Jay Lee Wins WPT Choctaw Main Event For $593,173

(Photo: Cardplayer.com)

It was a dream come true for Texan Chinese food delivery worker Jay Lee as he topped a field of 924 players to take down the $593,173 first prize and the title at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Choctaw Main Event yesterday.

Twenty-seven year old Lee had only cashed twice prior to taking his seat in the $3700 buy-in event at the Choctaw Casino and Resort in Durant, Oklahoma – just a short hop over the Texan border, some 300km from his Austin home. His 147th place finish at last year’s WSOP Millionaire Maker had netted him a little over $7500, but Choctaw would prove to be much more lucrative.

(Photo: Worldpokertour.com)

First off, the $2million guaranteed prize-fund was well and truly smashed, some $3,121,980 on the line when the total numbers were added up for the 5-day Main Event, which meant everyone who made the final table of 6 were guaranteed well over $100K for their efforts.

Lee fought his way to that final table with a middling stack, and for a relative newbie to the big time the televised table might have seen a quick exit, but Lee handled the pressure – and the vagaries of poker’s luck factor – to emerge victorious.

“It’s amazing,” a delighted Lee told WPT reporters afterwards, adding: “Cooler hands after cooler hands, but you know it’s a great feeling. A lot of ups and downs, and a lot of happy at the end. I’m glad I did it,” as he posed with the $15,000 Hublot watch he also won, as well as a $15K entry into the WPT Tournament of Champions.

Great things come in threes they say, and for Lee it was not only the money and extras, but the way he dominated the final table when it was down to 3 players – firstly seeing off Josh Kay, and then gradually decimating Jeb Hutton’s stack heads-up.

The final hand of the event was a classic ‘flopping the nuts and watching gleefully as your opponent bets and bets. Lee’s J♥ 4♥ was given just a little help when the flop came J♦ 4♦ 4♣, the turn 7♠ hardly affecting matters, but when the river fell the 9♦ and Hutton raised Lee’s bet, and then called the Texan’s shove, it was clear he had hit the diamond flush – which was no good against Lee’s flopped boat. Game over.

(Photo: Worldpokertour.com)

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