Mini Championship ($1,100)

The initial heat of this season's WPT Cambodia Mini Championship games has drawn to a close with its 259-entry field narrowed down to 33 players remaining. It took eighteen levels of 30 minute gameplay before the dust settled, with Japan's Suguru Sawada stacking atop the charts. Sawada finished the day with a bag of 959,000 (80 BB), having gained the advantage late in the evening along with the bubble elimination to close the day in style.

Canada's Andrew Lunde stacks below Sawada yet at quite a distance with 721,000 (60 BB), after a thrilling triple knockout during the final hour of play saw the chips swing his way. Three more players - Ahmed Abdellatif, Francesco Vasquez, and Alfie Adam, follow in rank, all of which will kick off the Day 2 rounds with healthy stacks above the 600K mark.

Action will continue tomorrow at 11:30 local time with all returning players guaranteed a share of the $442,320 prize pool.

Mini Championship

Date/s: February 21-22, 2025

Buy-in: USD 1,100

Guarantee: USD 200,000

Entries: 457

Prize pool: USD 442,320

ITM: 58 places

D1A: 259 entries, 33 qualified

D1B: 198 entries, 25 ITM

Day 2/ Final: Saturday, February 22

Suguru Sawada opened 27,000 utg and saw Yamen Ghanem call for his last 19,000 (1.5 BB) on the cutoff.

Ghanem hoping to hang on, unfortunately exited as the day's bubble after Sawada flopped a pair on board 3♠ 2♠ 5♦ 8♥ 3♦ to take the win.

The day's action is nearing ITM with only three more eliminations to go before the flight wraps up. 33 players are guaranteed a spot into the Final Day games, as well as a portion of the prize pool.

Top Chip Counts

A blind vs blind clash saw Daniel Lengyel in trouble with A♣ 7♣ for his remaining 97,500 against Suguru Sawada's A♦ Q♦ .

Window card 7♠ offered Lengyel some hope, which quickly faded as board continued 4♠ Q♠ 6♣ 9♠ , awarding Sawada the win with top pair.

Suguru Sawada pushed all-in on the button with A♠ J♦ against Yongjia Lin's late position open and was crushed to see his opponent snap call with A♥ A♣ .

Lucky for Sawada, the board K♣ 7♣ 7♥ 7♦ 7♠ rolled quad sevens, leaving both ace-highs with the win for a split pot.

With already 23,600 in the middle across board 9♣ A♠ 2♦ 6♠ , action was caught on Suguru Sawada pulling an attempt for 14,000 on the small blind. Haile Kuo tank called behind and was put in another tough spot after Sawada bet all-in on river 5♣ for 22,700.

Kuo eventually found the call with top pair A♥ 8♥ and shipped the win as Sawada revealed bluff K♥ Q♠ for his elimination.