It’s already been a great year on the World Poker Tour, and the current season is only halfway over. While some of the top poker players are going to wait until the second half starts to join in on the action, there are some great tournaments taking place.
The most recent WPT event was the Prime Voyage Championship, and nearly 1,000 players signed up to compete for a massive cash prize. This was initially a tournament in which $500,000 was guaranteed, but that number got pushed all the way up to $968,000 after the competitors were in.
There were a number of big names that signed up to compete in this event, but the eventual winner was a player that was relatively unknown. Gregory De Faria’s biggest win up to this point was less than $4,000, but he took home over $155,000 by finishing in first place in this event.
Not only did De Faria receive a massive amount of money, but he also received 912 Card Player Player of the Year points for winning the tournament. He is now close to the top 150 in those standings, and that could pay dividends later on in the year.
With a full second half of action still to come in the WPT XXII season, De Faria could end up making a massive and surprising charge up the leaderboard.
Look at the Leaderboard
There were some previous WPT champions that entered this tournament, and others that had had some success in World Series of Poker. When it came time for the final table though, it was mostly players that haven’t had a ton of success in their career.
Players started off by competing in three different flights that took place on April 1-3. Even though most of these tournaments narrow the field quickly, over 120 players were able to advance to the final day.
122 players competed on April 4 to try and come away with a win, and there were nine players that got a big win. Allison Hollander was the top female finisher in this tournament as she took home $31,000 with a sixth place finish.
Brandon Takao finished in fourth place and he was the final player that received at least $50,000 when the tournament wrapped up. $72,000 went to Nicolas Betbese, and he was in control for much of the action.
De Faria Gets it Done
Trent Hopper ended up in second place in this tournament, and he was awarded $97,000 for his great play in this event. Hopper made De Faria work for this title as the two battled it out for more than 90 minutes in heads-up action.
This title could have gone either way as both players decided to go all-in with the final hand, adding to the drama and excitement of this event. De Faria went all in with a Queen and 9 of Hearts, and he ended up with a flush after all of the cards were turned up.
