shorr 100 points, and Abdellatif 50 points.

At the end of Season XVII, the Hublot WPT Player of the Year will win a $15,000 WPT Passport that can be used as buy-ins to any Season XVIII global WPT event. Second place in the race earns a $7,500 WPT Passport and third place gets a $2,500 WPT Passport.