It was a week filled with winners as three separate players claimed three separate six-figure prizes. Let’s take a quick look at the big winners as well as the tournaments they captured:
Yilmaz Wins WPT Title At Thunder Valley In Sacramento
Who knew there was home-court advantage in the poker world?
With friend and family in the crowd, Erkut Yilmaz won the WPT Thunder Valley championship in his hometown of Sacramento, California. He bested a field of 280 players to collect the $303,920 top prize. It was actually his second WPT title of the season as he previously won the $3,500 WPT Borgata Poker Open in September.
On top of the cash prize, Yilmaz gained 1,000 World Poker Tour points in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race. As a result, he’s claimed the top spot with 2,300 points so far.
Jim Collopy entered the final table with a humongous chip lead (over half of the chips in play). But as players were eliminated, it was Yilmaz who had the lead when head’s up play was reached. In the end, Collopy finished as the runner-up and won $200,780, while Ajay Chabra was third and earned $130,345.
For Yilmaz, the win now increases his live tournament winnings to over $1.8 million.
Lima Wins World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open
The World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open began with 1,415 entries a month ago. When the smoke cleared and the final hands had been played, Vinicius “Viny” Lima was declared the champion. As a result, he received a $728,430 first place prize along with a Hublot Big Bang Steel Watch. He was also awarded a $15,000 entry into the season-ending Baccarat Crystal Tournament of Champions.
The 1,415 players in the draw set a record for the most contestants at a WPT main event in Borgata. Last year was also a record-setter at 1,313, but they managed to best that by a significant margin this year.
While this event began in January and the field was whittled down to just six players by January 31st, the new delayed final table approach (for television purposes) meant that the final action wasn’t completed until this past week.
Finishing behind the 24-year-old Lina was Dave Farahm, who was the runner-up and won $485,611. Meanwhile, Joseph Di Rosa Rojas was third and took home a healthy $359,555.
Yu Wins Seventh Gold Ring At Circuit Bicycle Casino Main Event
They say seven is supposed to be lucky and that proved to be the case for Sean Yu, who claimed his seventh gold ring this past week.
Yu relied on luck and skill to outlast the field of 678 players at the World Series of Poker Circuit Bicycle Casino no-limit hold’em main event. Yu ended up winning $210,585, which was his third-largest cash out ever, pushing his career earnings to over $2.1 million. He edged out Andrew Moreno for the title, who ended up in second place and won $130,295. Meanwhile, Mateus Lessa was third with $95,570.
For Yu, who is now 43 years old, the win marked his seventh WSOPC gold ring.