On Day 5 of World Poker Tour (WPT) Cambodia, another three players emerged victorious – Jonald Garcia, Chi Wai Will Kwok, Hwany Lee – to score their first WPT hardware. We’ve got those stories below.
In addition, the Player of the Festival race is well underway with 13 events in the books. Two-time winner Seongho Cho leads, check out the standings via the link provided.
WPT Cambodia – News Coverage and Results
WPT Cambodia – Player of the Festival standings
WPT Cambodia – Player Guide
WPT Cambodia – Photos
Jonald Garcia clinches Championship Warm Up
On his first trip outside of home turf Philippines, Jonald Garcia clinched the Championship Warm Up to lift his first ever WPT trophy and a career high payout out of USD 55,989. He slides into second rank in the Player of the Festival race.
“I feel great! I’ve had pretty good results back home in the Philippines and friends have been encouraging me to play outside of the country so I decided to get my passport and come here. It feels good to win! The field was tough. Players are really good.”
Entering heads up, Garcia was up against South Africa’s Marc Joseph who had been dominating the final table. Joseph knocked out four players to amass two-thirds of the chips in play. Commenting on the match, Garcia said,
“Marc was my toughest opponent. Even in Day 2, he was hard to read and hard to earn chips from. We have similar styles. I didn’t realize that seeing the way I play in someone else is difficult. I really couldn’t tell if he had anything.”
After a two-hour heads up race, Garcia evened up. With average down to 30 bb, both players agreed on an ICM deal with USD 1,989 and the trophy on the side. Several hands in, Garcia skyrocketed on a flush holding 
over Joseph’s 
straight on a board 
. Garcia went on to win it with 
outdrawing Joseph’s 
on a board 
.
Watch the action via the Final day – Live Updates.
Buy in: USD 800
Guarantee: USD 150,000
Entries: 489 (289 unique)
Prize pool: USD 341,518
ITM: 62 places
Final day payouts
*Heads up even deal, played for trophy and USD 1,989
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payout in USD
|
| 1 | Jonald Garcia | Philippines | $55,989* |
| 2 | Marc Joseph | South Africa | $54,000* |
| 3 | Samuel Adams | New Zealand | $32,338 |
| 4 | Yuwen Pan | China | $24,046 |
| 5 | Xin Zhao | China | $18,073 |
| 6 | Choi Hun Tae | Korea | $13,732 |
| 7 | Koen Breed | Netherlands | $10,543 |
Full payouts in WPT Cambodia – Festival Results
HWANY LEE perseveres at the Single Day High Roller
Korea’s Hwany Lee came from behind at the Single Day High Roller to claim his first WPT trophy and a payout deal of USD 48,201. The rise took place at three-handed with Nguyen Quang Huy backed by a monstrous stack followed by Valeriy Fokin. After several showdowns went Lee’s way, his stack became a threat as he climbed to second rank. The players then opted on an ICM deal leaving USD 3,801 and the trophy to play for.
Lee surged to the top on a double up through the leader Nguyen with 
flush on a board 
. Fokin cleaned out Nguyen in 3rd place to face Lee for the win.
Lee went on to win it with 
top pair dusting Fokin’s 
missed flush draw. It was all in on the flop 
, Lee with top pair, Fokin with flush draw. The turn 
and river 
completed the board.
Date: January 21, 2024
Buy in: USD 3,000
Entries: 91 (65 unique)
Prize pool: USD 69,252
ITM: 13 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payout in USD
|
| 1 | Hwany Lee | Korea | $48,200 |
| 2 | Valeriy Fokin | Russia | $43,000 |
| 3 | Quang Huy Nguyen | Viet Nam | $55,582 |
| 4 | Matthew Paul Belcher | Ireland | $22,076 |
| 5 | Valeriy Fedorovich Pak | Uzbekistan | $16,144 |
| 6 | Tien Loon Ling | Malaysia | $12,279 |
| 7 | Tianhao Zheng | China | $9,728 |
| 8 | Yang Liu | China | $8,042 |
| 9 | Thai Thinh Chu | Viet Nam | $6,950 |
| 10 | Mike Andillo Takayama | Philippines | $6,950 |
| 11 | Tianyuan Tang | China | $6,068 |
| 12 | Yu-Chung Chang | Taiwan | $6,068 |
| 13 | Joshua Kane Mcswiney | Australia | $6,068 |
CHI WAI WILL KWOK wins turns $230 to $3,697 at the Freezeout
Fast action at the Freezeout event with 107 players hunting down the title. The top three players opted on an ICM deal then played for the trophy. Hong Kong’s Chi Wai Will Kwok rose from the shortest stack to champion to grab his maiden live tournament title and payout of USD 3,697.
Date: January 21, 2024
Buy in: USD 230
Players: 107
Prize pool: USD 20,758
ITM: 14 places
*Three way ICM deal, play for trophy
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payout in USD
|
| 1 | Chi Wai Will Kwok | Hong Kong | $3,697* |
| 2 | Shravan Kumar Singh | India | $4,489* |
| 3 | Markus Albisser | Switzerland | $4,185* |
| 4 | Wipat Udomkanjananan | Thailand | $1,505 |
| 5 | Fei Wang | China | $1,162 |
| 6 | Jose Fernandez Drilon | Philippines | $955 |
| 7 | Darien Mackenzie Diez Cavanaugh | USA | $810 |
| 8 | Shinya Nakai | Japan | $706 |
| 9 | Ivan Chev Tabucal | Philippines | $623 |
| 10 | Seunghyun Hsu | Korea | $550 |
| 11 | Kai Perng Heng | Malaysia | $550 |
| 12 | Anton Padlivalchau | Belarus | $550 |
| 13 | Chul Woong Joo | Korea | $488 |
| 14 | Kimberley Ivan Higgins | Australia | $488 |
WPT Cambodia
For those just hearing of this inaugural event, WPT Cambodia kicked off on January 17 at NagaWorld Phnom Penh running until January 30, 2024. It is the biggest festival by the brand in the region featuring at 44-game lineup.
The most anticipated event is the WPT Championship – the first WPT Main Tour in Southeast Asia – boasting a USD 1 Million guarantee. This is the largest prize pool announced by the WPT in the region. Buy in is USD 3,500. Event runs January 25 to 29, 2024.
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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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