Yunkyu Song's Ace-Jack Outdraws Ace-Queen to Win WPT Prime Playground Championship
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The World Poker Tour (WPT) crowned a new Prime champion on Friday night in Montreal!
The CAD $1,100 WPT Prime Playground Championship attracted 1,587 runners over four starting flights, with just 16 players returning for the third and final day of action.
After approximately 10 hours of play, Yunkyu Song emerged victorious to claim a CAD $241,620 first-place prize plus a seat into December’s WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
WPT Prime Playground Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize (CAD) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yunkyu Song | $241,620 | $164,251 |
| 2 | Kevin Rivest | $152,000 | $109,852 |
| 3 | Alexander Wong | $113,000 | $81,666 |
| 4 | Zeyu Huang | $85,000 | $61,430 |
| 5 | Senthuran Vijayaratnam | $64,000 | $46,253 |
| 6 | Rene Gauvin | $49,000 | $35,413 |
| 7 | Hayk Hartounian | $37,500 | $27,108 |
| 8 | David Quang | $29,000 | $20,958 |
| 9 | Matwej Troitschanski | $22,900 | $16,550 |
When the final 16 players returned to action at noon local time, each was guaranteed CAD $12,700 ($9,178 USD) in prize money. Hayk Hartounian and Day 2 chip leader Kevin Rivest sat atop the counts, and it didn’t take long for the first elimination to occur when the two black aces of Rishi Makkar were cracked by the queen-ten of Hartounian, who flopped top pair and turned two pair.
From there, the eliminations mounted as Baron Ha (15th – CAD $15,400), Michael Farrow (14th – CAD $15,400), Raymond Carter (13th – CAD $15,400), Scott Carragher (12th – CAD $18,700), Robin Wezelenburg (11th – CAD $18,700), and Bradley Dudeck (10th – CAD $22,900) all exited before the final table.
After the remaining players combined down to a final table, it took but one hand for it to go from nine to right. That’s because Matwej Troitschanski got it in with an open-ended straight draw against Senthuran Vijayaratnam’s set of tens. A queen on the turn filled up Vijayaratnam and Troitschanski was ousted in ninth place for CAD $22,900.
David Quang was the next to go losing a flip with ace-king to Alexander Wong’s pocket jacks, and then Hartounian, who began the day as chip leader, fell in seventh place losing ace-jack to Big Slick.
Wong then dispatched Rene Gauvin in sixth place after the former’s ace-nine held against king-three, and Vijayaratnam followed him out the door in fifth place on Hand #38 of the final table when he ran ace-king smack dab into Zeyu Huang’s two red aces.
The four-handed battle lasted for several levels, but eventually Huang and Wong bowed out in fourth and third place respectively before Song dispatched Rivest in heads-up play when his ace-jack got lucky to outdraw ace-queen.
Song hoisted the WPT Prime trophy while Rivest had to settle for a runner-up finish and CAD $152,000 in prize money.
PokerNews will be on-site at the WPT Playground for the next week offering content throughout, so be sure to check back daily as we bring you updates and stories straight from the tournament floor.
*Photos courtesy World Poker Tour (WPT) / Alicia Skillman
Yunkyu Song's Impressive Year
Song has a solitary recorded live cash from 2022, another 11 from 2023, and an impressive 46 cashes during the current year. He kicked off 2024 in style with a second place finish in an US$800 buy-in Borgata Winter Poker Open event that earned him US$181,430 on January 2. Three weeks later, Song finished ninth in the $5,300 Main Event of the same series in Atlantic City for an additional $61,319.
In March, Song finished fourth for US$105,000 in the WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event before another fourth-place finish, this time in a PokerGO Tour Texas Poker Open tournament earned him US$133,000 in April.
Another six-figure prize came Song's way during the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP). He collected US$197,443 for a third-place finish in the US$2,000 NL Hold'em bracelet event. Song ran deep in the recent PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona Main Event in September, busting in 29th, before heading to Canada and taking down this WPT Prime Playground tournament.
