Jared Jaffee outlasted his opponents at the 2023 World Poker Tour (WPT) Choctaw Main Event's final table after more than seven hours of intense play. He won $400,700 and secured a seat at December's $10,000 WPT Championship.
The champion stated in an interview after his victory that he won his last WPT title in 2013, and his recent event was surreal. Still, he didn't believe that he had ended his ten-year spell at the WPT. But, Jaffee admitted that the recent victory has solidified his poker career.
Choctaw Casino and Resort in Oklahoma hosted the tournament. It featured 78 entrants and had a $2,142,000 prize pool.
The Top Players' Scores
- Jared Jaffee – $400,740
- Dojie Ignacio – $261,000
- Mike Vanier – $192,000
- Bin Weng – $143,000
- Rusty Farrin – $107,000
- Erkut Yilmaz – $81,700
The Final Table's Highlights
Jaffee and Yilmaz were the only remaining two WPT winners at the WPT Choctaw table before Thursday. But Weng became the third champion after bagging the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown title.
Farrin got an early double shortly after the table's action kicked off. He used sixes and aces to put it in on the river while Vanier gave him fours and kings. The latter used suited ace-king to put his chips against Weng's pocket tens.
Even so, the board gave Vanier a flush improving his position on the leaderboard to third place. Jaffee beat Weng for a pot and got the stack lead.
The table had six players when they had their first break. Weng was the third player, and Farrin the last with less than 2,000,000 chips.
Yimaz got busted first after the break. He used pocket fives to shove, and Vanier used a suited ace-ten to call, hence dominating Yimaz's card. An ace on the turn completed the board and ended Yilmaz's run in sixth place.
Jaffee increased his stack to 12,000,000 chips after clashing with Weng, making him drop to the last position in the chip standings. Yet, Farrin's elimination in the fifth position earned Weng more chips.
They used an ace to go in, but Weng's ace dominated Farrin's, and he eliminated him with $107,000. Vanier had a lead of more than 15,000,000 chips, and Jaffee held 10,000,000 million chips when four-handed action began.
Weng used king-jack to shove more than ten big blinds, but Jaffee eliminated him in fourth place using ace-nine. The three remaining players almost evened at one instance before Jaffee got a lead of almost 17,000,000 chips after Vanier used queens to make a 7,000,000 shove.
Jaffee used a suited ace-six to get a runner-runner club that busted Vanier in the third position. The former got an almost 3:1 lead over Ignacio before he evened their stacks.
Both players exchanged the lead for a while before Jaffee used pocket nines to put Ignacio in a tricky position. Unfortunately, the latter failed to recover his chips and finished second with $261,000. HyperX Esports Arena will host the WPT Gardens Poker Championship on Saturday night.
