Running from January 17 to 30, 2024, Season XXII of the World Poker Tour (WPT) completed its second day of games at the grand ballroom of NagaWorld in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Four players emerged victorious – Seongho Cho, Luke Keay, Thi Xuan Ha Tran, and Sean Ragozzini. Also wrapping up was Day 1A of the WPT Cambodia Championship Warm Up with 23 players surviving led by New Zealand’s Samuel Adams. Check out the Day 2 highlights down below.
With five events in the books, the WPT Player of the Festival race is underway. Follow the link for the current standings.
WPT Cambodia – News Coverage and Results
WPT Cambodia – Player of the Festival standings
WPT Cambodia – Player Guide
WPT Cambodia – Photos
SEONGHO CHO wins maiden title at NagaWorld Superstack
WPT Cambodia opened its doors on January 17 with the NagaWorld Superstack attracting a sizable 207 entries for a prize pool of USD 72,284. After two days of play, Korea’s Seongho Cho emerged victorious, earning his first ever live title and trophy. Sharing his excitement, Cho expressed,
“I’m always second place, and finally, I won! This is my first trophy!”
To claim the win, Cho defeated overnight chip leader Haruto Murata at heads up. Along with the coveted merch, Cho pocketed a career high score of USD 17,780. Cho now leads the Player of the Festival race.
Event Recap
Day 1 wrapped up on a double bust for Oleg Voschinin and Youngjo Cheon to split the last place cash. 25 players advanced to the final day led by Murata. As players tumbled, Cho knocked out USA’s Johnny Tan in 10th place with 
dominating 
. The final table was formed led by Murata with 53 bb, Cho was at his heels with 50 bb.
Leading up to heads up, David Koy impressed by turning his 7 bb stack to second in chips but was ultimately stopped in 4th place. At three-handed Canada’s Patrick Standen was chunked to 6 bb, staged a comeback to 16 bb before falling in 3rd place to Murata on a flip.
Heads up opened with Murata slightly ahead however it didn’t last. Cho dominated, taking pot after pot to create a 41 bb to 10 bb gap. Cho closed it out with 
outdrawing 
on a board 
.
Date: January 17 to 18, 2024
Buy in: USD 400
Entries: 207 (158 unique)
Prize pool: USD 72,284
ITM: 26 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payout in USD
|
| 1 | Seongho Cho | Korea | $17,780 |
| 2 | Haruto Murata | Japan | $12,341 |
| 3 | Patrick James Standen | Canada | $7,409 |
| 4 |
Davidyouveakreach Koy
|
$4,507 | |
| 5 | Dmitrii Isaev | Russia | $3,480 |
| 6 | Frank James Lillis | Ireland | $2,884 |
| 7 | Jayvon Carreon | Philippines | 2,458 |
| 8 | Jin Xiong Lee | Singapore | $2,118 |
| 9 | Ivan Govorov | Russia | $1,778 |
Full payouts in the WPT Cambodia – Festival Results
Event 3: WPT Cambodia Championship Warm Up – Day 1A
The first key event was the WPT Cambodia Championship Warm Up which featured the same structure as the upcoming Main Tour except with faster blinds. Day 1A attracted 123 entries, and by the end of 15 rounds, only 23 remained. New Zealand’s Samuel Adams bagged the largest stack of 537,000 (89 bb), trailed closely by Australia’s John Perry with 504,00 (84 bb).
The survivors have a day rest before returning for Day 2 on January 20, 2024. Up next are the final two flights, both running on Friday, January 19, 2024 – Day 1B starts at 11:30am and Day 1C Turbo at 6pm. Starting stack is 50,000, blinds increase every 40 minutes and every 25 minutes for the turbo. Players bag up at the end of 15 levels.
Date: January 18, 2024
Buy in: USD 800
Guarantee: USD 150,000
Day 1A entries: 123 (107 unique)
End of Day 1A – 23 players
| Player | Flag | Stack |
| Samuel David Adams | New Zealand | 537,000 |
| John Edward Perry | Austraila | 504,000 |
| Koen Breed | Netherlands | 472,000 |
| Hun Tae Choi | Korea | 466,000 |
| Adrien Franck Berger | France | 435,000 |
| Ilya Firstov | Kazakhstan | 421,000 |
| Hyungtaek Jo | Korea | 395,000 |
| Jun Li | UK | 341,000 |
| Maxime Joseph Tantaro | France | 305,000 |
| Zsolt Cserhati | Hungary | 277,000 |
| Oliver Schulze | Germany | 240,000 |
| Adrien Michel Tantaro | France | 221,000 |
| Raja Sekhar Puttamsetty | India | 215,000 |
| Minsu Kim | Korea | 195,000 |
| Youngchae Youn | Korea | 156,000 |
| Cheng Zhang | China | 155,000 |
| Rauf Kaan Avci | Turkey | 151,000 |
| Thomas Lee | Canada | 144,000 |
| Aayush Arya | India | 138,000 |
|
Davidyouveakreach Koy
|
127,000 | |
| Zhihao Chen | China | 112,000 |
| Tola Keo | Australia | 106,000 |
| Ali Khalili | Canada | 94,000 |
LUKE KEAY wins Single Day Megastack Mini HR 30 Sec
A star studded crowd of 74 runners was seen at the Single Day Megastack Mini HR, for a prize pool of USD 143,560. Among the sluggers were Australian stars Daniel Neilson, Sean Ragozzini, Yita Choong, Luke Martinelli, WSOP bracelet holder Mike Takayama, Triton champion Punnat Punsri, and hot running circuit player from China Tian Hao Zheng.
