Brazil’s Gregory De Faria Wins WPT Prime Voyage Championship After Marathon Heads-Up Match
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The $1,100 buy-in, $500K GTD WPT Prime Voyage Championship attracted 968 runners over a trio of starting flights, and on Thursday 122 players returned to action. They were already in the money competing for a share of a $968,000 prize pool, and after a long day of play, it was Brazil’s Gregory De Faria emerging victorious to capture the title and $155,400 first-place prize, which included a $10,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas.
Before the win, De Faria had just $14,062 in lifetime tournament earnings according to The Hendon Mob with a prior career-best of just $3,930 for finishing 22nd in the 2022 Kings Series of Poker Special (KSOP) in Baleário Camboriú.
WPT Voyage Prime Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gregory De Faria | $155,400 |
| 2 | Trent Hopper | $97,000 |
| 3 | Nico Betbese | $72,000 |
| 4 | Brandon Takao | $54,000 |
| 5 | Brian Monigold | $41,000 |
| 6 | Allison Hollander | $31,000 |
| 7 | Gustavo Carmona | $24,000 |
| 8 | Lukas Zaskodny | $18,500 |
Others to cash the tournament were Darren Rabinowitz (10th - $14,600), Maria Scardaville (13th - $10,700), Brian Green (17th - $9,100), Jesse Sylvia (19th - $9,100), Nancy Birnbaum (24th - $6,400), Larry Ormson (42nd - $4,500), Calvin Anderson (55th - $3,800), Josh Reichard (58th - $3,200), Princess Love (61st - $3,200), and Ethan Yau (71st - $2,700).
According to WPT Live Updates, Princess Love fell in Level 20 (10,000/20,000/20,000) after Oliver Jarny raised to 50,000 from the hijack with pocket tens and then called when Princess Love three-bet jammed for 100,000 with queen-jack suited. It was a race but Jarny’s pocket pair held strong to put an end to Love’s run.
Similarly, Birnbaum busted in Level 24 (25,000/50,000/50,000) in a race situation after getting it all in with ace-queen of spades and failing to get there against the pocket jacks of Brian Monigold.
The elimination of 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Ryan Riess in ninth place for $14,600 established the final table of eight with Nico Betbese and De Faria sitting atop the counts by a decent margin.
Final Table Action
On Hand #12 of the final table, Lukas Zaskodny lost a flip with pocket jacks to the ace-queen of Brandon Takao making him the first casualty. Not long after on Hand #17, Gustavo Carmona was next to go after calling off on the river with a queen-high straight only to see De Faria tabled a king-high straight.
Fan favorite Allison Hollander, who many players know for her work at bestbet Jacksonville, took her leave in Level 30 (100,000/200,000/200,000) on Hand #28 when she got her short stack all in with king-queen and was up against Takao’s ace-seven suited. Hollander failed to get there and had to settle for sixth place, good for $31,000 in prize money.
It took a while for the next elimination to occur but it came on Hand #68 when Monigold got his stack all in with two red sevens and lost a flip to Trent Hopper’s ace-queen suited. In the very next hand, Takao followed him out the door in fourth place losing ace-deuce to Hopper’s pocket queens, and just four hands later Betbese bowed out in third his king-jack being pipped by the ace-jack of De Faria.
De Faria held a slim chip lead headed into heads-up play, and the two would battle for more than 50 hands! On Hand #131, which took place in Level 34 (250,000/500,000/500,000), De Faria had opened up a lead and moved all in with queen-nine of hearts and Hopper called off with king-six offsuit. The board ran out with three hearts and Hopper officially finished as runner-up while De Faria claimed the title and $155,400 first-place prize.
While tournament play at the WPT Voyage has ended, Friday will see sailors enjoy a day at Bimini in The Bahamas where a player party will take place at Virgin Voyages’ private beach club. Upon returning to the Valiant Lady, players will have the opportunity for one last night of cash games before returning to Miami for disembarkation on Saturday morning.
*Images courtesy of WPT.
