On Wednesday this week, Florida’s poker player Benjamin Zamani won the WPT Season 15 Player of the Year (POY) title. On the same day, the New Yorker Tony Sinishtaj claimed the WPT SHRP Showdown for a whopping $661,283 and Jason Mercier shipped a high roller event for $749,600. Both of these tournaments took place at the luxurious Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Florida.
Zamani had to sweat it out a lot to win the coveted title of WPT Season 15 POY. A few renowned players, including World Poker Tour TV commentator Mike Sexton, weren’t mathematically out of the race for POY and they were still fighting it hard for the POY title. Sam Panzica almost jumped in the WPT POY race in the final event, the $10,000 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale. He was trailing Zamani by just 100 points, but he got busted out in 40th place, which gave him just 50 points to move ahead in the WPT POY race.
This season, the Florida pro-Zamani made a total of 3 final table appearances at WPT and finished in 2nd place twice. Although he has over $1.4 million in career WPT winnings, he is still looking out for his first main event title. Throughout the season, he held against the competition for POY race and finally the WPT Season 15 Player of the Year title is a big consolation prize for him to keep his morale going.
Sumit Sapra Finish 7th in the Side Event PokerStars Asia Open at PSC 2017
In Macau, the PokerStars Championship Macau 2017 is inching towards its completion. While the PSC, Macau 2017 saw many winners in past few days, in the HK$5,500 PokerStars Asia Open, it was Vladimir Shabalin who won the title for HK$291,000 in the first prize. The HK$5,500 PokerStars Asia Open at the PSC Macau 2017 attracted 391 entries and 92 re-entries to take the total prize pool up to HK$2,342,550. It was the 29-year old Vladimir Shabalin who outlasted the entire field to claim the title. He defeated Ludovic Ribhl who finished 2nd in the event, winning HK$334,000 in prize money.
To the delight of Indian poker fans, Indian players also took part in the HK$5,500 PokerStars Asia Open. India’s Sumit Sapra made a final table finish. He was eliminated 7th place for HK$58,000. Apart from Sapra, the well-known player Raghav Bansal from India also cashed out in the event at 49thplace for HK$9,600.
Final Table Payouts (HKD)
- Vladimir Shabalin – HK$291,000
- Ludovic Ribhl – HK$334,000
- Kwun Ngai Vincent Li – HK$195,150
- Guillaume Diaz – HK$144,000
- Tetsuro Tomita – HK$106,000
- King Chung Wang – HK$78,000
- Sumit Sapra – HK$58,000
- Louis Lam – HK$42,600
- Luen Kwan Kowk – HK$42,600