Championship Warm Up ($600)

The last bus to Day 2 parked just after midnight as 122 entries concluded the qualification phase of the Championship Warm up with 38 players making it through to Day 2 which commences later (9th February) at 11:30am (UCT+7).

Many of the entries in the Turbo flight (only 20 minutes per level) were late fallouts from Day 1B such as Arjun Agarwal of India, Poland’s Mateusz Stanielewicz and NagaWorld Super Stack champion Johan Lees of Australia.

But it was a late surge by Ireland’s Frank Lillis that saw him catapult past Ilya Firstov of Russia and bring his stack of 335,000 to the forefront in Day 2. Second in chips from this flight was Vietnam’s Do Quang Trinh with 314,000 while third was Khayal Abbasov of Azerbaijan (who also saw action in the earlier Day 1B) with 312,000.

The close of Day 1C brings the total number of entries to 527 smashing the original guarantee of US$150,000.

The 114 qualifiers now lock horns anew as the payouts will revealed when the players reconvene for Day 2.

Championship Warm Up

Date/s: February 7-10, 2025

Buy-in: USD 600

Guarantee: USD 150,000

Day 1A: 154 entries, 27 qualified

Day 1B: 251 entries, 49 qualified

Day 1C: 122 entries, 38 qualified

Day 2: Sunday, February 9

Day 3/ Final: Monday, February 10

In another all-in preflop situation Hasan Mahadi stakes his tournament life against Chinese veteran Liu Yuhan. Mahadi turns over T♦ T♥ but is crushed by Liu’s J♦ J♠ .

The runout threatened to chop the pot when the first four community cards went 3♠ 4♥ 5♦ 6♣ but then the river card put matters beyond doubt when the J♥ arrived.

The elimination of Mahadi also gave Liu more ammunition as his stack in now up to 173,000.

Tom Verbruggen of the Netherlands goes all-in preflop for his last 74,500 and gets a caller in Australia’s John Edward Perry.

The Dutchman reveals A♦ K♥ while Perry shows a made hand in 9♠ 9♥ .

The first three community cards immediately tilted the odds in favor of Verbruggen: 7♣ 8♣ K♦ and no help arrived for the Australian: 8♦ 4♠ .

Verbruggen’s fortuitous double up sent Perry’s stack plummeting down to 68,000 at a crucial juncture of the competition.

India’s Aditya Sushant, Sajjad Al Mamun and Daniel Byshell were all-in on a board of A♥ 2♦ T♦ 7♠ Q♠ where Sushant had already taken the lead on the flop by virtue of his A♣ 2♣ but got threatened by a flush draw on the flop and redraw to a straight by Byshell on the turn as he had 9♦ 8♦, they all lost to the hand that was ahead preflop as Al Mamun has Q♣ Q♥ .

This result rails Byshell and reduces Sushant’s stack to below 200,000. The veritable triple up puts Al Mamun in contention for a berth in Day 2.

With the action folded to the lowjack of Kyosuke Nagami, the player from Japan raises it up to 10,000 while on the button, Korea’s Lee Hon Cheong decides to 3-bet all-in for his remaining 74,000. It gets folded back to Nagami who makes the call. Lee shows A♥ J♠ while Nagami has J♦ J♣ .

The runout goes: K♦ 3♥ 5♠ 3♣ Q♣ as the Korean could not find an ace to keep him in the competition and has been eliminated. Nagami’s stack now goes up to 167,000.

Elvijs Kuceruks of Latvia open shoves from utg for his last 39,000 and gets called in the cutoff by India’s Arjun Agarwal and nobody else. Kuceruks tables 8♥ 8♠ and shakes his head when he sees Agarwal has A♣ A♠ .

However, the flop goes: 8♣ K♠ 9♥ as the Latvian hits a set to take the lead. None of Agarwal’s outs arrived among the last two community cards: 2♣ J♦ .

The double up for Kuceruks also drags the Indian’s stack to below the 200,000 mark.

France’s Thomas Eychenne opens from utg+1 to 10,000 and the action gets folded all the way to the bb where Frank Lillis of Ireland 3-bets to 34,000. The Frenchman decides to 4-bet to 66,000 and Lillis didn’t take long to opt in 5-betting to 108,000. Eychenne goes into the tank and eventually chooses to fold.

After 154 entries descended upon this venue in Day 1A and almost 200 entries taking part in Day 1B, Day 1c (Turbo) of (Event #3) the WPT Cambodia Championship Warm Up is bound to carry a riveting conclusion to the qualifying stage of this opening highlight. Day 1C commences at 6:00PM (UCT+7) still here at Nagaworld.

The blinds will be reduced to 20 minutes per level (which is exactly half the time per level of its predecessors) but with the same starting stack and registration will remain open until the end of Level 10. The buy-in is still at US$600 in this US$150,000 guaranteed event.

This blitzkrieg format will see who joins the 27 who advanced from Day 1A and those who will be joining from the ongoing Day 1B.

Live reporting begins on February 8, 2024 at 21:30 local time.