The latest event on the World Poker Tour has crowned a new first-time WPT winner, as Nico Betbese walks away from the WPT Venetian Las Vegas Championship with a career-best score of $706,960.
Betbese, of Argentina, recorded a few cashes at the recent World Series of Poker, including a run to 21st in the $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship worth close to $50K. Heading up the Strip to the Venetian, he joined a field of 1,153 entries for the $5K WPT Championship last week, and ended up securing the win, $696,560 in prize money and a $10,400 seat in the WPT World Championship at the end of the year.
The final table of six was an international affair, truly putting the ‘World’ into ‘World Poker Tour’. Jamie Flynn of Ireland, Iulian Blebea of Romania, Oliver Bosch of Austria and the Dominican Republic’s Francis Cruz and Elvyn Santos joined Betbese of Argentina in contesting the top spots, but it was the latter who emerged victorious and added his name to the WPT Champions Club.
Betbese’s $706K win is more than 5x his previous career-best of $121K, picked up at the MGM Las Vegas in 2023.
Dates announced for WPT bestbet Scramble
The news comes in the same week the WPT announced dates for the WPT bestbet Scramble Championship in Jacksonville, Florida.
Running from October 30 to November 18, the festival will center around a $5K Main Event with $1M in guaranteed prize money, running November 14-18.
Other events confirmed to run in Jacksonville include Ladies and Seniors tournaments, a double board bomb pot NLH/PLO tourney, and a $400 event with a $200K guarantee.
Further details, including a full tournament schedule, will be available from the WPT in the coming weeks.
Images courtesy of WPT.
