Chino Rheem joined the club of three-time WPT Champions after he won the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker $10,000 Finale last night. Only three other players have previously won three WPT titles, with those being Gus Hansen, Carlos Mortensen, and Anthony Zinno. Rheem collected the amount of $705,885, a seat into the first-ever WPT Tournament of Champions, which starts today, a Seminole Hard Rock trophy, and a WPT Champions trophy. He also had his name inscribed on the WPT Champions Cup for the third time.
The five-day tournament drew as many as 342 entries, among whom some of the world’s best poker players. They all created a prize pool of $3,249,000. The money was distributed to the top 43 finishers, with payouts starting from $16,525.
Six players returned for the event’s final day to play the official final table and determine who would receive the set of trophies and the lion’s share of the prize pool. Rheem started the day second in chips with 3,430,000. At that point, Richard Leger was the only player at the table to hold more chips than the eventual champion.
Action developed quickly as the first elimination occurred on the third hand after cards were thrown in the air. Bryan Piccioli was the player who hit the rail in 6th place. His share of the prize pool amounted to $127,905. It took some time before another finalist left the final table. On Hand #35, William Benson was eliminated to collect the amount of $154,585.
Hand #63 was Adrian Mateos‘ last one. The player received $200,510 for his 4th place in the tournament. Start-of-the-day chip leader Richard Leger was busted in 3rd place by Rheem to take home the amount of $311,305 for his efforts.
Thus, besides Rheem, Aditya Prasetyo was the only remaining player at the table at that time. Two-handed play started with Rheem holding 8,600,000 in chips against his opponent’s 5,075,000. Heads-up match lasted exactly 40 hands and the eventual champion did not relinquish his lead even for a moment.
On Hand #170, the last one for the evening and the event as a whole, Rheem moved all in and his opponent called for his last 885,000. Prasetyo turned over [Kc][9h] against Rheem’s [7d][6d]. The board ran out [Jh][10h][4s][7s][7h] securing Rheem with the pot and his third-ever WPT title. Prasetyo received $484,130 for his deep run in the tournament.
Rheem won his first WPT title in December 2008, when he topped the field of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic $15,400 Main Event for $1,538,730. Title number two came in 2013, when the player won the WPT World Championship for $1,150,297. Including last night’s victory, his live tournament winnings now amount to more than $8 million.
