Pinoys whoop it up in WPT
Share honors with Australia with 6 trophies each
‘I am very excited to win this. I cashed seven times and five final tables, I was so lucky.
Maybe next time I can win the Main Event’
Filipino players flew high and mighty in the World Poker Tour Championship in Cambodia last week, capturing six events and sharing honors with Australia in the trophy count of WPT’s biggest and richest festival in Asia.
John “Jojo” Tech, a highly-respected pro in the Asian live circuit who has been in the top spot of the country’s AllTime Money list, opened the floodgates for the Philippines’ trophy rush, by winning the Pot Limit Omaha event worth $16,376 (~P900,680).
He was followed by Marc Rivera, a 48-year-old Civil engineer turned poker pro from Quezon City who is more popularly known as The Chief. Rivera took down the Megastack Action Clock event which earned him $18,679 (~P1,027, 345).
The biggest winner for the Filipinos, however, was no less than The King, Mike Takayama who won the Super High roller championship that offered a top prize of $158, 587 (~P8,722,285).
Striking gold on the final Day 3 of the event was Jonald Garcia who made full use of a big stack on the final table and eventually bagged a well-deserved $55,989 top prize and the coveted WPT trophy!
South Africa based Marc Joseph came tantalizingly close to clinch the title but eventually scored a cool $54,000 in second place, thanks to a heads-up chop.
Also winning trophies for the Philippines were James Mendoza in the 1k Hyper turbo event that earned him $23,489 (~P1.3 million) and Justin Geronimo in the deepstack Freezeout that gave him $8,513(~468,215).
Germany’s Konstantin Held emerged victorious to become the newest Main Tour champion. His win will be immortalized on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. Held shared, “to be honest, I’ve never won a trophy despite having some success in poker and having this be the first one and actually have my name put on to it is amazing.”
Held also walked away as the biggest earner with a total payout of USD 370,669.
Jinlong Hu catapulted on the final two days rising from 8th ranked to 1st in points. He shared, “I am very excited to win this. I cashed seven times and five final tables, I was so lucky. Maybe next time I can win the Main Event.”
Hu actually cashed 8 times with 5 final tables and 1 victory, the most cashes by any player. For his POF win, Hu was awarded a seat worth USD 1,100 to WPT Prime Championship and USD
1,500 in cash.