WPT Cambodia: Brian Tougias Wins Main Event; Katoch, Kucheria, Bansal & Metlapalli Score in Side Events

The second edition of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Cambodia came to a thundering close on Monday! The attention on the final day was fixated on the Main Event final table and rightfully so since with a massive 750-entry field, the event obliterated all past records to become the largest open event ever held by the WPT in the Asia-Pacific!

This record-smashing Main Event eventually crowned a winner in 29-year-old Brian Tougias. Tougias, who is originally from the U.S. but currently resides in Thailand, has been more active online than live. Interestingly, the WPT Cambodia Main Event is the first live tournament that Tougias has played in Asia, and he struck gold on his first attempt. He defeated Malaysia’s Kai Fu Wong to win the coveted WPT title and $131,460 (~₹94.37 Lakhs) in prize money – his second recorded live cash.

“I feel great. Four months ago I was teaching PE and swimming lessons on Koh Samui, had a couple of big scores online and stopped teaching. I have only been playing professionally now for four months and semi-pro for five years, but it is pretty surreal. My birthday was yesterday and I couldn’t ask for a better birthday gift,” Tougias said.

Even with the Main Event final table fast winding down towards a champion, three separate events were going on, and each of them had Indian players in the running. The most prominent of the three was the $2,750 WPT Cambodia High Roller that had last year`s WPT Vietnam Champion, Dhaval Mudgal in the fray on Day 2, but he fell out empty-handed.

The top scorer from Team India yesterday was Rajneesh Katoch, who finished fourth in the $2,150 High Roller Turbo to earn a $5,975 (~₹4.28 Lakhs) cheque. Over at the $300 WPT Nagaworld Superstack Classic Freezeout, Kshitij Kucheria (8th for $1,258 – ₹90,137) posted a final table finish while Paawan Bansal (11th for $948 – ₹67,925) and Ravi Shankar Metlapalli (20th for $565 – ₹40,483) also added to the team`s tally.

Capturing the last of the WPT trophies at the stop were New Zealand’s Hamish Crawshaw ($2,150 High Roller Turbo for $24,445), Australia’s Michael Egan ($2,750 WPT Cambodia High Roller for $64,870) and Norway’s Kai Danilo Bergerud Paulsen ($300 WPT Nagaworld Superstack Classic Freezeout for $7,800).

The series proved to be a successful one for Team India, who came out to play in massive numbers. Even without a title win, our Indian challengers did exceedingly well. The most notable performance at the stop was delivered by PokerGuru Ambassador Laksh Pal Singh, who collected a runner-up finish in the $1,100 Main Event Warm-Up for ₹12.58 Lakhs. Over at the Megastack Freezeout, Ravi Shankar Metlapalli also raked in a runner-up finish ($12,646 – ₹9.08 Lakhs). In the Main Event alone, three Indians made it in the money. Abhinav Iyer ran the deepest and earned a 20th place payout ($5,885 – ₹4.21 Lakhs) with Raju Jaruplavath (41st for $2,975 – ₹2.13 Lakhs) and Romit Advani (94th for $1,593 – ₹1.14 Lakhs) rounding out the Indian scores.

Brian Tougias Wins the $1,100 Main Event!

The $1,100 Main Event attracted a record 750 entries across three starting flights, and only 148 of them (Day 1A – 34, Day 1B – 43, Day 1C – 72) made it to Day 2. Only the top 94 finishers were guaranteed a min-cash worth $1,593, and Day 2 played down to the nine-handed final table.

Ryan Revai (11th for $10,891), Ping Liu (13th for $8,672), Burin Shinawatra (15th for $8,672), Youngjin Kim (16th for $7,188), Dan Alezandrovitz (18th for $7,188) and Nadav Cohen (21st for $5,885) were among the notable ITM finishers on Day 2.

Dajia Chen (10th for $10,891) bubbled the final table.

The nine finalists returned on Sunday with Malaysia’s Kai Fu Wong (4,700,000) in pole position.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Kai Fu Wong – 4,700,000
2. Brian Tougias – 4,140,000
3. Alex Xiang Wei Lee – 3,415,000
4. Kue Seong Tchong – 2,685,000
5. Aladin Reskallah – 2,570,000
6. Si Yang Phua – 1,650,000
7. Sim Jae Kyung – 1,630,000
8. Yong Cheong Foo – 1,040,000
9. Jiyoung Kim – 695,000

Final Table Recap

The final table saw its first casualty within the first 30 minutes of play. Short-stacked, Jiyoung Kim moved all-in with ace-queen and was called by Brian Tougias, who held pocket kings. The board kept Tougias’ cowboys ahead, sending Kim out in ninth place.

Nearly two hours later, Yong Cheong Foo found his pocket sevens dominated by Kai Fu Wong’s pocket tens and left in eighth place.

The eliminations came quickly after that, and within 10 minutes, Alex Lee found his pocket eights dominated by Jae Kyung Lee’s pocket kings.

Soon, Kue Seong Tchong lost a big chunk of his stack to Brian Tougias with his pocket tens losing to Tougias’ flopped set of fives. His attempt to improve in the next hand failed, and he left in sixth place.

