Kyriakos Papadopoulos Takes Down Zynga Poker WPT500 Las Vegas, Harshil Dhingra & Kunal Patni Run Deep

The mecca for poker players, Las Vegas is definitely the busiest this time of the year with the prestigious 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) currently underway at Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. Poker players from all around the globe throng the city to witness and be apart of this mega series with an array of options available in various tournaments running alongside the mega extravaganza.

One such major tournament that recently came to a conclusion was the Zynga Poker WPT500 Las Vegas. The first stop of Season 5 of WPT500 was held at Aria Resort and Casino, from June 25 – July 3. The $570 buy-in event featured nine starting flights along with Day 2 and Day 3, leading up to the finale. After a total nine days of action, Kyriakos Papadopoulos came out on top and walked away with the bragging rights of winning the title along with the $207,940 top prize.

From Team India came two spectacular performances from Harshil Dhingra and Kunal Patni, but both fell just shy of making it to the final table. Dhigra finished 12th for $16,450 (~ ₹11.30 Lakhs) while Patni finished 16th for $10,740 (~ ₹7.38 Lakhs). India’s Jasven Saigal was another who finished 116^th for $1,900 (~₹1.30 Lakhs).

few days back World Poker Tour and Zynga Inc, a leading social game developer, announced Zynga Poker as the official title sponsor of WPT500, Las Vegas. The announcement came in as the first major development in the multi-year partnership between the WPT and Zynga Poker in the lead up to the new WPT-themed, in-game tournaments set to launch on Zynga Poker later this year. As title sponsor, Zynga Poker will be sending a group of VIP players to compete in one of the biggest and best poker events this year.

Final Table Recap

Day 3 began with the nine finalists taking down their seats to play for the $207,940 first-place prize. Leading the way at the start of the final table was the eventual champion Kyriakos Papadopoulos with a stack of 15.675 million.

The first elimination came in just after half an hour of play and it was Joseph Guarino who lost his tournament life in ninth place. Just 10 minutes later, another one hit the rail. Zynga Poker VIP Hugh Grant moved all in with and Chris Bell dropped in a few chips to signify a call with , and the remaining active players folded. With no help on the board , Grant was eliminated in eighth place.

Next to follow suite was Greg Gius as he moved all in for his remaining stack with and once again Chris Bell made the call with pocket nines. Although Gius had better outs and was in great shape to double up, the flop was alarming for him. The turn and river brought the two cards Gius was hoping to ditch, but as luck would have it, he was forced out of the final table.

Just three minutes later came the next elimination and it was James Morris who made an exit in sixth place.

The five-handed play went on for a long time before Chris Bell became the next casualty. Pre-flop action saw Bell and Papadopoulos moving all in. Bell held against Papadopoulos’ . With no help on the board, Bell left the final table in fifth place.

Following him out the door was Adi Ben Ami who couldn’t improve holding pockets tens over his opponent, Bobby Poe’s pocket jacks.

The three-handed play went on for another one hour before Hoan Nguyen got involved in a three-way hand against Bobby Poe and Papadopoulos. The pre-flop action saw a three-way showdown, Nguyen , Poe and Papadopoulos . Papadopoulos held the best hand and had a chance at a double knockout to end the tournament. The flop didn’t change much but the turn and the river gave trips to Poe and he went on to collect the monstrous stack eliminating Nguyen in the process.

After almost a two hour long heads-up battle a winner was found. From the button, Papadopoulos moved all in for 47,400,000 and Poe tanked for a while before making the call.

Poe

Papadopoulos

Papadopoulos was in good shape and fortunately for him nothing changed on the rundown and he walked away with the championship trophy along with the $207,940 top prize.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Kyriakos Papadopoulos – $207,940

2. Bobby Poe – $139,960

3. Hoan Nguyen – $103,060

4. Adi Ben Ami – $76,750

5. Chris Bell – $57,800

6. James Morris – $44,000

7. Greg Gius – $33,800

8. Hugh Grant – $26,310

9. Joseph Guarino – $21,110

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