Following an off day on Tuesday, the final six players returned to Playground Poker for the final table of the $3,500 World Poker Tour Playground Championship. After seven hours of action, Michael Wang won his first WPT title, $296,779, and a seat in the WPT World Championship.
“I got the monkey off my back,” Wang said. “I was happy with just the final table, but this (win) is so much more than that. It feels a little surreal, maybe it will sink in later.”
Wang joked a few days ago that he’ll have to win to get unstuck from WPT events. “I’ll have to take a look,” he said. “But I’ve done so poorly in them that it’s probably pretty close – embarrassingly close.”
'Happy to add my name'
Wang also won Playground Poker’s championship belt, which begged the question – will he wear it to Wynn for the World Championship? “I saw the previous champ wore it and it looked pretty good on him,” said Wang. “I was like, ‘Wow, that’s a good look.’ That’s not usually my style but he was rocking it.”
“The WPTs are really up there for me,” Wang continued. “It’s an amazing brand – world-class and truly a global poker tour. I’m super happy to get this title and hopefully this event will take me through to the Championship.”
“It feels great to have my name on the trophy (WPT Mike Sexton Champions Cup),” Wang said. “There are so many legends names on this trophy. I’m so happy to add my name.”
Final table action
The final table didn’t waste any time with the first elimination coming before an orbit. Wang opened the action, Amirpasha Emami shoved his short stack holding pocket nines and Grant moved in over the top with queens. Wang mucked, Emami didn’t connect with the board and was eliminated.
Over the next hour, two short stacks doubled up with the same hand. First, Santiago Plante doubled up holding 
against Jordan Grant’s pocket tens, then Fischer used 
to double up through Wang’s 
.
More than four hours and over 100 hands passed without an elimination before Grant open-shoved from under the gun. Zach Fisher called off holding pocket aces, was up against pocket tens and the board ran 
to give Grant a straight.
Grant led the table four-handed, then made a misstep to double up Baron Ha with only a flopped pair of sixes when Ha held pocket kings. A few hands later, Grant three-bet shoved holding 
and Wang called with nines. The turn gave Wang a full house and Grant was out in fourth place 15 minutes after being the chip leader.
Ha was the shortest stack of three and put his dozen big blinds in holding . Wang snap-called with pocket sevens, Ha whiffed on the board and was eliminated.
Heads-up play began with Wang holding 24.3 million (49 BB) to Plante’s 17. 4 million (35). Wang opened up his lead over the next level and a half to whittle Plante down to under ten big blinds.
The final hand saw Wang set Plante all in from the button for Plante’s last 5 million. Plante called off with 
, Wang tabled and Wang spiked a queen on the flop. Plante didn’t improve and Wang won the Playground championship belt.
Closing out 2024 with a packed schedule
The WPT pulls up its tent stakes and heads to Jacksonville for the WPT bestbet Scramble from November 15-19 while they host the WPT Korea Championship across the globe from November 16-22. Then head to Ft. Lauderdale for the Seminole Rock ‘N Roll Poker Open Championship from November 29-December 4.
Then the poker world's eyes turn to Las Vegas in December when the Wynn hosts the World Championship and the highly-anticipated ClubWPT Gold $5 million Freeroll Invitational starting December 13-22.
WPT Playground Main Event final table results
| Name | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|
| 1. Michael Wang | $296,779 |
| 2. Santiago Plante | $190,070 |
| 3. Baron Ha | $141,083 |
| 4. Jordan Grant | $105,093 |
| 5. Zach Foster | $79,899 |
| 6. Amirpasha Emami | $60,464 |
All photos courtesy of World Poker Tour - Alicia Skillman
