WPT Prime Cambodia: Main Event draws 1,011 total entries, 128 into Day 2; Rolands Norietis bags NLH 2-Day, closes in on Kiale Matthews in POF race

As always, the largest Main Event draw happened on the final starting day. WPT Prime Cambodia Season XXI witnessed a roaring 482 entries for Day 1C, to drive the total attendance to 1,011 and the prize pool to US$ 980,670.

Approaching the 13 hour mark, it was bubble time. Taiwan’s Nevan Yu-Chung Chang shipped a huge double up with full house on a board to beat missed draw. Shoves were on the turn. Chang closed the day second best with 650,000 in chips.

Two hands after, the bubble burst on Hong Kong’s Dennis Ng whose missed all his outs against Vinh Hai Huynh‘s on a board . Shoves were seen preflop.

Day 1C bagged up at ITM of 61 players. At the helm was USA’s Joshua Zimmerman with 789,000, equivalent to a massive 99 bb. This earned him third rank in the overall Day 2 chip counts. Among those that missed were WPT champions David Erquiaga, Zarvan Tumboli, and Marc Inizan. 

Head to the WPT website for the Live Updates. 

Day 1C – Top 10 in chips

1	Joshua Zimmerman	USA	789,000
2	Nevan Chang	Taiwan	650,000
3	Matthieu Lamagnere	France	550,000
4	Pete Chen	Taiwan	533,000
5	Yunsheng Sun	China	460,000
6	Vinh Hai Huynh	Vietnam	438,000
7	Michael Haddad	Australia	425,000
8	Harsh Bubna	India	407,000
9	Seongsu Kong	Korea	388,000
10	Shue King Ng	Malaysia	387,000

Main Event numbers

Buy in: US$ 1,100
Guarantee: US$ 500,000
Entries: 1,011
Prize pool: US$ 980,670
ITM: 128 players

The 128 Day 1 survivors return on Sunday, March 19 at 1pm, each one is guaranteed a piece of the pot. The minimum payout is US$ 800 while the top prize is US$ 173,130 which includes a WPT World Championship entry worth $10,400 at Wynn Las Vegas. WPT value adds airfare + accommodation. Runner up will also bank six figures of US$ 108,540.

Top 9 payouts / POF points

1	$173,130	800
2	$108,540	600
3	$80,150	500
4	$59,820	400
5	$45,120	300
6	$34,400	250
7	$26,510	200
8	$20,660	150
9	$16,280	125

FULL PAYOUT BREAKDOWN

Day 2 will be a long race as they play down to the final 9 players. The blinds start at Level 16: 4K-8K, 8K ante with 20 minutes left in the clock. Once that completes, next level onwards increase every 60 minutes. Leading in the pack are India’s Arun Sriram with 111 bb and Vitalii Borodin with 109 bb, both players bagging big at Day 1B.

Day 2 – top 10 in chips

Rank	Player	Stack	BB
1	Arun Sriram	888,000	111
2	Vitalii Borodin	870,000	109
3	Joshua Zimmerman	789,000	99
4	Dongyun Jo	752,000	94
5	Koen Breed	731,000	91
6	Nevan Chang	650,000	81
7	Gabriel Carter	600,000	75
8	Benjamin Mun	578,000	72
9	Frank Lillis	563,000	70
10	Matthieu Lamagnere	550,000	69

MAIN EVENT – CHIP COUNTS

Roland Norietis wins NLH 2-Day, zooms to POF second rank

Entering Day 2 as chip leader, Latvia’s Roland Norietis went on to capture the coveted NLH 2-Day title to add 400 points his name in the Player of the Festival race. This sent him catapulting from 8th rank to 2nd rank and is now just 175 points away from race leader Kiale Matthews.

The 2-day NLH event drew 155 entries to generate a prize pool of US$ 54,126. With 20 paid, Kittipong Charoenvijitchai delivered the bubble by cracking Shardul Parthasarathi’s pocket Aces. The event then played until Marcus Tan fell in 10th place to Norietis form the final table.

