One of the most famous poker tournaments in the world, the World Poker Tour (WPT), has been held in Cambodia for the first time in history. Konstantin Held won the tournament and earned his first title in WPT tournaments. Held earned a huge prize as well: the payout of the first WPT in 2024 was $361.310, including a seat on the next tournament, the 2024 WPT World Championship, which will take place at Wynn Las Vegas. The seat for the new tournament will be $10,400.

The first event in Cambodia:

Held hasn’t hidden his excitement about winning the championship. He commented on how he felt after a great win: “Over the moon. Honestly, over the moon. It has been an insane journey to end up heads up with a good friend of mine. We just enjoyed our time. We were all having a blast. And the experience here was great. I love the venue. I think NagaWorld is great. It’s been amazing to come to Cambodia.”

The event was held at NagaWorld Integrated Resort in Cambodia. At the beginning of the championship, 760 players were there. On Day 1A, 373 of them participated, and on Day 1B, 387 contestants played. The buy-in was $3.500, and the prize pool in the field was $4.630.400. In the end, the top 95 players won generous prizes.

Adam Pliska, the CEO of WPT, said: “WPT Cambodia was a special festival. Not only did it open the 2024 season, but it also marked the first time the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup was presented in Southeast Asia. Konstantin will forever be the first player to claim a WPT Champions Club title in the region.”

Great prizes:

Finishing just below Held, the second place took Joshua McCully. He won $277.291. Florent Remi finished in third place, winning $302.019. That win was a result of the deal made by the final three players who wanted to even out the remaining payouts during the championship.

On the final table were also Motoyoshi Okamura, who took fourth place with a prize of $157.858, Amit Kaushik who finished fifth and earned $118.906, and Kyle Bao Diep, who was sixth and earned $90.532.

At the tournament many famous faces from the industry could be seen, including a former WPT Champion and WPT Commentator Tony Dunst, who finished in 14th place, Valeriy Pak, who won the 2018 Korea WPT and finished at 57th place, and Masato Yokosava (61st place) and Punnat Punsri (89th place), who previously won the championship.

The fans are looking forward to the second event at Season XXII, the WPT Prime Aix-en-Provence festival held at Pasino Grand.