The biggest-ever live poker tournament in the Kingdom of Cambodia has crowned a champion and it was Brian Tougias that lifted the trophy for the winner shots in the stunning Ballroom of the NagaWorld Integrated Resort after defeating Malaysia’s Kai Fu Wong in heads-up.
Held in cooperation with Connaissance Management and official sponsor Singha, the first World Poker Tour stop in Phnom Penh and second WPT festival in the Kingdom of Cambodia attracted a field of 750 entries throughout three starting days in the $1,100 WPTDeepStacks WPT Cambodia Season 2019-2020 Main Event to create a prize pool of $727,500, nearly tripling the initial guarantee.
“I won all the flips I needed yesterday to get here,”
Tougias said after the winner shots were taken. The now 29-year-old hails from just outside of Boston but currently lives in Thailand, where he has been mostly playing online and enjoyed some recent success. The timing of his victory could not have been any better, either.
“I feel great. Four months ago I was teaching PE and swimming lessons on Koh Samui, had a couple of big scores online and stopped teaching. I have only been playing professionally now for four months and semi-pro for five years, but it is pretty surreal. My birthday was yesterday and I couldn’t ask for a better birthday gift.”
Tougias will be heading to Bali next and fly home to Boston in a few weeks, but further WPT stops in the Asia-Pacific Region are certainly on the radar of the American now. With his victory, Tougias has moved into third spot on the Season 18 WPT Asia-Pacific Player of the Year leaderboard with 1,500 points, trailing Hari Varma and Hamish Crawshaw by one top 30 finish in a Main Event only.
The final table also featured Jae Kyung “Simba” Sim, Frenchman Aladin Reskallah, Kue Seong “Michael” Tchong from Australia, Alex Lee and 2019 WSOP Ladies Champion bracelet winner Jiyoung Kim.
Final Table Results
1st place: Brian Tougias (United States) $131,430 – 1,500 POY points 2nd place: Kai Fu Wong (Malaysia) $92,152 – 1,350 POY points 3rd place: Jae Kyung Sim (South Korea) $59,400 – 1,200 POY points 4th place: Aladin Reskallah (France) $43,941 – 1,050 POY points 5th place: Si Yang Phua (Singapore) $33,574 – 900 POY points 6th place: Kue Seong Tchong (Australia) $26,583 – 750 POY points 7th place: Alex Lee (Singapore) $22,007 – 600 POY points 8th place: Yong Cheong Foo (Singapore) $17,504 – 450 POY points 9th place: Jiyoung Kim (South Korea) $13,146 – 300 POY points
Winner picture courtesy of Somuchpoker, the full coverage of the event is also available on Somuchpoker.
