Darren Elias Ties Record with Third World Poker Tour Title

The World Poker Tour enjoyed a historic run north of the border in Canada with back-to-back events in Playground Poker Club and the Fallsview Poker Classic. First, Ema Zajmovic was the first open-field female champion in the tour’s history and Darren Elias won his third WPT title for CAD$449,484 ($335,436).

Elias spoke to WPT reporters after his win and said, “It was a good tournament. I got dealt a lot of good hands in this one, a lot of big preflop hands. I kept getting aces and kings, I got pretty lucky to win. I was smooth sailing most of the way.”

Elias joined Gus Hansen, Carlos Mortensen, Anthony Zinno and Chino Rheem as the only three-time winners on the WPT. Elias also moved up to second place in the WPT Player of the Year standings behind Ben Zamani. 

While Elias was excited to tie the record with three titles, he found something his teenage self found tweetable.

Won it. Thanks for all the support! Also first oversized check #wptfallsview #happygilmore pic.twitter.com/xVCyXawFrc

— Darren Elias (@DarrenElias) February 25, 2017

German standout Manig Loeser made the finished in fifth place for his fifth WPT cash. Two-time WSOP Bracelet winner Kristen Bicknell bubbled the TV table with a seventh place finish.

The event drew 489 entrants, a Fallsview record, for a C$2.2 million prize pool that paid out the top 63 finishers. Scott Anderson, Connor Drinan, DJ MacKinnon and Chris Bell all cashed in the event.

The WPT jumps to the West Coast with the LAPC already in full swing and the first flight of the $10,000 Main Event on Saturday.

Final Table Payouts CAD (USD)

1. Darren Elias – C$449,484 ($335,436)
2. David Eldridge – C$300,982 ($224,613)
3. Jean-Christophe Ferreira – C$193,582 ($144,465)
4. Andrew Chen – C$143,199 ($106,865)
5. Manig Loeser – C$107,399 ($80,149)
6. Abdull Hassan – C$86,184 ($64,316)