Masashi Oya Wins WSOP Paradise $100,000 Ultra High Roller For $2.9 Million

Masashi Oya’s very first recorded live tournament cash came in the final days of 2021, taking down a $1,100 buy-in event at the Venetian DeepStack New Year’s Extravaganza. Less than two years after that first in-the-money finish, the Japanese player earned the largest victory of his career at the 2023 World Series of Poker Paradise festival. Oya defeated a field of 111 entries in the WSOP Paradise $100,000 buy-in ultra high roller no-limit hold’em event. For the win Oya was awarded his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $2,940,000.

Oya overcame a stacked final table that included several superstars of the game, including bracelet winners Danny Tang (8th), Ben Heath (7th), Ivan Luca (6th), four-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman (5th), Leon Sturm (3rd), and Jason Koon (2nd).

This breakthrough victory on the nosebleed-stakes circuit also saw Oya earn 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first title and ninth final-table finish of 2023. With 2,590 total POY points, he now sits in 123rd place in the 2023 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

The 550 PokerGO Tour points he secured with the win moved him into 39th place in the year-long PGT standings, putting him in a position to qualify for the season-ending PGT Championship.

This event played out over the course of three days at the Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas. The strong turnout resulted in a prize pool of $11,100,000 that was split up amongst the top 17 finishers. Several big names made the money, only to hit the rail late on day 2. Among them were four-time bracelet winner David Peters (17th), Ren Lin (15th), bracelet winner Rui Ferreira (14th), bracelet winner Pieter Aerts (13th), World Poker Tour champion Taylor von Kriegenbergh (12th), and three-time bracelet winner Justin Bonomo (11th).

The final day began with 10 remaining and Oya in the lead. Koon was in second chip position to start, and he scored the first knockout of the day Leonard Maue (10th) to close the gap a bit on Oya.

A three-way all-in spelled the end of Lucas Greenwood’s run, with his A-K clashing against the pocket aces of Quan Zhou and the pocket queens of Luca, who made queens full to win the pot. Greenwood earned $268,000 as the ninth-place finisher.

Luca also scored the next knockout, with his K-10 outrunning the A-6 of Tang (8th – $336,000) to narrow the field to seven. Oya rivered a wheel against the pocket aces of Heath to send the British poker pro to the rail in seventh place ($430,000). This was tang’s 21st final-table finish of the year, with seven titles won. He now sits in seventh place in the 2023 POY race with 8,308 total points.

Sturm, who won a $50,000 event this summer for his first bracelet, won the next big all-in with A-9 holding versus the K-7 of Luca. The Argentinian was awarded $555,000 for his sixth-place showing.

Schulman was the next to fall. He got his last chips in with A-J suited dominating the K-J of Koon, but a king on the river left Schulman in need of an ace on the river to remain in the tournament. The board paired instead and Schulman was eliminated in fifth place ($731,000). This was the 17th final-table finish of the year for Schulman, who has won three titles this year including his fourth bracelet. He now sits in 21st place in the POY rankings.

A battle of the blinds saw Zhou knocked out in fourth place ($976,000). Oya shoved from the small blind with Q-10 and Zhou called all-in with K-7 for nine big blinds. Oya flopped a pair and turned a queen-high straight, which was good to secure the pot by the river. This was Zhou’s 13th final-table finish, with three titles won this year. He now occupies the 11th-place spot on the POY leaderboard.

Sturm was challenging Oya for the lead during three-handed play, but a huge clash between the two big stacks soon saw the leaderboard shift dramatically. Sturm had flopped top two pair while Oya hit a flush draw with backdoor straight possibilities. He picked up a gutshot on the turn as well and weathered a check raise from Sturm on that street. The river saw Oya hit his flush. Sturm bet nearly all of his remaining chips on the river and Oya called, leaving the German with just more than a single big blind.

Sturm was eliminated shortly after that by Koon, who entered heads-up play with 18,100,000 to Oya’s 48,500,000.

Oya was able to pull even further ahead in the early going. In the final hand, Koon limped in with Q6 from the button and Oya checked with 106. The flop came down 975 to give both players gutshot straight draws.

The 8 filled both player’s straights, with Oya’s ten-high straight being best. He led out and Koon made the call. The river was the 4 and Oya moved all-in. Koon called after plenty of consideration, only to be shown the higher straight. He took home $1,817,000 as the runner-up, growing his career earnings to $54,649,145. He remains in fourth place on poker’s all-time money list, but is now less than $131,000 behind third-ranked Stephen Chidwick.

Koonb climbed to eighth place in the POY rankings thanks to this deep run. He now has 17 final tables and six titles in 2023, with more than $11.7 million in POY earnings and 8,082 points accrued along the way.

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

Photo credit: WSOP / Matthew Berglund.

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