This week’s poker news is all about the winners. Three different players won three big events this past week and we’ve got the recaps for you:
Moraes Wins Americas Cardroom Venom Event For Guinness World Record Payout
A Brazilian poker professional named Rafael Moraes won the $5 million Venom event on Americas Cardroom. The victory was notable for several reasons beginning with the seven-figure payout that Moraes won. It was also a big deal because it set a Guinness World Record for the largest crypto jackpot in an online poker tournament.
The massive tournament attracted a field of 2,553 entrants in the $2,500+$150 tournament over the three starting days. The outstanding tournament ended up creating a prize pool that was worth $6,382,500. Of that sum, $1,050,559 was reserved for the eventual winner, which ended up being Moraes.
The Brazilian, who was playing under the name “TheBigKid” during his title run, earned the largest score of his career with the victory. Americas Cardroom immediately paid out Venom’s champion in Bitcoin, which resulted in the online poker site solidifying its claim to the Guinness World Record for Largest Cryptocurrency Winning Jackpot in an online poker tournament.
Gray Wins 2019 The Star Sydney Champs $5K Challenge
The United Kingdom’s Jason Gray came out on top of a field of 129 entries to win the 2019 The Star Sydney Champs $5K Challenge. This came despite being forced to work his way up from a short stack late in the tournament. At one stage, Gray was the shortest stack with just 12 big blinds out of the 14 remaining. However, he found a way to get the job done and rallied to win the $118,830 prize payout.
Based on the final results, it’s easy to see why Gray felt like it was he against the best that Australia had to offer. After all, each of the other top-five finishers were from Australia, including Vincent Huang, Ebon Bokody, Andrian Chin and Ehsan Amiri. Gray, who was born in the UK but now resides in Sydney, Australia, will undoubtedly cherish the latest in a line of impressive results he has managed to string together throughout his career.
Teska Victorious In 2019 World Poker Tour Gardens Poker Festival Main Event
Professional poker player Roger Teska beat out a field of 373 entries to win the 2019 World Poker Tour Gardens Poker Festival Main Event. Teska took home $368,475 for capturing his first WPT title. The 34-year-old Bloomington, Indiana-native also took home a 2019 BMW XI with the victory. The cash prize payout was the third largest of Teska’s career.
Teska has earned $3,284,077 in live tournament warnings throughout his career. In addition to the title, the money and the car, Teska earned 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year Points for his efforts. All things considered, it was a pretty good result for Teska’s first final-table finish of the year. That victory alone was enough to push Teska up to just outside of the top-200 in the 2019 POY race. Each of the top-four finishers at the end took home upwards of $128K in USD, with Laszlo Molnar, Lior Orel and Lars Kamphues included on that list. Andrew Wisdom, who rounds out the top-five finishers, took home $96,545 for his performance.