Maria Ho Wins 2018 WPT DeepStacks Johannesburg Main Event

The 2018 WPT DeepStacks Johannesburg R13,500 ($940 USD) no-limit hold’em main event attracted a total of 387 entries to the Emperors Palace Hotel Casino in South Africa, building a final prize pool of R4,649,800 ($323,787 USD). In the end, the lion’s share of that money was awarded to Maria Ho, who emerged victorious with the trophy and the top prize of R1,000,000 ($70,000 USD). This was the third live tournament title of the American poker pro’s career, and the score saw her career earnings grow to over $2.7 million.

In addition to the title and the money, Ho also earned 300 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was her fifth POY-qualified final table of the year, and with 974 total points earned she now sits in 385th place in the overall rankings.

Ho came into the final day of this tournament as the chip leader with 29 players remaining. She navigated her way to the final table, maintaining the lead along the way. From there she scored three knockouts on the way to getting heads-up against Riyad Khan for the title. The final two players began on a relatively even footing, and they traded the lead a bit before Ho won a key pot to earn a commanding advantage. With a flop of 533 Ho check-called a bet of 700,000 and the turn brought the 6. Khan bet enough to nearly put Ho all-in, and eventually she opted to jam the last of her stack in. Khan had bet 3.1 million and Ho had shoved for 3.6 million, so Khan had to call off a half million. He did so with just A-7 for ace high with the threes on the board. Ho held the 85 for fives and threes. The river was the Q and Ho doubled up to surge to over 10 million in chips, leaving Khan with just under 1.5 million.

Not long after Ho moved all-in from the button with the K5 and Khan called with the J8. The board ran out Q97Q5 and Ho made queens and fives to secure the pot and the title. Khan earned R712,000 ($49,840 USD) as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Winner photo via WPT’s Twitter account: @WPT

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