The WPTDeepStacks Main Event came to a close just two days back. Hosted at California’s Thunder Valley Casino Resort, the $1,500 buy-in main event attracted a total of 356 entries across its two starting flights and coming out on top was Kyle Kitagawa, a tour regular who claimed his first-ever WPTDS title, a $106,250 top prize, and a $3,000 Championship prize package for his grand victory.
“This means a lot because I’ve been traveling with the tour for the last few years. In 2017 I went hard, I traveled and went to nearly every single stop but I didn’t have the year I was looking for, so I really felt like I was under-performing. I really wanted to just win this tournament, it meant more to me than the money, It was personal, I needed to win,” Kitagawa said after his grand main event win.
Kitagawa entered the coveted final table as the fifth largest stack and steadily built his stack. He gained control when he eliminated Zihad Men in third place to eventually enter heads-up as chip leader against the start-of-the FT chip leader Thu Tran. On the final hand, Kitagawa 3-bet all in with pocket sevens and Thu Tran holding ace-queen made the call. The board ran Jc 9d 8d 2d 8c. While Tran flopped a straight draw, Kitagawa’s pocket pair held to secure his career-first WPTDS title.
Top 45 were paid out in the tournament and some notables to finish ITM among them included the likes of Gary Allen (11th – $5,406.84), Rocky Brooks (14th – $4,487.04), Indian-origin players Pradip Singh (15th – $5,475), Gavin Sardini (19th – $3,064.90), Gareth Anthony (25th – $2,117.94), Jason Strauss (26th – $2,117.94), and Jarred Solomon (35th – $1,744.58) to name a few.
Final Table Payouts (USD)
- Kyle Kitagawa – $106,250*
- Thu Tran – $69,025
- Zihad Men – $50,875
- Mark Bansemer – $37,920
- Dann Turner – $28,580
- Taylor Pollard – $21,790
- Roman Shainiuk – $16,805
- Ryan Awwad – $13,115