Naj Ajez Leads WPT World Championship After Day 3

After the sigh of relief from many of the players after the money bubble burst at the end of Day 2 of the WPT World Championship, it was on to Sunday’s Day 3 to begin focusing on driving deeper into the payouts. The day began with 480 players and ended with 132; Naj Ajez is the chip leader with 11.435 million chips.

The first person eliminated on Monday will receive $37,600. With a $40 million prize pool – the field fell a bit short of the size required to beat the $40 million guaranteed – six-figure payouts go all the way down to 48th place. The eventual winner will cash for $5.678 million and the final six will all be millionaires.

Naj Ajex got to where he is by winning the biggest pot of the entire tournament. With blinds at 25,000/50,000 and a 50,000-chip ante, Ajez raised pre-flop to 250,000 and Maxime Chilaud re-raised to 810,000. Ajez then moved all-in over the top for 5.605 million and Chilaud made the call, covering his opponent.

Ajez flipped over A-K offsuit, while Chilaud showed pocket Queens for the lead in the hand and a slight edge overall to win it. The flop came J-8-3 rainbow, changing nothing, but a King on the turn gave Ajez a better pair and another Jack on the river sealed it for him.

Chilaud was still in good shape with 4.3 million chips after the gigantic hand and Ajez took over the chip lead of the tournament as the end of the night approached.

Interestingly, this is Naj Ajez’s first recorded live tournament cash outside of his home of Australia. Looking at his resume on TheHendonMob.com database, he has over 50 cashes since 2012, every single one in Australia. Some are even in WSOP and WPT events. All told he has about $1.2 million in live tournament cashes, his biggest of which was for $205,884 when he finished third in the 2022 WPT Australia Main Event.

Day 4 of the WPT World Championship started a little while ago. It will span five 90-minute levels without a dinner break before calling it a night.