The 30-year-old American poker pro James Mackey won the WPT Choctaw $3,700 Main Event that took place at the Chostaw Casino resort. The player not only got the tournament’s trophy, but also won a prize of $681,758 as well as the right to take part in the WPT Tournament of Champions. In addition, by winning the Main Event, Mackey also received a Hublot watch and was granted with a pair of Monster 24K headphones.
The young US player also became the current leader in the Season XV Hublot WPT Player of the Year competition.
This year’s WSP Choctaw $3,700 Main Event took place in the period of five days between July 29th to August 2nd. There were a total of 1,066 entries paid the buy-in to take part in the tournament, so that the overall prize pool increased to $3,619,070.
Six players were present at the event’s final table, each of them focused on getting to the first place. Bastian Fisher was the chip leader at the time when the six-handed final table game started, and a total of 97 hands were played before the last two standing opponents faced each other heads-up for winning the prize.
At the end of the game, James Mackey faced Benjamin Zamani and defeated him by holding a dominating pair of eights. Eventually, Zamani occupied the runner-up position and won a prize of $412,234.
Craig Varnell was ranked third, and got a prize chunk of $306,346. Bastian Fischer, Jack Duong and Matthew Smith were the other three players who took part at the event’s final table and managed to rank 4th, 5th and 6th, respectively.
This is the first time Mackey wins a WPT Main Event, but he is known as a regular participant in such tournaments for years. The best achievement of the player in the WPT series until this year’s first-place ranking was his third-place finish in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown $3,500 No Limit Hold’em Championship two years ago. Then, the third position of the poker pro brought him a prize chunk estimated to $441,128.
In addition, James Mackey is very popular for becoming the third-youngest poker player who has won a World Series of Poker bracelet. In 2007, when he was just 21 years old, Mackey won the $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event and got home his first WSOP bracelet as well as a price of $730,740.
Up to date, James Mackey has lifetime earnings of more than $3.5 million.
- Author
Harry Evans