One hand later, Si Yang Phua hit the rail in fifth place after his open-shove from UTG prompted Kai Fu Wong to call from the small blind.

Si Yang Phua

Kai Fu Wong

The rundown didn’t help Phua, who exited in fifth place.

Down to four-handed, play saw Wong pull ahead of the rest, and it was him orchestrating the elimination of Aladin Reskallah nearly an hour later. Reskallah moved all-in preflop with and was called off by Wong, who had . The flop gave Reskallah a gutshot, but the turn and the river bricked, relegating him to the rail in fourth place.

The final three players went on a short, unscheduled break, and when they returned, Jae Kyung Sim quickly hit the rail in third place. Sim had lost a massive pot to Tougias and moved all-in for 375,000 to find Wong call from the big blind. Sim tabled against Wong’s . The runout of kept Wong ahead.

At the start of the heads-up match, Kai Fu Wong was sitting with an over 2:1 chip lead with his stack of 15.70 Million dominating Tougias’ 6.8 Million. Tougias, however, fought hard and pulled ahead. Despite Wong’s attempts to sneak back into the chip lead, Tougias maintained his dominance.

About an hour later, Tougias raised to 400,000, and Wong defended his big blind. After the flop, Wong check-raised to 2.1 Million, and Tougias moved all-in. Wong called.

Kai Fu Wong

Brian Tougias

A six, jack, or running tens and nines would have helped Wong survive, but the turn and the river were neither. Wong was eliminated in runner-up place, and it was Tougias lifting the trophy at the biggest-ever WPT Cambodia Main Event!

Final Table Results

1. Brian Tougias – $131,430
2. Kai Fu Wong – $92,152
3. Jae Kyung Sim – $59,400
4. Aladin Reskallah – $43,941
5. Si Yang Phua – $33,574
6. Kue Seong Tchong – $26,583
7. Alex Lee – $22,007
8. Yong Cheong Foo – $17,504
9. Jiyoung Kim – $13,146

Michael Egan Wins $2,750 WPT Cambodia High Roller

The $2,750 buy-in High Roller had logged in 72 entries on its opening day. Only 39 of them could survive on Day 2. With 17 more joining the action on Monday, the field grew 89-strong, generating a $215,825 prize pool.

India’s Dhaval Mudgal was among the 39 survivors returning to play Day 2, and he brought with him a stack of 264,500. However, Mudgal fell out before the money bubble.

Racing ahead of the rest was Australia’s Michael Egan, who defeated Germany’s Piet Pape heads-up to capture the title and top prize of $64,870.

Only the final 12 finishers earned a payout, and Kevin Phillip Ayow (10th for $6,259) and Didrik Andreas Mantor (11th for $5,827) were among the notables who posted scores.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Michael Egan – US$ 64,870
2. Piet Pape – US$ 41,007
3. Yinfei Xiao – US$ 25,899
4. Stig Erik Goran Billgren – $16,726
5. Fook Kiong Chong – $12,950
6. Vincent Chauve – $10,252
7. Nicolas Jean Marie Ragot – $8,633
8. Clement Raphael Nicolas Guilleminot – $7,554
9. Guiyang Wang – $6,848

Kshitij Kucheria FTs WPT Nagaworld Superstack Classic Freezeout

The penultimate event on the schedule, $300 buy-in WPT Nagaworld Superstack Classic Freezeout played out amid 154 entries yesterday, accruing $40,333 in prize money.

Several Indians were part of the field, and three of them were able to earn payouts. Running the deepest was Kshitij Kucheria, who cruised into the final table where he finished in eighth place. Kucheria banked $1,258 (~₹90,137) for his efforts. Also posting scores were Paawan Bansal (11th for $948 – ₹67,925) and Ravi Shankar Metlapalli (20th for $565 – ₹40,483).

Norway’s Kai Danilo Bergerud Paulsen came out on top of the field to win the title and $7,800 in prize money.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Kai Danilo Bergerud Paulsen – $7,800
2. Suchart Angunsri – $6,150
3. Frederic Pauchereau – $4,045
4. Anthony Abram – $6,540
5. Wei Liang Tan – $1,946
6. Rindra Norodom – $1,613
7. Siew Po Teh – $1,402
8. Kshitij Kucheria – $1,258
9. Le Ngoc Khanh – $1,084

Rajneesh Katoch FTs the $2,150 High Roller Turbo

The $2,150 High Roller Turbo drew 28 entries on Monday. With only the top four spots assured a piece of the $54,320 prize pool, it turned into an intense race to the finish line.

India’s Rajneesh Katoch put in an impressive performance by storming his way into the final table and was able to post a deep run, finishing in fourth place. Katoch pocketed $5,975 (~₹4.28 Lakhs) for his stellar run.

In the end, New Zealand’s Hamish Crawshaw proved the last man standing and captured the title for $24,445.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Hamish Crawshaw – $24,445
2. Jianfeng Sun – $14,666
3. Michael Robert Hahn – $9,234
4. Rajneesh Katoch – $5,975

Images & Content Courtesy: WPT and SoMuchPoker

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