On the 13th hour of play, UK’s Luke Keay nailed it shut to capture his first ever WPT title and a career high live tournament payout of USD 42,320. Keay now leads the Player of the Festival race.
Riding on a third bullet, Keay reached the final table near par with the top two leaders, Frank Lillis and Qiu. Impressively, this was Lillis’s second final table having finished 6th at the earlier NagaWorld Superstack.
Three hours in, it was down to the final three with Keay now in a commanding lead against Lillis and Win Meng Tan. For a brief moment, a cooler against Lillis – two pair over two pair – dropped Keay down to second rank but quickly recovered after several uncalled shoves. Keay went on to finish Lillis with 
outdrawing 
, queen appearing at the flop.
Facing Tan for the title, it took nearly one hour to nail shut with Tan briefly stealing the chip lead. As the blinds climbed, Keay dominated. The winning moment arrived when Tan bluff shoved with 
, Keay had 
trips on a board 
.
Date: January 18, 2024
Buy in: USD 2,200
Entries: 74
Prize pool: USD 143,560
ITM: 11 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payout in USD
|
| 1 | Luke Oliver John Keay | USA | $42,320 |
| 2 | Win Meng Tan | Malaysia | $28,220 |
| 3 | Frank James Lillis | Ireland | $19,130 |
| 4 | Bas Wilhelmus Cornelis Jo De Laat | Netherlands | $13,450 |
| 5 | Quan Qiu | China | $9,830 |
| 6 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | $7,470 |
| 7 | Jijun Xu | China | $5,920 |
| 8 | Daniel John Neilson | Australia | $4,890 |
| 9 | Ceesvin Abraham Abdulla | Singapore | $4,230 |
| 10 | Asheque Elahi | Bangladesh | $4,050 |
| 11 | Anthony Cierco | France | $4,050 |
THI XUAN HA TRAN turns 200 to 5K at the Freezeout
Asia circuit regular Thi Xuan Ha Tran was a force to reckon with at the Freezeout event, turning her USD 230 buy in into a sizable USD 5,505 payout. The event drew 88 players with the top 11 earning a piece of the USD 17,072 prize pool.
By the sixth hour of play, it was bubble time with Tran well ahead in the counts. Khayal Abbasov delivered the bubble with 
spiking the queen to dust a player’s 
. The final table was soon formed with Tran still in command. Philippine player Jayvon Carreon was among the final 9 for his second final table.
It was a fast race to victory with Tran and Carreon going head to head for the title. Carreon was ahead until a failed bluff switched them up – Carreon bet every street on a board 
– Tran won it with 
over 
. Tran went on to close it out on a flip with 
pairing up on a board 
to deny Carreon’s .
Date: January 18, 2024
Buy in: USD 230
Players: 88
Prize pool: USD 17,072
ITM: 11 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payout in USD
|
| 1 | Thi Xuan Ha Tran | Viet Nam | $5,505 |
| 2 | Jayvon Carreon | Philippines | $3,329 |
| 3 | Wattana Sophontanakup | Thailand | $2,070 |
| 4 | Bihari Michael Adam | Hungary | $1,400 |
| 5 | Jonathan Tek Wye Looi | Malaysia | $1,067 |
| 6 | Fei Wang | China | $854 |
| 7 | Anton Padlivalchau | Belarus | $708 |
| 8 | Erik Gunnar Dahlgren | Sweden | $598 |
| 9 | Pavlo Haponenko | Ukraine | $551 |
| 10 | Aaron Toroussian Jacobs | USA | $512 |
| 11 | Khayal Abbasov | Azerbaijan | $478 |
SEAN RAGOZZINI wins the Deepstack Turbo
The last trophy event of the day was the Deepstack Turbo with 55 runners lighting up the felt. One of Australia’s star players, Sean Ragozzini, claimed the win for his first trophy on Asian soil. This was also his first live cash of the year of USD 9,869. The win was Australia’s fifth for 2024 in Asia with four initially claimed at the recently concluded USOP Taiwan festival.
Date: January 18, 2024
Buy in: USD 550
Entries: 55 (45 unique)
Prize pool: USD 26,675
ITM: 7 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payouts in USD
|
| 1 | Sean Ragozzini | Australia | $9,869 |
| 2 | Hwang Wei Choong | Malaysia | $5,869 |
| 3 | Mr. Fendy | Indonesia | $3,601 |
| 4 | Pablo Beltran De Heredia Garcia | Spain | $2,534 |
| 5 | Donghyup Kim | Korea | $2,001 |
| 6 | Maulik Bharatkumar Shukla | India | $1,601 |
| 7 | Jhon Hendri | Indonesia | $1,200 |
*Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you daily updates of WPT Cambodia from start to finish.
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Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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