WPT World Championship Down to 16, Calvin Anderson Triumphant in the WPT Prime Championship
2 minutes
Last Updated: December 20, 2023
Things are entering its final and most exciting stretch at the WPT World Championship festival. We witnessed a lot of great poker at the Wynn, with thousands of players descending upon Las Vegas to participate in one of the most exciting poker events of 2023.
Now, we are at what one might call the business end of the Series, as all the biggest events are nearing its inevitable conclusion. The WPT World Championship has dwindled down to just 16 hopefuls chasing after that $5.6 million first place, while the record-breaking WPT Prime Championship found its winner.The Big One for One Drop event is down to its final table as well, so there is certainly a lot to unpack as the following couple of days will see several players walking away with huge boosts to their bankrolls.
Ben Jacobs Leading the Way in the WPT World Championship a Happy Accident
Sometimes, you plan your poker trip ahead of time and get your ducks in a row well before things get underway. Sometimes, though, you enter a tournament on a whim and end up a chip leader with 16 left, in hunt for $5.6 million.
The chip leader to start the penultimate day of the WPT World Championship, Ben Jacobs, is in the latter category. He came to Las Vegas with his wife for a vacation and decided to enter the tournament on a whim, jumping into the very last starting flight.
It was a very happy “accident” for the man hailing from Honolulu who, in his own words, doesn’t play many tournaments and prefer to Big O and PLO cash games. He is starting the day with 46 million in chips, good for almost 80 big blinds and decently ahead of his closet competitors, Maxime Chilaud and Artur Martirosian, who are starting with 38 and 36 million, respectively.
However, Jacobs’ work is far from done. Poker tournaments can be very fickle even at the best of times, and to get the WPT World Championship crown, he’ll need to outlast some formidable opponents in the likes of Andrew ‘LuckyChewy’ Lichtenberger and Chris Moorman.
If you’d like to follow the action live, you can do so on the WPT YouTube channel. The tournament today will play down to final six who’ll return tomorrow to find the winner.
Calvin Anderson Bags the Win in the WPT Prime Championship
The $1,100 WPT Prime Championship is arguably the biggest success of the WPT World Championship Festival besides the Championship itself. The tournament ended up more than doubling its initial $5,000,000 guarantee to the great pleasure of players and organizers alike.
The final table was set several days ago, but it was only yesterday that the last six players came back to wrap things up. Of those six, Calvin Anderson was perhaps the best-known name, and he was the one who ended up with the trophy and the $1,386,280 – not a bad payday for a $1,100 tournament.
It was an action-filled day with plenty of drama befitting the conclusion of such an event. One hand in particular stunned the commentators and viewers at home, and it was, in part at least, the reason for Anderson’s eventual triumph.
Having outlasted 10,512 players, Anderson takes home just shy of $1.4 million. The rest of the final table will probably have no complaints, either, once things settle down, as all who came back were guaranteed at least $290,000 for their efforts.
WPT Prime Championship 2023 Final Results
| Final position | Player | Prize Money |
| 1 | Calvin Anderson | $1,386,280 |
| 2 | Aaron Pinson | $910,000 |
| 3 | Jay Lu | $675,000 |
| 4 | Jon Glendinning | $505,000 |
| 5 | Bob Buckenmayer | $380,000 |
| 6 | Valeriy Pak | $290,000 |
