Brian Rast won his third World Series of Poker (WSOP) $50,000 Poker Players Championship (PPC) tournament on Thursday. He led a 99 entries field to tie with Michael Mizrachi as a three-time title winner.
Rast informed PokerGO reporters that he loves playing the PPC and appreciates Juliana, his wife, for her support. He disclosed that players often get emotional when competing in tough tournaments. Yet, Juliana always calmed him down, and he dedicated his latest victory to her.
The player won his first PPC event in 2011 and later won the second one in 2016. This is the sixth WSOP bracelet he has won in his professional poker career, and it earned him $1,324,747. Still, it was his fourth final-table finish and the first title to win in 2023.
It earned him 918 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) points that boosted his position in this year's POY competition to 103rd place.
Moreover, Rast garnered 400 PokerGO Tour (PGT) points and improved to the 19th position in the PGT race. Some of the players who cashed in the five-day event included Josh Arieh, Daniel Alaei, Marco Johnson, Phil Hellmuth, and John Monnette.
The Event's Points and Prizes
- Brian Rast – $1,324,747;918 POY points and 400 PGT points
- Talal Shakerchi – $818,756;765 POY points and 246 PGT points
- Matthew Ashton – $573,679;612 POY points and 172 PGT points
- James Obst – $411,824;459 POY points and 124 PGT points
- Kristopher Tong – $303,071;383 POY points and 91 PGT points
- Phil Ivey – $228,793;306 POY points and 69 PGT points
- Ray Dehkharghani – $177,294;230 POY points and 53 PGT points
Action Highlights
Talal Shakerchi was the stack leader when the final day's action began. Yet, the tables turned against him in the first level as he lost many chips and dropped to the bottom of the leaderboard. Yet, Rast gradually grew his stack and got the chip lead before the five-handed action kicked off.
By then, Ray Dehkharghani and Phil Ivey had left the table in seventh and sixth place, respectively. Rast used A-K suited to dominate Kristopher Tong's pocket nines and knock him out in fifth place.
The former made a nut flush draw flop that matched his overcards before landing an ace on the turn and putting Tong in a difficult position. But, a blank on the river ended Tong's run as Rast had over 73 percent of the remaining chips in the four-handed action.
James Obst lost most of his chips in a big Omaha eight-or-better hand after making a nut flush on the turn. He later drew with Rast and Matthew Ashton in the three-way pot. Obst left the table in fourth place after Rast revealed two pair.
Ashton exited the event in third place with $573,679 after the river paired the board. Rast had an over 5.5:1 stack advantage over Shakerchi when their heads-up action began. The former busted the latter in the second position with $818,756 using 8-7-4-3-2.
