The $1,100 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Championship has reached its conclusion with Zak VanKeuren taking it down for $1,162,350. He defeated Jim Casement heads-up at the end to close out a hard-fought victory.
Nine of the initial 9,670 players returned to Wynn Las Vegas at 5 p.m. on Saturday to play it down to a winner, and it was a grueling battle. There were multiple big stacks at the start of play, and only two short stacks.
Calvin Anderson won this same event last year for $1,386,280, beating out 10,512 entrants, the largest $1,000 or higher buy-in poker tournament outside the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in history. Stephen Song was the inaugural WPT Prime Championship winner in 2022, the first WPT World Championship festival at Wynn. He earned $712,650 in a field of 5,430 entrants.
Two players started the final session with just over 10 big blinds. But there was a bit of a surprise when Justin Young, a Las Vegas high-stakes cash game grinder and WPT champion, ran his ace-king into pocket aces over an hour into play and lost his entire 30 big blind stack to Kevin Calenzo, the start-of-day chip leader, to bust in ninth place for $114,000.
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Six hands later, Ralph Marquez put in his sub-five big blind stack with queen-ten and was looked up by the king-jack held by VanKeuren. Marquez whiffed the flop and was drawing dead on the turn after his opponent paired their king. Within the blink of an eye, VanKeuren moved to the top of the counts after dispatching Colin Hong with quad eights. Marquez collected $145,000, while Hong took $186,000.
Momentum was well and truly with VanKeuren as he made it a hat-trick of KO's within another orbit of play. Ryan Stiner wagered his short-stack with jack-ten over VanKeuren's open. The man of the moment quickly called with ace-queen and made a pair of queens on the flop to oust Stiner in sixth place for $240,000.
The next notable hand transpired between James Casement and Calenzo. Casement was in a world of trouble after his 23 big blind three-bet jam with ace-queen from the big blind was looked up by Calenzo's Big Slick. A lady appeared on the runout, and Casement held out for a fortune-changing double-up.
VanKeuren soon brought the tournament to its final four. VanKeuren raised with king-four from the button and called the 5.5 big blind all-in from Joe Ozimok. The at-risk player's queen-nine needed help, but the deck continued to favor Vankeuren. That was until Calenzo came from behind to crack VanKeuren's kings on the next deal for a full double. Calenzo's stack grew to 31 big blinds, but Vankeuren was still in firm control as the commanding chip leader.
That hand appeared to be just a blip for Vankeuren as his run-good rebooted with the elimination of Malik Zaman. VanKeuren, with seven-five, hit trips on the flop while Zaman made jacks and sevens with his jack-ten. The chips piled into the middle when a ten came in on the turn and order was restored for the runaway chip leader.
With the big blind at 2,000,000, VanKeuren held 201,000,000, with Casement and Calenzo holding 99,600 and 61,600,000, respectively. VanKeuren would continue to increase his lead during three-handed play before Casement won a race to bust Calenzo in third place, a $560,000 payday.
When heads-up play began, the chip lead had grown to around 3-1, and that lead would never squander despite Casement doubling up at one point. On the 141st hand of the final table, at around 11:15 p.m. in Las Vegas, Casement went all in with king-jack and was looked up by ace-king. The best hand would hold up, leaving Casement with zero chips and a $759,850 payday. VanKeuren was officially the champion, his second major tournament win since July — he won a World Series of Poker (WSOP) online bracelet five months ago.
The champ also has a runner-up finish in an online bracelet event, and he said after his win on Saturday that he "definitely was" more of an online poker player prior to this year, "but I also have a different career, so I've been playing less online poker.:
That "different" career he's referring to is in the health and wellness industry. More specifically, as he explained in his postgame interview with PokerNews, he offers "holistic wellness coaching services." Balancing the poker and wellness careers isn't easy, however, which he acknowledged. But he's making it happen.
"I think just balance on a weekly basis, just making time each week to study some poker, and then also make time to work on expanding my coaching business," the New York native said. "Going to the gym myself to stay healthy, stay in shape. I just try to find balance each week in those different areas that I'm working on. But it's an everyday challenge, time management."
The newest WPT Prime champion had quite a boisterous rail cheering him on the victory, and he made it clear after finishing Casement off that he appreciated the support.
"What a rail. Not just my friends who were supporting me, but pretty much everyone at the (final table) had and amazing rail, and it made for an amazing environment," VanKeuren said.
That it did, champ.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zak VanKeuren | $1,162,350 |
| 2 | Jim Casement | $759,850 |
| 3 | Kevin Calenzo | $560,000 |
| 4 | Malik Zaman | $420,000 |
| 5 | Joe Ozimok | $320,000 |
| 6 | Ryan Stiner | $240,000 |
| 7 | Colin Hong | $186,000 |
| 8 | Ralph Marquez | $145,000 |
| 9 | Justin Young | $114,000 |
*Images courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
