The World Poker Tour is winding down its 15th season and the most recent event came from the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Scottish pro Niall Farrell survived a field of more than 300 players to claim the win.
The buy-in for the WPT Caribbean, which was the third-last WPT event on the 2016 calendar, was $5,000 with a total of 323 players buying in. That made for a prize pool of $1,456,892 leading to 36 different players earning a payout.
The final day started with 11 players, with Keven Stammen of the United States entering as the chip leader. However, he never even made it to the six-player final table as he finished in eighth. American Anthony Augustino would be the official chip leader going into the final table as he brought in a stack worth $3.435 million. Stephen Woodhead of the United Kingdom would be the first player to bow out of the final table, but he still made a nice profit by collecting $66,000 in winnings.
Next was Yiannis Liperis of Cyprus, who won $80,000, and he was followed by Colin Moffatt of Canada, who won $105,392. Augustino was sitting pretty with an ace-six of clubs as he went against Farrell, who wound up with a king-high straight to beat the chip leader and bring it down to a heads-up showdown against Troy Quenneville of Costa Rica.
Sometimes heads-up games last so long that fans and players get bored, but this final battle didn’t take long. It only lasted a single hand as Farrell pushed his chips all-in on the button. Quennevile had a king-jack of spades to take on Farrell’s A-5 off suit and while Quenneville was doing well as a king came through on the flop, there was also an ace to Farrell’s delight. The turn and the river both failed to yield a king or a jack, which would have helped Quenneville. In the end, he wound up taking home $220,000 for second place, which is a handsome payout for a few days of work.
Farrell took home $335,000 for the win, which includes a $15,000 seat in the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions. It was his first win in a tournament since a victory in a European Poker Tour event in Malta in 2015. He has finished in the top five in six events since then, and it surely felt great to finally get the job done for Farrell, who is now second behind David Vamplew on Scotland’s all-time money list with $3,271,820 (Vamplev has $3,853,588).
The next event on the WPT Tour will be on December 2nd from Hotel Grandior in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. However, it won’t be broadcast on TV nor online. Then on December 5th there will be the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, which will be broadcast on TV. That will be the final WPT event of the season as the Tour won’t pick back up until the 29th of January.