youtube

facebook

twitter

instagram

Ken Chan wins WPT New Zealand Main Event; Vincent Chauve crowned WPT Asia-Pacific POY

The World Poker Tour New Zealand 2019 festival at SkyCity Auckland casino ran from 23rd May to 3rd June, and came to a conclusion with finding a Main Event champion.

Ken Chan takes down the Main Event

viber image
Ken Chan – Photo WPT

The NZ$2,000 buy-in Main Event had 333 entries, and Ken Chan came into the third and final day as the chip leader. The final table lasted 8 hours and it all came down to Chan’s beating Sarah Saifi’s by rivering a straight on a board.

Chan took home the top prize of NZ$152,200 (US$100,406), the trophy and his first WPT title.

This has been the second WPT New Zealand ever and about being its champion Chan said,

“I don’t know yet, everything seems so surreal. I was a nervous wreck coming into Day 2, and I was still nervous coming into today. But I ended up running really well, and I got into a few lucky spots. I tried to play my best game. It feels crazy, I’m feeling very happy obviously, but it hasn’t really fully sunk in yet, it’s a dream to win a Main Event, so I’m really, really happy.”

WPT New Zealand Final Table Results:

1st: Ken Chan – NZ$153,200 (US$100,406),
2nd: Sarah Saifi – NZ$101,560
3rd: Simon Thwaites – NZ$64,940
4th: Fotios Mandakos – NZ$49,950
5th: John Pye – NZ$39,960
6th: Adrian Stockman – NZ$31,950
7th: Glen Young – NZ$25,300
8th: Renae Baker – NZ$19,650
9th: Gary Bignell – NZ$15,310

Hamish Crawshaw wins High Roller

viber image 1
Hamish Crawshaw – Photo WPT

In this year’s WPT NZ NZ$5,300 High Roller event, we saw the same number of entries as last year with a total of 26. This created a prize pool of NZ$130,000 with the top 4 places paid.

Results:

1st Hamish Crawshaw NZ$58,500 (US$38,592)
2nd Ben Rendall NZ$35,100
3rd Sosia Jiang NZ$22,100
4th David Yan NZ $14,300

Vincent Chauve crowned “WPT Asia-Pacific Player of the Year”

ENZ 6267
Vincent Chauve

The World Poker Tour New Zealand stop concluded the Asian WPT season, and with only a few events offered in Asia-Pacific, Vincent Chauve ended up winning the leaderboard by having taken down the biggest event, WPT Vietnam, earlier in March.

Chauve stayed home for the WPT New Zealand stop, as did many others that had scored points in Vietnam. And since Jin Yong did not reach the money in Auckland, Chauve was crowned “WPT Asia-Pacific Player of the Year” from the distance.

First place in the WPT Asia-Pacific Player of the Year has more than just the US$10,000 WPT Passport as their reward. The winner also receives complimentary accommodation in selected Season XVIII WPT Asia Pacific events along with ground transportation at some events.

WPT Asia-pacific POY – Top 3
Vincent Chauve – 1500
Jeonggyu Cho  – 1350
Tuan Pro – 1200

The next major event hosted in New Zealand will take place in November – the “2019 Festival of Poker”.

Article by Christin Maschmann