Konstantin Held won the inaugural WPT Cambodia championship on Monday, claiming the top prize of $361,310. It was the first Main Tour stop outside of North America since back in 2017. Nagaworld Integrated Resort had previously held WPT Prime events, but this was the first time for a full-fledged WPT Main Tour event in Cambodia.
Held went into the nine-handed final table as the chip leader with 7.275 million chips, but it looked to be a competitive race for the trophy. Four other players – Jianfeng Sun, Amit Kaushik, Kyle Bao Diep, and Joshua Mccully – all had over 5 million chips. Florent Remi had 4.775 million and both Kou Vang and Motoyoshi Okamura had over 2 million. Anthony Cierco was the short stack with just 525,000 chips.
When Held eliminated Sun in 7th place, he was up to 12.100 million and made it 13.600 million four hands into the “official” six-handed final table.
It took exactly 100 hands of the official final table to see the first elimination. Of course, it was Konstantin Held doing the honors, knocking out Diep in 6th place to build his stack to 16.550 million chips.
Kaushik was out next, sent to the rail by Mccully, who also eliminated Okamura a few hands later in 4th place.
Shortly thereafter, the three remaining players agreed to a deal. Held got $350,910, Remi received $302,019, and Mccully got $277,291. They left no money on the table, instead agreeing to play for the honor of the WPT title, the trophy, and the $10,400 seat to the WPT World Championship (the $10,400 value is included in the official prize total).
Despite the lack of money remaining to be played for, the three men took the rest of the tournament seriously, taking dozens of hands to get to the next elimination. Remi was the one to go out in 3rd place, knocked out by Mccully, who hit the nut flush on the turn.
And with that, Mccully went into heads-up with a massive lead after Held had led most of the day. Mccully’s advantage: 29.725 million to 8.275 million.
On the third hand of heads-up play, though, Held doubled-up with A-K against A-8 to get within arms reach. And three hands after that, he doubled up yet again to take nearly a 2.5-to-1 lead.
Held expanded his lead further and before long, it was over. Mccully shoved for 4.800 million with 9-7 and Held called with K-5. Neither player hit anything, so it was Held who…held…and won the first-ever WPT Cambodia title.
2024 WPT Cambodia Main Event – Final Table Results
- Konstantin Held – $361,310
- Joshua Mccully – $277,291
- Florent Remi – $302,019
- Motoyoshi Okamura – $157,858
- Amit Kaushik – $118,906
- Kyle Bao Diep – $90,532
- Jianfeng Sun – $69,678
- Kou Vang – $54,212
- Anthony Cierco – $42,647
Image credit: Flickr.com / World Poker Tour