WPT Philippines: Vikaash Shah Makes Back-to-Back Final Tables, Wins Megastack NLH (₹4.7 Lakhs)

Vikaash Shah
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  • Arpit Jain February 18, 2020
  • 2 Minutes Read

The World Poker Tour was visiting the Philippines after a good three-year gap, and the comeback series was far from smooth. Caught in the crosshairs of the Coronavirus epidemic that was sweeping across the region, making matters worse was the travel ban imposed by the government during the series!

The WPT Philippines series weathered the rough waters and came out shining with the stop`s Main Event going on to surpass the PHP 20 Million mark on the back of an impressive 344-entry field.

While tournaments in the region have always seen active participation from Indian players, there was a noticeable void in participation this time around, and much of that can be attributed to the Coronavirus outbreak. There were just two Indian players reported at the series, and both came back with results.

Headlining Team India`s run at the series was Vikaash Shah (cover image), who though quiet during the early stages of the series, closed out his campaign in style with back-to-back final table finishes – one of which translated into a title victory! Just a day after placing eighth in the Main Event for a career-best score of PHP 613,000 (₹8.60 Lakhs), Shah came out to win his first-ever tournament title in the Megastack NLH, collecting an additional PHP 334,000 (₹4.7 Lakhs).

The other Indian player Chirag Tarunkumar Shah had posted a 10th place finish in the opening Megastack NLH for PHP 31,000 (~₹43,559).

Meanwhile, Pete Yen Han Chen, who had flown in from Taiwan after the travel ban was lifted, became the only player to claim two titles at the series. Chen first took down Event 17: Superstack Classic for PHP 720,000 and then went on to win Event 21: 100K NLH Turbo for PHP 697,000.

Winning the last few events at the series were Yang Dongmyeong (Event 16: Party Turbo Freezeout for PHP 138,500), Florencio Campomanes (Event 18: High Roller for PHP 2,188,250), and Ronny Luok (Event 19: Deepstack Turbo Freezeout for PHP 160,000).

 

Event 20: Megastack NLH

The PHP 16,000 buy-in Megastack NLH attracted 75 entries (68 unique entries and 7 re-entries) to create a PHP 982,125 prize pool, and the top 10 places made it in the money.

India’s Vikaash Shah topped them all and banked the top prize worth PHP 334,000 (~₹4.71 Lakhs) after defeating Kenta Hino (2nd for PHP 192,000) heads-up!

 

Final Table Recap

Naoya Fujihisa was the first to fall in ninth place with James Bonanno (8th place), Seitaro Aso (7th place), and Michael Doverklint (6th place) following him out in quick succession.

Alexis Kim, Thijs Hilberts, and Shota Nakanishi exited in places fifth to third to set up the heads-up match between Shah and Hino. It was Shah, who eventually came out on top, and took down his first live career title along with a cash prize of PHP 334,000 (₹4.70 Lakhs).

Vikaash Shah
Vikaash Shah

 

Final Table Results (PHP)

  1. Vikaash Shah – PHP 334,000
  2. Kenta Hino – PHP 192,000
  3. Shota Nakanishi – PHP 120,000
  4. Thijs Hilberts – PHP 81,625
  5. Aexis Lim – PHP 61,000
  6. Michael Doverklint – PHP 50,000
  7. Seitaro Aso – PHP 43,000
  8. James Bonanno – PHP 38,000
  9. Naoya Fujihisa – PHP 33,000

 

Content and Images Courtesy: SoMuchPoker

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