Friday, December 18th, 2020 | Written by Renee
Earlier this month, the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa played host to the 2020 Winter Poker Open, the first major poker series to take place since the start of the pandemic. After almost two weeks of live action, the festival finally concluded, with South Carolina native Max Young emerging as one of the biggest winners.
Action Recap
The series culminated in the $1,700 buy-in Main Event which featured $200K in guarantees, but ended up awarding a whopping $1,207,450 in total prize pool after attracting 779 entries. That number was reduced to just 125 when action resumed on Day 2. It’s when Young began to climb to the top, and he managed to carry his lead through to the seven-handed final table.
2020 Winter Poker Open (WPO) at the
Seminole Hard Rock Tampa marked the first big poker series to play out at the series since the pandemic began. The eight-event series proved to be a big hit, especially the
$1,700 buy-in, $200K GTD Main Event, which absolutely crushed it by attracting 779 runners (up from 479 the year before) and offering up a $1,207,450 prize pool.
Emerging victorious in that tournament was well-known circuit grinder
Max Young, who captured the guitar trophy and a hefty $226,510 top prize. It marked the second-largest score of his career and brought his lifetime tournament earnings up to $1,941,679.
It was the latest title for Young, who has a case full of trophies. Not only is he a six-time WSOP Circuit ring winner, including a win in the 2018 WSOPC Choctaw Main Event for a career-high $263,815, heâs also won MSPT and WPTDeepStacks titles, and captured titles at Parx, Wynn, Chinook Winds, and Wildhorse Resort & Casino in Pendleton.