With 9,670 whole entries, the 2024 World Poker Tour Prime Championship $1,100 no-limit maintain’em most important occasion beat its $5 million assure by almost $4.4 million. The sizable turnout to Wynn Las Vegas for the third-annual operating of this occasion resulted in a seven-figure payday for the champion regardless of the reasonably priced buy-in. Zak VanKeuren was finally the participant to seize that huge $1,162,350 high prize. The Saratoga Springs, NY resident now has greater than $2 million in profession earnings, with this being far-and-away the biggest payday on his event resume.
“It doesn’t feel real… I’m just thinking I’m in a lucid dream right now. I’m just going to wake up soon. Hopefully it’s still real life in an hour. It feels crazy,” VanKeuren informed WPT reporters after popping out on high. “The Wynn is probably my favorite casino in the country; It’s just a beautiful place. WPT has the best tournaments out of anywhere, so it’s just a blessing to come out here and compete.”
VanKeuren will add the WPT Prime Championship trophy to his assortment, which features a World Series of Poker gold bracelet. He triumphed on this 12 months’s $3,200 buy-in on-line no-limit maintain’em occasion again in July, incomes $219,450 and the {hardware}.
This victory additionally got here with 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year factors. This was VanKeuren’s third POY-qualified final-table end of the 12 months. With 2,124 whole factors, he now sits inside the highest 200 within the 2024 POY race standings offered by Global Poker.
The high 1,206 finishers made the cash, with large names like WPT champion Ben Palmer (seventy fifth), four-time bracelet winner Farzad Bonyadi (74th), two-time bracelet winner David Jackson (sixty fourth), 2023 WSOP most important occasion runner-up Steven Jones (61st), bracelet winner Blair Hinkle (57th), bracelet winner Ryan Laplante (thirty fourth), bracelet winner Michael Liang (twenty third), bracelet winner Cole Ferraro (fifteenth), and up to date WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open champion Dylan Smith (eleventh) all operating deep.
The ultimate desk started with 2012 WSOP Circuit Caesars Palace most important occasion champion Kevin Calenzo within the lead and VanKeuren in the midst of the pack. It took 30 palms for the primary elimination to happen, and it got here by way of a brutal preflop cooler. WPT champion Justin Young bought all-in with A
Ok
, three-bet shoving over Calenzo’s under-the-gun min-raise out of the small blind. Calenzo shortly known as the shove of 29 large blinds with A
A. Young earned $114,000 because the ninth-place finisher, bringing his profession event earnings to just about $6.8 million.
Maximum ache for
WPT</a> Champions Club member <a href="https://twitter.com/Justinyoung07?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Justinyoung07He takes residence $114,000 for ninth place.
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— WPT Live Updates (@WPTlive) December 15, 2024
VanKeuren then went on an elimination spree, busting Ralph Marquez (eighth – $145,000), Colin Hong (seventh – $186,000), and Ryan Stiner (sixth – $240,000) inside the subsequent 14 palms. The surge continued when his Ok-4 held in opposition to the Q-9 of quick stack Joe Ozimok (fifth – $320,000), giving VanKeuren 47 % of the chips in play heading into four-handed motion.
Calenzo doubled up with pocket kings besting A-Q for VanKeuren, however that bump within the street was quickly made up for when VanKeuren flopped journey sevens and bought all of the chips in after Malik Zaman turned jacks and tens. Zaman wanted a jack or ten on the top to double up, however an ace rolled off as an alternative to see him despatched to the rail in fourth place ($420,000).
A preflop race ended Calenzo’s run. He bought all-in with J10 in opposition to the 44 of Jim Casement and the pair noticed a runout of seven6
539, which gave Casement a successful seven-high straight. Calenzo earned $560,000 because the third-place finisher, the biggest rating of his profession.
VanKeuren held roughly a 3:1 chip lead over Casement when heads-up play started. He had prolonged that benefit occasion additional earlier than the ultimate hand. VanKeuren limped in for 4,000,000 holding AOk and Casement shoved from the massive blind for 69,400,000 with OkJ. VanKeuren shortly known as and the board got here down Ok845Q to present VanKeuren kings with an ace kicker for the win.
Casement walked away with $759,890 for his runner-up displaying. The rating pushed his profession event haul up over $1 million.
Here is a have a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the ultimate desk:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Zak VanKeuren | $1,162,350 | 1320 |
| 2 | Jim Casement | $759,890 | 1100 |
| 3 | Kevin Calenzo | $560,000 | 880 |
| 4 | Malik Zaman | $420,000 | 660 |
| 5 | Joe Ozimok | $320,000 | 550 |
| 6 | Ryan Stiner | $240,000 | 440 |
| 7 | Colin Hong | $186,000 | 330 |
| 8 | Ralph Marquez | $145,000 | 220 |
| 9 | Justin Young | $114,000 | 110 |
Photos offered by WPT.
