Sifting through seating assignments of Day 3 of the $3,500 World Poker Tour Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Championship, most eyes will skip past Tanupat Punjarojanakul, but in the last year he’s quickly built up his WPT resume with his fourth cash of 2024.
Punjarojanakul is fairly new to tournaments with his earliest Hendon Mob cash coming in June 2021. The 28-year-old financial analyst from Long Island was short at the first break of the day but seemed optimistic.
“Yeah, I got a good amount of sleep last night,” he said. “My day is…not good – I’m down to two bigs.”
Building his WPT resume
Punjarojanakul finished in 20th place on the WPT Voyage Championship and then cashed in both Playground Poker stops in Montreal. He finished 196th in the May event and topped that by finishing in 68th place in the October festival.
Despite the rough start Punjarojanakul, stepped away from the table smiling, helped by the fact he was sitting directly on the Ren Lin’s left. Lin more performs poker than he plays it in a way that doesn’t rub players the wrong way like Martin Kabrhel or Will Kassouf.
“It’s fun, he’s very entertaining,” Punjarojanakul said of Lin.
Easy to run downhill
Punjarojanakul started off 2024 with his career-best cash of $276,466 in a runner-up finish in Event 1 of the Borgata Winter Poker Open. He bested current WPT Player of the Year leader Yunkyu Song, Ari Engel, and Bin Weng at the final table.
Since that score, he’s been on a tear, cashing at least once every month of the year. “Everything is coming together for me this year,” Punjarojanakul said. “Having a big score helps.”
But Punjarojanakul isn’t completely untethered from the financial world. He still burns the candle at both ends by maintaining his career.
“It’s tough to do both at the same time,” he said. “It’s remote so I train people mostly and they work for me. I work more as a supervisor.”
Away from tournaments, Punjarojanakul plays Pot Limit Omaha cash games, appearing on bestbet’s stream occasionally. He keeps his game sharp by studying hands with friends instead of coaching site.
He’s played in Barcelona, Taipei, and Montreal since August, and you can pencil him in for the WPT World Championship at Wynn later this month.
He’s taken advantage of his run good and newly found freedom as a pro player. “I wanted to explore the world more,” he said. “I wanted to go to Europe and Asia. I’m going to be doing that more in the future.”
All photos are courtesy of the World Poker Tour/Drew Amato/Enrique Malfavon.
