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Following a huge $10,000 main event, the World Poker Tour continued their series at the Wynn Las Vegas with a $111,000 buy-in Alpha8 for One Drop high roller event.
The high-stakes no-limit tournament drew a field of 45 entries, creating an overall prize pool of $4,612,500. Part of each tournament buy-in was set aside for the One Drop Foundation, which provides access to clean water all over the globe.
After three days of play, it was Massachusetts native Jonathan Jaffe who came away with the title and a career-best $1,537,600.
“I’m still going to wait before I process the win. I’m still kind of in poker mode and just going through the motions right now but I know I will feel good,” Jaffe said after the victory.
Only the final seven players made the money, with Denmark’s Henrik Hecklen eliminated on the money bubble late on day 2. The official livestreamed final table was then set when Isaac Haxton lost a race to bust in seventh place.
Haxton banked $222,600 for the mincash, his 15th six-figure or better score of the year. It was enough to move him over the $40 million in earnings mark for his career, which is good for 11th place on the all-time money list.
Although he lost his lead in the Card Player Player of the Year race when the red-hot Bin Weng took down the main event for his second WPT title of the season, Haxton was able to claw back 150 points to close the gap between them. He now sits about 1,400 points behind going into the second half of the year.
Iaron Lightbourne (6th – $273,200), Michael Lim (5th – $350,100), and Aleksejs Ponakovs (4th – $485,200) were eliminated within the first five orbits on day 3, setting up a three-handed battle between Jaffe, Taylor von Kriegenbergh, and Dan Smith. All three had already won a WPT main event before and were looking to add the Alpha8 high roller trophy to their mantel.
Jaffe scored a key double up with kings and nines besting von Kriegenbergh’s tens and nines to take the lead, and then watched as Smith got short-stacked to bust in third place. Smith picked up $701,700, which brings him to $45.6 million in career earnings and into seventh place all time.
The stacks had pretty much evened up after Smith’s stack went to von Kriegenbergh, setting up a heads-up final that lasted 32 hands. Jaffe had opened up a 2:1 lead by the time the final hand was dealt, with his pocket tens holding against von Kriegenbergh’s K
Q
on a seven-high board to win the title.
The $1,042,100 was the second-biggest score for von Kriegenbergh, who pocketed $1.1 million for winning the WPT Hard Rock Showdown in 2011. The New York resident now has $4.5 million in career earnings.
Jaffe is no stranger to high roller wins, having taken down the $25,000 Lucky Hearts Poker Open twice, and the $50,000 event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. The Florida resident and former online heads-up specialist now has more than $9 million in total earnings.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY |
| 1 | Jonathan Jaffe | $1,537,600 | 600 |
| 2 | Taylor von Kriegenbergh | $1,042,100 | 500 |
| 3 | Dan Smith | $701,700 | 400 |
| 4 | Aleksejs Ponakovs | $485,200 | 300 |
| 5 | Michael Lim | $350,100 | 250 |
| 6 | Iaron Lightbourne | $273,200 | 200 |
| 7 | Isaac Haxton | $222,600 | 150 |
The WPT will return to the Wynn Las Vegas in December for the season-ending championship.
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