The first millionaire of the 2024 WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas has been crowned as Zak VanKeuren defeated fellow American Jim Casement heads-up in the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Championship to win the $1,162,350 top prize and a ticket to the 2025 WPT World Championship valued at $10,400.
The event, which was reported hand-by-hand at the final table at WorldPokerTour.com, broke festival records and attracted a massive field of 9,399 entries to create an earth-shattering $9,379,000 prize pool for a $1,100 buy-in. The top 1,206 players earned at least a min-cash of $1,940, with the nine players featured on Saturday”s live-streamed final table.
VanKeuren snagged the chip lead in style after eliminating Colin Hong in seventh place with four of a king to take the chip lead and never looked back during a dominating display, eliminating most of the final table single-handed to earn by far his largest single tournament cash to date eclipsing his total haul at The Hendon Mob of $539,789 entering the event.
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2024 WPT Prime Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zak VanKeuren | $1,162,350* |
| 2 | Jim Casement | $759,890 |
| 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 |
* VanKeuren earned a ticket to the 2025 World Championship valued at $10,400 added to his prize.
VanKeuren’s Road to Victory
Kevin Calenzo began the final table with the chip lead, with Zak VanKeuren holding strong in the middle of the pack. VanKeuran won a sizeable pot nearly straight out of the gate to chip up against Colin Hong with a flush.
The short-stacked Ryan Stiner and Ralph Marquez both came into the final table with under 14 big blinds with the blinds scheduled to go up quickly on the first level based on where the play ended on Friday when the final table was reached. The duo managed to hang on as Justin Young was the first player eliminated in ninth place for $114,000 when his suited big slick was dominated by Calenzo’s rockets.
Marquez managed to ladder up but shortly after followed Young to the cashier to collect his eighth-place prize of $145,000 when his short-stacked jam with queen-ten suited didn’t improve against VanKeuren’s king-jack.
This was just the beginning of a huge run for VanKeuren as he not only took the chip lead but also the role of the table terminator, with the next four players ending their runs at the hands of the eventual champion. VanKeuren managed to take the lead after his quads with snowmen eliminated Colin Hong in seventh place for $186,000.
Ryan Stiner then lost his short stack to VanKeuren to exit in sixth place for $240,000 after his jack-ten suited didn’t improve against ace-queen. Joe Ozmiak shortly coughed up his short stack with queen-nine against VanKeuren’s king-four to earn the fifth-place prize of $320,000.
Malik Zaman exited in fourth place for $420,000 on a cooler after holding the top two pair with jack-ten suited and didn’t hit his four-outer to lose his stack to VanKeuren’s trips with seven-five suited.
VanKeuren held more than half the chips in play to start the three-handed action and continued to add chips as both Calenzo and Jim Casement were back-and-forth for the second-place stack. Eventually, Casement won a flip to eliminate Calenzo in third place for $560,000. Casement jammed for 22 big blinds from the button with fours and was called by Calenzo with jack-ten suited. The board ran dry for Calenzo, and despite winning the flip, the odds were against Casement to earn the trophy as VanKeuren began heads-up play with triple the stack of his opponent.
VanKeuren extended his chip lead before earning the trophy on the 20th hand of the heads-up action and the 141st hand of play. Casement jammed for 17 big blinds from the button with king-jack and was called by VanKeuren with big slick. Both players flopped the top pair. Casement was unable to resolve his kicker issues and settled for the massive runner-up prize of $759,860.
Meanwhile, a massive congrats to Zak VanKeuren for winning the first seven-figure prize of the 2024 WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas. The World Poker Tour will be crowning a fresh millionaire tomorrow with the televised final table in the ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Invitational Freeroll awarding a mouth-watering $1 million top prize. Stay tuned at Poker.Pro as we will provide a preview of this event before the action begins along with an update of Day 1a of the $10,400 WPT World Championship with the field already attracting 751 entries.
* Photos courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
