Circuit Update

Chance Kornuth, Michael Wang, And Francis Anderson Shine At Stairway To Millions

The Stairway To Millions series first debuted in the early weeks of 2022 as part of the PokerGO Tour. The series features a unique format that sees players who make the money in each event earn a seat into the next that features a larger buy-in.
That initial festival saw Nick Petrangelo emerge victorious in both of the final two events, winning the trophy and a combined $1.8 million across four final-table appearances.
The second iteration was recently held at the Venetian® Resort Las Vegas. This time around, a new wrinkle was added that saw the top three finishers in each event qualify to skip a level entirely.
The series was originally scheduled to feature 12 events, but the final two tournaments were ultimately canceled. Before the series ended, several big names managed to put together impressive runs, including two players who each earned their third S2M titles.
The series kicked off with four tournaments featuring buy-ins below the four-figure mark. First off was a pair of $460 buy-in no-limit hold’em events. Event no. 1 attracted a field of 93 entries, building a prize pool of $37,200.
The largest share of that was ultimately won by Francis Anderson, who finished third in this year’s World Series of Poker ‘Monster Stack’ for $449,912. He added another $6,702 to his career totals with this win, while also securing a seat into his choice of either event no. 5 or 6, both of which featured $1,640 buy-ins.
Anderson nearly went back-to-back, but ultimately finished as the runner-up in event no. 2, which sported the same buy-in. He added another $4,071 and an additional future seat, while eventual champion John Yelaney took home $6,417 after beating out 94 entries. This was his first recorded live tournament victory.
Arsh Grover finished third in event no. 2, and promptly turned around and took down the next tournament on the schedule. Grover was one of 82 entries in the $900 buy-in event. He took home $12,510 and a $2,740 seat in event no. 7 as the champion. This was the third-largest score of his career.
The second $900 buy-in on the schedule drew 74 entries, with 2021 WSOP tag-team event winner Sami Dighlawi coming away with the title and the top payout of $11,330 to go with his future entry. Francis Anderson secured his third final-table finish of the series by placing fifth for $2,231 and a future seat.
Michael Wang became the first player to ever win a Stairway To Millions title at two different venues when he took down event no. 5, a $1,640 buy-in. The two-time bracelet winner had previously won a $15,000 buy-in event during the initial running of this event, which was held at ARIA Resort & Casino. Wang earned $22,986 and a $5,350 seat in event no. 8 as the champion.
The very next day, Wang once again found himself with all the chips in the second $1,640 buy-in event on the schedule, adding another $22,458 and becoming the third player in the young history of the series to win back-to-back events.
Three-time bracelet winner Chance Kornuth and the previously mentioned Nick Petrangelo achieved the feat during the inaugural Stairway To Millions. The pair of wins saw Wang increase his career earnings to more than $4.6 million, while making him the first three-time winner in the series. That lasted only a day, however.
Event no. 7 saw 92 entries made at the $2,740 price point. In the end, it was none other than the aforementioned Chance Kornuth who came away with the title. He earned $45,373 and a seat in the $10,400 buy-in event.
This was his fourth overall title of the year, with seven final-table finishes and nearly $2 million in to-date POY earnings. As a result, Kornuth moved into 16th place in the 2022 POY race standings. Kornuth now has more than $12.1 million in recorded earnings to his name.
Joining him at the final table were the likes of World Poker Tour Venetian champion Qing Liu (8th), frequent high-stakes tournament contender Bill Klein (7th), Venetian High Roller event winner Victoria Livschitz (5th), and recent winner Sami Dighlawi (4th).
The $5,350 buy-in event drew a field of 42 entries. Andre Butler came out on top in the end, outlasting a stacked final table to secure the title, the top prize of $60,945, and entry into event no. 10.
This was the second-largest score on his tournament resume, trailing only the $176,000 the Evanston, Illinois resident earned as the third-place finisher in a 2021 Venetian DeepStack Championship II $1,100 buy-in event. Butler now has more than $400,000 in recorded earnings after topping the likes of Francis Anderson (5th), high-stakes regular Adam Hendrix (4th), Michael Wang (3rd), and bracelet winner Stephen Song (2nd).
The $10,400 buy-in event drew 18 entries, which resulted in just the top three making the money. Francis Anderson was knocked out on the effective $50,700 bubble, falling just short of securing his fifth cash of the series.