Day 2 opened with Norietis as chip leader with 50 bb and India’s Somashekar KM in second rank with 30 bb. Both players stayed ahead of the pack and met at heads up about even in chips.

A couple of failed bluffs caused a dip in Norietis’ stack which he made up with {ad] flush beating on a board . Several hands later, Somashekhar scored a big one holding flush on a board to send Norietis back down again to 17 bb. This brought about the first heads up all in with Norietis called by Somashekhar with . The board ran for a double up to Norietis.

At par was brief with another failed bluff by Norietis. Next all in, Somashekhar pushed with , Norietis called with , the board improved Norietis to a full house for his second double up. With the pair back to even, they struck a deal to split the remaining money down the middle and play for the trophy.

Somashekhar took the early lead to send Norietis plunging to once again see the Latvian go all in. For the third time, Norietis doubled  up. His pocket Sixes dodged overcards. From there, Norietis grinded down Somashekhar and shipped it with beating on a blank board.

Buy in: US$ 400
Entries: 155
Prize pool: US$ 54,126
ITM: 20 places

*Heads up deal

1	Rolands Norietis	Latvia	$11,991*
2	Somashekar KM	India	$11,991*
3	Anton Widjaya	Indonesia	$5,561
4	Sunwook Baek	Korea	$3,383
5	Matthew Henry Bevin	Australia	$2,612
6	Jasven Saigal	India	$2,165
7	Yong Kwee Chua	Singapore	$1,881
8	Kittipong Charoenvijitchai	Thailand	$1,689
9	Harsh Bubna	India	$1,455
10	Marcus Tan	Singapore	$1,272
11	Jun Mitani	Japan	$1,272
12	Yu-Chung Chang	Taiwan	$1,272
13	Eric Chan	Malaysia	$1,096
14	Gunisha Sinha	India	$1,096
15	Keng Yong Tan	Singapore	$1,096
16	Martin Kanaker	Sweden	$926
17	Tatsuya Yamaguchi	Japan	$926
18	Peng Zheng	China	$926
19	Sven McDermott	Ireland	$758
20	Rahul Marwaha	India	$758

Player of the Festival update

The Player of the Festival race is heating up! After eighteen completed events, Kiale Matthews still holds the top spot however Rolands Norietis is not far behind. Norietis shipped the NLH 2-Day event to catapult from 8th rank to 2nd rank.

Still plenty of events to conquer and earn points including the Main Event which is underway. The player with the most points at the end of the festival will win a WPT Passport worth $5,000 to any WPT Main Tour of Season XXI.

1	Kiale Matthews	1100
2	Rolands Norietis	925
3	Micheal Oneill	675
4	Richard Marquez	650
5	Joshua Mccully	650
6	Deep Raina	575
7	Chien-Chih Weng	550
8	Duc Thanh Nguyen	525
9	Anton Widjaya	525
10	Bien Mai	500
11	Lun Loon	475
12	Tyler Suansrakaew	450
13	Fung Kong	450
14	Vikaash Shah	425
15	Jasven Saigal	425
16	Huyen Duc Luu	400

Season XXI WPT Prime Cambodia

WPT Prime Cambodia, in partnership with Connaissance Management, runs from March 9 to 21 at NagaWorld Integrated Resorts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. A total of 30 tournaments are scheduled and US$ 1 Million in guarantees. To date, eighteen players have walked away victorious. Only 12 trophies left including the coveted Main Event title.

WPT Prime Cambodia – Player Guide
Breakdown of WPT Prime Cambodia schedule
WPT Prime Cambodia – Festival Payouts
WPT Prime Cambodia – Main Event Chip Counts

For added enjoyment, there are ample cash games running daily and the Cash Game Bonanza.

Reminders:

• NO TAX on winnings
• Event photos can be found in the Somuchpoker Facebook page and in Somuchpoker IG page. 

Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you updates of WPT Prime Cambodia from start to finish