ShareAlex Yen took down the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open, pocketing a lifetime best cash of $975,240 and more than tripling his career earnings in the process.
Alex Yen sets the trap and Anton Wigg (@Anton_Wigg) steps right into it. Yen takes down the pot and with it, wins the #WPTLHPO Main Event for $975,240.
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) January 27, 2022
💖- Read the hand in our live updates: https://t.co/wMqBeUn8DO
🎥 - Watch the livestream replay: https://t.co/bEIMtW326D pic.twitter.com/nefTtCB5eV
The $3500 buy-in Main Event attracted 1982 entries to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, the $2million guarantee smashed to smithereens, an eventual $6,342,400 prizepool boasting close to $1million up top.
In addition, a WPT title is one of poker’s most sought after crowns, a player’s name etched onto the Mike Sexton Champions Cup alongside legends of the game.
By the time day six arrived, the original field had been slashed to just 6 players, the likes of Ali Imsirovic, Chris Moorman, Erik Seidel and Loni Harwood all making the paid spots but unable to make the final table.
Alex Yen came into the final holding the chip lead, with just over $200k locked up already – half his previous lifetime from live tournament play.
The battle for the WPT LHPO crown saw an hour pass before the first casualty, with Algeria’s Omar Lakhdari losing a race with K♠Q♠ against the pocket nines of Daniel Lazrus.
Fifth spot and $272,830 went to Michigan pro, Josh Kay, whose one-time healthy stack took several hits, eventually falling to a double hit from Anton Wigg.
Down to just four, and Maryland’s Nicholas Verderamo had laddered two spots from his smallest stack at the start of play. When the end came at the hands of Yen’s pocket queens, it meant he had picked up the biggest payday of his career, $361,130.
The first of the podium spots was decided when Daniel Lazrus put his tournament life on the line with pocket sixes...
Lazrus: 6♠ 6♣
Yen: K♦ J♠
Flop: J♦ 7♥ 5♣
Turn: 5♠
River: 9♣
Lazrus took a hefty $482,380 for his excellent run and that left Yen and Wigg heads-up to decide the destination of the trophy and the $1.6million remaining.
Still relatively deep-stacked, the lead changed hands several times, but eventually a huge hand decided matters...
Yen: 9♣ 7♣
Wigg: Q♦ Q♣
Flop: 10♦ 8♣ 6♣
The flop had incredibly given Yen the straight, and when Wigg shoved his seemingly safe queens on the turn...
Turn: 6♦
...it was all over barring Wigg hitting a 4-outer on the river which didn’t appear...
River: 4♦
Final table results
| 1 | Alex Yen | $975,240 |
| 2 | Anton Wigg | $650,180 |
| 3 | Daniel Lazrus | $482,380 |
| 4 | Nicholas Verderamo | $361,130 |
| 5 | Josh Kay | $272,830 |
| 6 | Omar Lakhdari | $208,025 |
“I hit the dream flop and won,” explained Yen as he celebrated his WPT victory, adding: “It feels absolutely incredible.”
Yen revealed, “I’ve never won a live tournament before. I don’t even think I’ve won online, so this is a pretty unreal feeling.” When quizzed by reporters on his plans for the biggest payday of his career, $975,240, Yen replied: “I really don’t know yet. Maybe a little real estate, a little investing, and a little fun.”
