Last week, the World Poker Tour wrapped its festival at Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma. And Dapo Ajayi added his name to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. Another successful tournament in the fresh Season XIX was in the books.
But just when the World Poker Tour was back on course in what most people believed to be a post-pandemic world, Florida happened.
The new Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus has been spreading around the world in the past several months. Countries with large percentages of vaccinated people have been quicker to keep the Delta variant from spreading as quickly as the original version of the pandemic, but then there is the United States. By the end of June, only 55% of the US population had been fully vaccinated, despite having an overwhelming supply of vaccines. At the beginning of August, that number only increased to 58%. This low vaccination rate has allowed the Delta variant to thrive.
In the past two weeks, Florida has led the nation with the most new cases – 183,890 of them from July 20 to August 2. And that prompted bestbet Jacksonville to postpone the upcoming WPT festival.
On the other hand, Maryland Live! announced a WPT Maryland stop in September, complete with a festival and Main Event on the main tour schedule.
Solid Numbers for WPT Choctaw
In early July, the WPT Venetian collected an impressive group of players to play the second land-based tournament series of the new year and new season. The World Poker Tour hosted its $5K buy-in Main Event at the Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip and brought in 1,199 entries. That created a prize pool of $5,545,375, far surpassing the $3M guarantee. The final table itself hade history with three women out of six players. And Chad Eveslage took home the title in the end.
Choctaw was a big draw for players in the region in July. It offered a festival that started on July 15, and its Main Event kicked in on July 23. The $3,500 buy-in WPT Choctaw Main Event offered two starting days and a $1M guarantee.
The first of those starting flights brought in 362 registrations, and the second added another 602 entries. That created a massive prize pool that went well beyond the guarantee, as has been the trend in 2021.
By the start of Day 2, only 260 players remained in action. But a burst through the money bubble thinned the field greatly and left only 35 people holding chips. Albert Calderon held the lead.
A Fight to the Finish
Day 3 of the Main Event saw more than a dozen contenders bust from the tournament. As the action whittled the field down to just two players, James Mackey then busted in 16th place for $29,215 as the last previous WPT champion standing.
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1419771624203735040?s=20
Two tables became one in the journey to the final table, with Dapo Ajayi and Viet Vo leading the action. Calderon got in on the action to eliminate several players, including Joseph Crowley in eighth place for $70,910. And Vo busted Terry Presley in seventh place, which was worth $90,010.
That set the final table for July 27 with Vo in the lead:
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1419841514990145541?s=20
Perrone only waited until the third hand of the day to move all-in, and he did so with A-J. But Calderon faced him down with A-Q, which ousted Perrone in sixth place.
Meanwhile, Ajayi had been aggressive from the start and took over the chip lead in little more than a dozen hands. He and Vo tangled in several pots, both using their stacks for aggression. Nguyen had lost ground from the start but doubled through Cichy to stay in action. Then Cichy doubled through Vo, but the latter had regained the overall chip lead little more than 60 hands into the day. Soon after, Nguyen moved all-in with A-3 in serious need of a double, but Cichy called with pocket nines that turned into a set on the flop. Nguyen departed in fifth place.
Cichy soon pushed his stack with pocket sevens, and Calderon called with A-9 but caught an ace on the turn and another on the river. Cichy accepted the fourth-place finish.
Calderon stayed aggressive, but Vo and Ajayi wouldn’t let him take over. Calderon ultimately put his Q-5 of hearts all-in on a board of A-8-A-J with two hearts. Ajayi called with A-2 and the trips, as the river brought a five of diamonds to oust Calderon in third place.
Heads-up play began with Ajayi holding 28,425,000 chips to the 10,125,000 of Vo. Both players were focused and exchanged chips for a few dozen hands until Vo took a few pots and then the lead. Ajayi eventually regained his lead. The two played more than 100 hands before risked it all with Q-3 suited. Ajayi woke up with kings to call and only improved with a king on the turn. Vo had to accept second place, and Ajayi won his first WPT title.
https://twitter.com/WPT/status/1420380349419474944?s=20
-1st place: Dapo Ajayi ($588,610)-2nd place: Viet Vo ($372,415)-3rd place: Albert Calderon ($275,085)-4th place: Hunter Cichy ($205,330)-5th place: Will Nguyen ($154,885)-6th place: Michael Perrone ($118,090)
*Special thanks to the WPT team for live updates and photos.
Jacksonville Postponed, Maryland In
Florida has been a hotspot for poker tournaments since casinos reopened in late 2020 and early 2021. Unfortunately, it has also been a hotspot for Covid-19. The executives at bestbet Jacksonville had to look at the situation honestly and decided to keep its casino open, though with a mask mandate for employees and customers. As for hosting a poker tournament that would bring in throngs of poker players from around the country, though, they decided to postpone it.
The WPT bestbet Jacksonville festival was due to begin on August 13 and run through the end of the month. The Main Event was set for August 27-31.
https://twitter.com/bestbet_jax/status/1422253303153545218?s=20
If players can wait until September, they can head to Hanover, Maryland. The crew at Maryland Live! Casino announced on Twitter that it will host a World Poker Tour festival September 15-28. There will be 16 events in total, with a cumulative guarantee of more than $2M.
The full schedule is on the casino’s website, but we’ll note here that the Main Event will play out as follows:
WPT Maryland $3,500 buy-in Main Event with $1.5M GTD-Sept 24: Day 1A-Sept 25: Day 1B-Sept 26: Day 2-Sept 27: Day 3-Sept 28: Day 4 final table
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