Michael Rocco was ultimately the last player standing in this event, earning $87,750 in total payouts when factoring in that the $26,000 seat he won was converted into a cash payout after that event was canceled. Rocco now has more than $3.1 million in total tournament earnings as a result. Adam Hendrix took home $63,050 in total payouts as the runner-up, while Cary Katz finished third.
The final event to play out at this series was the $15,800 buy-in. The final trio of contenders cashed again this time around, thanks to the second consecutive field of 18 entries. Paul Zappulla came away with the trophy and a career-high payday of $124,500 as the champion. He outlasted the likes of four-time bracelet winner Adrian Mateos (3rd- $80,400) and Stephen Song (2nd – $95,100). You can find Stairway To Millions final table results on pg. 32.
The PokerGO Tour now heads back to Aria for the Poker Masters, which will feature buy-ins between $10,000 and $50,000. Check out those results in the next issue of Card Player.
Corey Wade Wins WPT Hard Rock Tampa
Main Event
The World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Tampa $3,500 no-limit hold’em main event attracted 1,165 entries, blowing away the $1 million guarantee to create a final prize pool of $3,728,000.
After two starting flights and four more days of action at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, that sea of players was narrowed down to just one champion: Corey Wade. For the win, the Arkansas resident took home $471,686 and had his name added to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
Wade now has more than $777,000 in career live tournament earnings. This was his largest payday yet, topping the $179,010 he secured as the runner-up in a $1,500 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better event at this year’s World Series of Poker. This victory also saw Wade earn 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points. Wade now has 2,310 total points, which is good for 68th place in the 2022 POY race standings.
The top 147 finishers made the money in this event, with plenty of big names cashing including two-time bracelet winner Ari Engel (93rd), two-time bracelet winner David Jackson (72nd), three-time bracelet winner Shankar Pillai (71st), two-time bracelet winner Loni Hui (33rd), two-time WPT champion and bracelet winner Daniel Weinman (31st), two-time WPT champion Aaron Mermelstein (26th), two-time bracelet winner Yuval Bronshtein (25th), poker vlogger and WPT ambassador Brad Owen (24th), and bracelet winner and WPT champion James Calderaro (14th).
At the six-handed final table, David Tuthill ran pocket kings into the pocket aces of Fred Paradis and the larger pair held up to eliminate Tuthill ($130,000). This score increased Tuthill’s live tournament earnings to more than $2 million.
A couple of orbits later, Seth Berger ran A-8 into Wade’s pocket queens. He made a pair of eights, but it wasn’t enough to keep him in contention. He earned $170,000 as the fifth-place finisher.
A classic preflop coinflip spelled the end of Steven McKoy’s run in this tournament. He three-bet shoved from the small blind with K-Q over the top of Wade’s button min-raise. Wade called with pocket sevens and faded McKoy’s overcards and turned-straight draw to win the pot and narrow the field to three. McKoy took home $226,000 as the fourth-place finisher, increasing his career earnings to just shy of $1.3 million.
After playing for a bit, the final three players struck a deal that saw the payouts for the top three spots adjusted to the following:
1st – $471,686, 2nd – $441,686, and 3rd – $411,678
Just one hand after agreeing to that deal, high-stakes tournament regular Brock Wilson was eliminated in third place. He check-raised all-in on the turn with third pair and ran into the turned top pair of Wade. The river brought no help for Wilson and he was sent home with $411,678 and 960 POY points for his third-place finish. This was his 12th final-table showing of the year. With 3,608 points and more than $1.6 million in year-to-date POY earnings, he now sits in 21st place on the POY leaderboard.
On the final hand, Paradis min-raised on the button with A♦ 5♦ and Wade three-bet shoved from the big blind with Q♣ 9♣. Paradis called and flopped an ace, while Wade paired his queen. Paradis then improved to aces and fives on the turn, but Wade hit a queen on the end, improving to trips to win the pot and lock up the title.
Paradis earned $441,686 as the runner-up, the largest score of his career. He now has just shy of a million dollars in lifetime cashes.

Final Table Results
Player Payout (POY)
1 Corey Wade $471,686 (1,440)
2 Fred Paradis $441,686 (1,200)
3 Brock Wilson $411,678 (960)
4 Steven McKoy $226,000 (720)
5 Seth Berger $170,000 (660)
6 David Tuthill $130,000 (480)
7 Kevin Ragusa $100,000 (360)
8 Donnie Phan $78,000 (240)
9 Aaron Olshan $61,500 (120)