Julian Parmann Leads Final 44 Players into Day 3 at Bellagio

Forty-four players remain in the first-ever Season XVI WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship Main Event. Julian Parmann (pictured) and his stack of 255,400 lead the way, and there is a payday of $378,879 awaiting the event’s winner.

Parmann is a player who calls Las Vegas home and entered this event with more than $775,000 in live tournament earnings. According to HendonMob.com, Parmann has live tournament cashes that date back to 2008. He only has one WPT Main Tour cash on his résumé, coming from Season XIII when he placed 36th in the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship. Parmann finished Day 1 at Bellagio seventh in chips and is now atop the final 44 players.

Closest to Parmann on the leaderboard entering Day 3 is Daniel Merrilees and his stack of 245,000. After that, there’s a drop off to below 200,000 where we find Adrian Garduno’s third-place stack of 198,000. Garduno was the chip leader at the end of Day 1 and has done well to maintain a place at the top of the leaderboard.

Arguably the most notable story left in the field is that of Phil Hellmuth, host of the WPT Raw Deal, but it’s not because Hellmuth’s name is at the top of the charts. In fact, it’s at the absolute bottom, as Hellmuth is the shortest stack returning to Day 3 with just 3,100. When play begins on Thursday, the blinds will be 600-1,200 with a 200 ante, giving Hellmuth less than three big blinds to work with. There will be no showing up late for Hellmuth today, as he has his work cut out for him right from the start. He’ll also have to battle with Parmann at his Day 3 starting table.

The WPT Champions Club is well represented among the final 44 players, with Justin Young (97,000), Ryan Van Sanford (59,100), Seth Davies (29,400), Nick Schulman (23,300), and Mohsin Charania (19,600) remaining. Charania is the shortest of this group, but chasing a piece of WPT history, as he could tie the record for most WPT titles won (three) if he were to go on to victory. Currently, Carlos Mortensen, Gus Hansen, Darren Elias, Chino Rheem, and Anthony Zinno are tied for the record with three WPT titles each.

The Season XVI WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship Main Event drew 126 total entries, and the prize pool tallied in at $1.222 million. The top 16 spots will reach the money, with a min-cash worth $15,889. Reaching the official WPT final table of six will earn players at least $60,499, and the winner is set to take home $378,879. There are also 1,000 important points in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race up for grabs to the winner.

Day 3 of the Season XVI WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship Main Event kicks off at 12 p.m. local time.

In addition to the $10,400 buy-in WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship Main Event, the festival schedule features a $25,500 buy-in WPT Bellagio High Roller that kicks off Saturday, May 5. The first two days of this event will run May 5-6 and the field will play down to the final table of six. After the final table is reached on May 6, the players will break to return on May 25 to play out the final table at the brand new, state-of-the-art Esports Arena Las Vegas at Luxor Hotel & Casino. This event will be filmed for television broadcast and the winner will receive a luxurious Hublot watch. For more on this event, click here.

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