Zak VanKeuren Defeats 9,670 Entries In World Poker Tour Prime Championship

With 9,670 total entries, the 2024 World Poker Tour Prime Championship $1,100 no-limit hold’em main event beat its $5 million guarantee by nearly $4.4 million. The sizable turnout to Wynn Las Vegas for the third-annual running of this event resulted in a seven-figure payday for the champion despite the affordable buy-in. Zak VanKeuren was ultimately the player to capture that massive $1,162,350 top prize. The Saratoga Springs, NY resident now has more than $2 million in career earnings, with this being far-and-away the largest payday on his tournament resume.

“It doesn’t feel real… I’m just thinking I’m in a lucid dream right now. I’m just going to wake up soon. Hopefully it’s still real life in an hour. It feels crazy,” VanKeuren told WPT reporters after coming out on top. “The Wynn is probably my favorite casino in the country; It’s just a beautiful place. WPT has the best tournaments out of anywhere, so it’s just a blessing to come out here and compete.”

VanKeuren will add the WPT Prime Championship trophy to his collection, which includes a World Series of Poker gold bracelet. He triumphed in this year’s $3,200 buy-in online no-limit hold’em event back in July, earning $219,450 and the hardware.

This victory also came with 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was VanKeuren’s third POY-qualified final-table finish of the year. With 2,124 total points, he now sits inside the top 200 in the 2024 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

The top 1,206 finishers made the money, with big names like WPT champion Ben Palmer (75th), four-time bracelet winner Farzad Bonyadi (74th), two-time bracelet winner David Jackson (64th), 2023 WSOP main event runner-up Steven Jones (61st), bracelet winner Blair Hinkle (57th), bracelet winner Ryan Laplante (34th), bracelet winner Michael Liang (23rd), bracelet winner Cole Ferraro (15th), and recent WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open champion Dylan Smith (11th) all running deep.

The final table began with 2012 WSOP Circuit Caesars Palace main event champion Kevin Calenzo in the lead and VanKeuren in the middle of the pack. It took 30 hands for the first elimination to take place, and it came via a brutal preflop cooler. WPT champion Justin Young got all-in with AK, three-bet shoving over Calenzo’s under-the-gun min-raise out of the small blind. Calenzo quickly called the shove of 29 big blinds with AA. Young earned $114,000 as the ninth-place finisher, bringing his career tournament earnings to nearly $6.8 million.

Maximum pain for WPT</a> Champions Club member <a href="https://twitter.com/Justinyoung07?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Justinyoung07

He takes home $114,000 for 9th place.

Livestream – https://t.co/w7vOBzPGos pic.twitter.com/wZkwxAh8FM

— WPT Live Updates (@WPTlive) December 15, 2024

VanKeuren then went on an elimination spree, busting Ralph Marquez (8th – $145,000), Colin Hong (7th – $186,000), and Ryan Stiner (6th – $240,000) within the next 14 hands. The surge continued when his K-4 held against the Q-9 of short stack Joe Ozimok (5th – $320,000), giving VanKeuren 47 percent of the chips in play heading into four-handed action.

Calenzo doubled up with pocket kings besting A-Q for VanKeuren, but that bump in the road was soon made up for when VanKeuren flopped trip sevens and got all the chips in after Malik Zaman turned jacks and tens. Zaman needed a jack or ten on the end to double up, but an ace rolled off instead to see him sent to the rail in fourth place ($420,000).

A preflop race ended Calenzo’s run. He got all-in with J10 against the 44 of Jim Casement and the pair saw a runout of 76539, which gave Casement a winning seven-high straight. Calenzo earned $560,000 as the third-place finisher, the largest score of his career.

VanKeuren held roughly a 3:1 chip lead over Casement when heads-up play began. He had extended that advantage event further before the final hand. VanKeuren limped in for 4,000,000 holding AK and Casement shoved from the big blind for 69,400,000 with KJ. VanKeuren quickly called and the board came down K845Q to give VanKeuren kings with an ace kicker for the win.

Casement walked away with $759,890 for his runner-up showing. The score pushed his career tournament haul up over $1 million.

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

Photos provided by WPT.

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