Dapo Ajayi Wins 2021 World Poker Tour Choctaw $3,700 Main Event

The 2021 World Poker Tour Choctaw $3,700 buy-in no-limit maintain’em important occasion attracted 964 entries, blowing away the $1 million assure to create a last prize pool of $3,272,780. In the tip, it got here all the way down to a heads-up battle between a pair of former WPT important occasion runner-up finishers for who would stroll away with the title and the highest prize value greater than half of 1,000,000 {dollars}. 2019 WPT Montreal second-place finisher Dapo Ajayi emerged victorious, defeating 2018 WPT Choctaw runner-up finisher Viet Vo to safe a $558,610 payday.

“It feels great. It was a long battle. Vo is a really tough player, he has had a lot of success recently, so yea, it’s humbling”, Ajayi informed WPT reporters after popping out on high.

In addition to the title and the cash, Ajayi was additionally awarded 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year factors because the champion of this occasion. This was his first POY-qualified rating of the yr, however it alone was sufficient to catapult him into 54th place within the 2021 POY race standings, that are sponsored by Global Poker. Vo took house 1,140 factors because the runner-up finisher. This was his fourth final-table displaying of the yr, and with $1,194,895 in year-to-date earnings, Vo has climbed into seventh place within the total rankings.

The last day of this occasion started with simply six gamers remaining and Vo atop the leaderboard. On simply the third hand of the day, Michael Perrone ran AJ into the AQ of Calderon. The board introduced no assist and Perrone was eradicated in sixth place ($118,090).

Will Nguyen’s run on this occasion got here to an finish when his A3 clashed with the pocket nines of Hunter Cichy. Nguyen hit an ace immediately, however the flop additionally introduced a 9 to present Cichy center set. Nguyen improved to aces up by the river, however it was not sufficient and he hit the rail in fifth place with $154,885 for his robust displaying.

Despite securing that knockout, Cichy remained the shortest stack in the beginning of four-handed motion. Just ten palms later, Cichy was the one all-in and in danger. He held pocket sevens towards the A9 of Albert Calderon. The flop and river stored Cichy forward, however the A on the river gave Calderon a profitable pair of aces. Cichy earned $205,330 because the fourth-place finisher.

With that, Calderon took the chip lead into three-handed play. Ajayi obtained the most effective of Calderon in a couple of early clashes, leading to him overtaking the highest spot on the leaderboard in time for the following key pot. Calderon limped in from the small blind with Q5 and Ajayi checked his possibility within the massive blind with A2. The flop got here down AA8 and Calderon wager 200,000 together with his flopped flush draw. Ajayi raised to 650,000 with journey aces. Calderon known as and the J hit the felt on the flip. Calderon checked. Ajayi wager 2,300,000. Calderon check-raised all-in for 12,825,000. Ajayi thought it over earlier than making the decision. The 5 on the river introduced no assist to Calderon, and he was eradicated in third place ($275,085). This was his second WPT last desk of the yr, having positioned fifth within the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown important occasion for $326,750 again in May.

Ajayi took nearly a 3:1 chip benefit into heads-up play with Vo. The two went on to battle for greater than 100 palms, with Vo even overtaking the lead throughout the center of their conflict for the title. In the tip, Ajayi was capable of regain management and construct a large lead by the point the ultimate hand was dealt. Vo shoved from the button for round 5 massive blinds with Q3 and Ajayi known as with OkayOkay. The board ran out 1052OkayQ and Vo earned $372,415 for his second runner-up end on this occasion.

Here is a have a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the last desk:

Photo credit: WPT / Joe Giron.