After missing it earlier this season in Jacksonville, Darren Elias finally claimed a coveted 4th WPT title. The New Jersey native topped the elite field of the inaugural $10,000 buy-in WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic to win his historic 4th WPT title and become the first 4-time WPT champion.
Hosted at Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, the WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic drew 162 entries. It was a star-studded field with the past WPT champions and WSOP Main Event champions, including 14-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. The entries created a total of $1,555,200 prizepool and the amount of $387,580 went to the champion Darren Elias, who started the final day action as the chip leader and then went on to claim his 4th WPT title. With this win, Elias got ahead of Gus Hansen, Carlos Mortensen, Anthony Zinno, and Chino Rheem who hold 3 WPT titles.
It was not an easy ride to victory for Elias, as the final table had Jonathan Little and Sam Panzica, who were eyeing their 3rd WPT title and Dietrich Fast who was looking to claim his 2nd WPT title. Others notables included former WSOP ME champion Joe McKeehen and female pro Kitty Kuo.
Little and Panzica were the first players to leave the final table and Fast who was eyeing 2nd WPT title went out in 4th place. Then, came the biggest hand of the final table where McKeehen holding Ad- Qd and Elias having Ac-2c found themselves locked in an all-in confrontation and it was eventually Elias who won the pot to move into heads-up against Kuo with a 3:1 advantage.
Despite a big gap, Kuo fought well but couldn’t go all the way. The dual lasted for about 3 hours. The last hand saw Elias having Ah-10c to his opponent’s As-5d, which lost the battle. Elias earned the top prize of $387,580 and a seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions, which started yesterday.
Final Table Payouts
- Darren Elias – $387,580
- Kitty Kuo- $248,380
- Joe McKeehen- $178,610
- Dietrich Fast – $130,895
- Sam Panzica – $97,795
- Jonathan Little – $74,795
- Phil Hellmuth – $57,935
- Ray Qartomy – $45,975
- Stephen Chidwick – $37,255
Ivan Leow Wins 2018 OPC Macau High Roller For HKD 1,442,300
The Poker King Club recently announced the inaugural Oriental Poker Championship (OPC) Macau and it was scheduled for 23 to 28 May at the Venetian Macau Resort & Hotel. The 6-day poker fiesta features several exciting events, including the Main Event and 10 side events.
The 2nd event of OPC was 2-day HKD $100,000 buy-in High Roller, which drew 43 entries and generated a prizepool of HKD 4,003,300 (~$510,115). The prizepool was shared by top 26 players. After the fierce battles of 2 days, it was Malaysia’s Ivan Leow who emerged as the winner and earned HKD 1,442,300 (~$183,740) for his win. This month has been crazy for Leow as he finished 6th in 2 events in Triton SHR series in Montenegro to earn around $450k in combined winnings.
After Albert Paik exiting in 3rd place, Leow entered heads up as a chip lead over China’s Yang Wang. While the latter fought well, he ended his run finishing runner-up. On the final hand, Leow’s pocket nines won against Wang’s queen-deuce and he took down the pot and title.
Final Table Payouts
- Ivan Leow – Malaysia – HKD 1,442,300
- Yang Wang – China – HKD 921,000
- Albert Paik – USA – HKD 580,000
- Wenling Gao – China – HKD 400,000
- Chihwen Chen – Taiwan – HKD 280,000
- Victor Chong – Malaysia – HKD 220,000
- Tony Cheng – Hong Kong – HKD 160,00
Stay tuned in for the updates from WPT Tournament of Champions and OPC Main Event ahead!