Satellite-playing amateur wins nearly $150,000 at WPT tournament
The WPT Prime Championship with a $1,100 buy-in took place at the Texas club The Lodge. It drew 1,074 entries, and one of the participants was amateur Srikanth Pillamarapu, who had previously won only $381 in live tournaments. What's more, Srikanth qualified for this event through a freeroll satellite.
Pillamarapu came to the final table with the shortest stack, and among his opponents was three-time WSOP bracelet winner David Pham. However, Srikanth managed to build up his stack and reach heads-up against Kenneth Quattrocchi, trailing his opponent by 11 million chips.
The key moment of the heads-up was a brutal cooler. On the K♦️9♣️8♣️10♣️ turn, Quattrocchi made the nut flush with A♣️5♣️, while Pillamarapu with A♦️J♣️ had only two outs left. On the Q♣️ river Srikanth made a straight flush and shoved all-in. Quattrocchi called and was left with just 2 BB.
However, Quattrocchi managed to close the gap, and in the end the opponents struck an ICM deal. Quattrocchi took $126,733, while Pillamarapu got the trophy, $138,127 and a package to the WPT World Championship with a $10,000 buy-in, which will take place in Las Vegas in December.
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Pillamarapu came to the final table with the shortest stack, and among his opponents was three-time WSOP bracelet winner David Pham. However, Srikanth managed to build up his stack and reach heads-up against Kenneth Quattrocchi, trailing his opponent by 11 million chips.
The key moment of the heads-up was a brutal cooler. On the K♦️9♣️8♣️10♣️ turn, Quattrocchi made the nut flush with A♣️5♣️, while Pillamarapu with A♦️J♣️ had only two outs left. On the Q♣️ river Srikanth made a straight flush and shoved all-in. Quattrocchi called and was left with just 2 BB.
However, Quattrocchi managed to close the gap, and in the end the opponents struck an ICM deal. Quattrocchi took $126,733, while Pillamarapu got the trophy, $138,127 and a package to the WPT World Championship with a $10,000 buy-in, which will take place in Las Vegas in December.
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