Tony Sinishtaj is a New York resident who led in a poker field of 1,075 Entriesto and secured a seven-figure score. The Wynn Millions poker competition debuted in 2021, and the $10,000 buy-in event had a $10 million guarantee. But, it was surpassed after 1,328 entries formed a $12,483,200 prize pool.
The inaugural tournament's success guaranteed poker stars that there would be another exciting event in the future. Wynn Millions returned this year with an eight-figure guaranteed event with 1,075 entries who surpassed it by a small margin.
The 2022 Wynn Millions took place from March 3 to March 11. Sinishtaj emerged as the winner at the end of the event and received $ 1,655,952. This was his first seven-figure score in a major tournament, and it exceeded his past $661,283 top payday by almost $1 million.
The 41-year-old player won this prize in the 2017 World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $3,500 buy-in main event after leading in a field with 1,207 entries. His lifetime live poker earnings have risen to over $3.5 million.
Besides getting the money and title, Sinishtaj got 2,400 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) points. They are the highest number of POY points that any player has received so far this year. Moreover, it was the player's first POY qualified score of the year, and it greatly improved his standings to first place in a 2022 POY race that Global Poker sponsors.
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Sinishtaj also garnered 1,250 PokerGO Tour (PGT) points that helped him rise to the first position. Vanessa Kade had a chip lead on the event's final day that had eight other players. By then, Sinishtaj was in the fourth position after getting the first knockout with an A-K win in a preflop race against Neng Lee's pocket tens.
Even so, Sinishtaj threw an ace and held, thus sending Lee packing with $171,280. Sean Perry, a 2021 breakout high-stakes champion, was the next player to fall. He preflopped pocket nines to get his last chips and became at risk against Isaac Kempton's pocket kings.
The kings left Perry dead as he lacked help on the river or turn and exited the event with $202,908 after finishing eighth. This was his seventh time to qualify for a POY final table this year, and it increased his 2022 POY earnings to almost $1.5 million. Perry is fifth in the Player of the Year competition and third in the PGT standings.
Roland Shen's K-J ran into Michael Stembera's pocket nines, thus ending his run. Stembera got a bigger lead in the hand from a flop on nines set, and he maintained it in the river. Shen received $244,541 for his performance.
Sinishtaj had a major showdown in a six-handed play after a preflop cooler enabled him to double Stembera. He turned the pot in his favor when his pocket aces outperformed Stembera's pocket kings.
Tony Tran, a two-time WPT champion, prefloped pocket sixes and got his last chips. But he lagged behind Sinishtaj. Tran exited the event with his third POY qualified score of the year and earned $304,161 for finishing in sixth place.
