Caffaro, Bond & Alvarado Among Early Winners in Texas Poker Championship

The biggest poker series in Texas history is currently underway with the Texas Poker Championship at Houston’s Prime Social, which has already awarded players over $1.7 million in prize money.

The series kicked off on March 10 with Event #1: $500 Mystery Bounty, which had a staggering seven starting flights and attracted an enormous field of 1,322 runners. The bounty tournament had a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000 and surpassed that with $511,840 in prize money.

Joseph Caffaro took down the opening event for the first-place prize of $45,950, defeating Carlos Saucedo during heads-up play to earn Saucedo $38,500. Other players who made deep runs in the mystery bounty event include Blake Barousse (3rd - $25,000), Derek Normand (4th - $18,500), Laura Hoppe (9th - $5,100) and Kristopher Burchfield (12th - $4,000).

Later in the series, Justin Bond took down Event #9: $1,100 The Big Texas to earn the trophy and a big score of $115,480. Bond defeated Jason Gooch during heads-up play to send the second-place finisher home with $75,960.

The $500,000 guarantee tournament attracted 643 players and generated $630,140 in prize money. Other players who made Bond sparred with at the final table include Sean Cha (3rd - $56,620) Jeremy Meacham (5th - $31,740), Mazen Abdallah (7th - $18,680) and Gabriel Andrade (9th - $11,540).

Bond, a resident of Dallas, now boasts an impressive $1.8 million in tournament earnings, which includes a 35th place finish in the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event worth $214,913. His latest victory in The Big Texas gives him the fifth biggest score of his career.

Event #9: $1,100 The Big Texas Final Results

Later in the series, Brandon Johnson earned the trophy in Event #13: $600 One Day after striking a four-way deal at the final table that also left him with $18,500. Johnson had the biggest stack when the deal was made and therefore earned the victory.

The other players who got in on the deal were Southisak Seunsom (2nd - $18,350), Trung Pham (3rd - $17,120) and Dara Taherpour (4th - $14,530).

The one-day tournament had a $100,000 guarantee and surpassed that with 101 runners bringing the prize pool to $121,680.

Additionally, Ricardo Alvarado took down Event #16: $1,100 PLO Championship for $37,640 after defeating Twich streamer Alexander “AlexOptional” Green during heads-up play, who in turn earned $25,100. Four-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser, meanwhile, found a third-place finish worth $17,920.

The PLO Tournament attracted 157 runners to generate $153,860 in prize money, smashing the guaranteed $100,000.

Other Texas Poker Championship winners so far include James Farley, who won $50,820 in Event #2: $400 NLH Jacked Stack, Sergio Braga, who won $7,510 in Event #5: $600 Triple Stud, and Barousse, a two-time WSOP ring winner who took down Event #12: $1,100 Mystery Bounty Turbo for $10,000.

The best of the Texas Poker Championship at Prime Social is still to come with the $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event scheduled to get underway on Thursday, March 24. The four-day event has a huge $2 million guarantee and will offer three starting flights.

The Main Event will wrap up on Tuesday, March 29 with the final table being live-streamed with hole cards and commentary at twitch.tv/primesocialtx.

A full list of winners so far in the Texas Poker Championship is available in the table below.

Texas Poker Championship Winners