Former WPT Player of the Year Faraz Jaka won Rock and Roll Poker Open Deep Stack for $313,395 after beating Phillip Krnyaich in a heads-up match that lasted a few hours. Krnyaich won $193,325 for his second-place finish. There were 110 entries, which created a prize pool of over $1,000,000.
Jaka has $8,051,801 in total live earnings, with his most significant win coming from the $15,400 Limit Hold’em Championship Event in 2009 when he came second for $774,780. He never had a “monster win,” but he managed to have plenty of six-digit scores over the years, as his first recorded live MTT win is from 2007.
“The blind structure got real slow there during heads-up, which I’m thankful for. I just kept getting top pair to second pair and chipping down and I really needed to grind him down slowly. So I’m thankful for that deep-stacked structure.” said Jaka after the win.
RRPO $10,000 Deep Stack Final Table Results
Place | Name | Country | Prize (In USD) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Faraz Jaka | United States | $313,495 |
2 | Phillip Krnyaich | United States | $193,325 |
3 | Viet Vo | United States | $115,995 |
4 | Kamel Mokhammad | Ukraine | $75,765 |
5 | Thomas Muehloecker | Austria | $58,520 |
6 | Ben Grise | United States | $48,075 |
7 | Brian Luo | United States | $40,755 |
8 | Vladas Tamasauskas | Lithuania | $35,530 |
9 | Shannon Shorr | United States | $31,350 |
Heads-Up
Jaka didn’t keep his chip lead from the start of the final table into the heads-up with 46 big blinds against Krnyaich’s 64 big blinds, but there were still plenty of chips in the game on both sides, and first place was there for taking.
At some point, Jaka took over the lead and posted on his X account.
“One of us just kept getting top pair and then one kept getting second pair, and I was trying to find my edge on him, and it just came from double-barreling him off some hands here and there, just kind of squeezing out pots that weren’t supposed to go my way. So it was a long and grueling match.” Jaka said.
After a long and draining heads-up battle, Jaka triumphed, raised the trophy, and added $313,495 to his live earnings.
It is interesting to see Jaka running hot before the start of the WPT World Championship, which starts on December 14 and runs until December 21. He could repeat his WPT success from 2009, when he won the WPT Player of the Year title and $1,8 million in cashes.
WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Championship is Still Running
Tomorrow is the final day of the whole series, and there are 16 players still left in the $3,500 RRPO Championship battling it out for the prize pool of $4,592,000, which started with $3,000,000 but 1435 entries bloated it for more than 50 percent. The event began on November 29 with Day 1A and had one more starting day on November 30.
The remaining players are guaranteed at least $39,000 for 16th place, and $662,200 is reserved for the event winner. Darryll Fish, the current chip leader, has experience winning WPT titles as he won a $ 3,500 No Limit Hold’em – WPT Main Event in 2018.