2017 WPT to Close Out with Biggest High Rollers

The biggest names in the poker industry are coming together in Las Vegas to participate in this year’s World Poker Tour Season Xvi Five Diamond World Poker Classics. As poker enthusiasts eagerly await the Main Event that will begin officially on Tuesday, a number of action-packed side events have already played out and they include the $25,000 High Roller which was the biggest buy-in event to be concluded so far. However, a winner is yet to be crowned as the crowning is scheduled for the coming weekend in the $100,000 Super High Roller.

The $25,000 High Roller event attracted a total of 34 entries generating an $850,000 prize pool with PartyPoker pro, Jason Koon and Isaac Haxton emerging the winners – Jason Koon walked away with $289,950 and Isaac Haxton got to take home $271,050. This High Roller victory is a repeat win for Koon who also won $412,800 in 2016’s first Five Diamond $25,000 High Roller. This particular win raised Koon’s total earnings in 2017 to $4,231,612 which is the highest since he began his poker career in 2008. It further pushed his total lifetime earnings to $10,724,392 extending his lead to 52nd place in the poker all-time money list as well as West Virginia’s all-time poker money list.

Isaac Haxton’s victory, on the other hand, places him 22nd in poker’s all-time money list and third on Nevada’s all-time money list while pushing his total lifetime earnings to over $15 million. Other than Jason Koon and Isaac Haxton who shared the biggest chunks of the prize money, other poker pros like Fedor Holz, Ben Tollerene, and Cary Katz also went through the box. At the heads-up, the pending prizes were distributed between Koon and Haxton in function of the ICM with Koon emerging the virtual winner thanks to a greater stack.

Preliminary Events

On Tuesday, Sergio Aido outwitted a field of 28 entries for $128,800 in the $10,000 High Roller. The first runner-up was Ramin Hajiyev who pocketed $78,400, while Bryn Kenney took third place and Almedic Imsirovic took fourth place earning $44,800 and $28,000 respectively.

Meanwhile, Florida’s Martin Mazair prevailed over Nashaat Antonious in the Five Diamond $560 Opening Event heads-up play taking home with him a first place prize of $27,426. Similarly, Slovenian Rok Gostisa triumphed over 132 entries and pocketed $40,970 in a $1,100 NLHE event.

Scott Clements also prevailed over a 56-entry field to claim the $1,100 PLO first place title for $21,184, as Englishmen Mark Hammon and Jean-Luc Weller bested Jack Duong and Je Oh to win the $16,151 in the $1,100 NLHE Tag Team.

This Friday will see the final five players face off again, Haxton currently being in the lead with 1.81 million chips. The only other players with over a million chips are Dan Smith and Daniel Negreanu.