Chris Leong Wins Winter Poker Open

Chris Leong Wins Winter Poker Open

Monday, 8 February 2016

An impressive 1,171 runners took part in the Winter Poker Open from the World Poker Tour (WPT) last week with New York native Chris Leong ultimately emerging victorious to claim $816,246 in cash.

The journeyman player has a string of cashes to his name dating back to November of 2014 alongside a pair of World Series Of Poker (WSOP) rings but this most recent win represented his first six-figure pay-day and easily eclipsed his $378,722 in total career winnings.

Despite starting the final table at the Borgata Hotel Casino And Spa with the shortest stack, Leong drew on his live tournament experience to battle back into contention beginning with the elimination of 2009 WPT World Poker Classic champion Yevgeniy Timoshenko in fifth.

The WPT tournament in Atlantic City, New Jersey, then saw reigning WSOP main event champion Joe McKeehen fall in fourth before Leong got lucky with a pair of fives after a pre-flop all-in to crack the pocket sevens of Liam He.

Going into the heads-up final against fellow New Yorker Rafael Yaraliyev, Leong was holding 21.8 million of the 35 million chips in play with the match then going back-and-forth for over 100 hands.

Eventually, Leong open-shoved his stack into the middle with Ac 8s and was quickly called by Yaraliyev holding Qh Qc. Despite looking in great shape to double-up and extend the match, Yaraliyev saw his dreams ended by an ace in the window and he was forced to settle for the $487,288 consolation prize.


WPT Winter Poker Open Results:

1 Chris Leong - $816,246

2 Rafael Yaraliyev - $487,288

3 Liam He - $297,995

4 Joe McKeehen - $249,267

5 Yevgeniy Timoshenko - $206,160

6 Matthew Wantman - $166,803

7 Keith Morrow - $131,193


Image courtesy of WPT



Tags: World Poker Tour, Winter Poker Open, WPT, Atlantic City, New Jersey, Chris Leong, Rafael Yaraliyev, Liam He, Joe McKeehen, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Matthew Wantman, Keith Morrow, World Series Of Poker, Borgata Hotel Casino And Spa, WSOP