David Erquiaga Triumphs in Record-Breaking Season 20 WPT Prime Cambodia Main Event

David Erquiaga

After five tournament days at the five-star NagaWorld Integrated Resort in Phnom Penh, the record-breaking Season 20 WPT Prime Cambodia $1,100 Main Event has come to a thrilling conclusion. David Erquiaga came out on top of a 1,050 entry strong field and earned the biggest slice of the $1,018,500 prize pool after coming out on top of a short-lived heads-up duel with Chi Jen “Justin” Chu.

The flagship tournament of the series became the biggest live poker event in the history of the Kingdom of Cambodia and set a new record for the largest WPT event in Asia. It was the third edition of the new mid-stakes tour in the 20th anniversary season of the World Poker Tour and raised the bar for the WPT Prime brand, surpassing the 777 entries recorded in Hanoi / Vietnam and 896 entries at the Gold Coast / Australia earlier in 2022.

Heading into the final table, Erquiaga was in the middle of the pack but ended up claiming all the chips in a topsy turvy affair in which fortune was on his side. Down to the final three players, the player from the Philippines cut a deal with fellow countryman Junnie Pamploma and Chu in which they left the $10,400 seat for the WPT World Championships in Las Vegas as well as cash add-ons for second place and the winner up for grabs. Erquiaga was the chip leader by then and walked away with a cash prize of $137,008 as well as the entry for the season-ending event at the Wynn / Encore.

Prior to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic back in February 2020, Erquiaga finished in fourth place in the 2020 WPTDeepStacks Manila Main Event for his second final table appearance. He also finished sixth in the 2019 WPTDeepStacks Vietnam Main Event as well but the third time was a charm. With this trademark victory, Erquiaga will enter the top ten on the all-time money list for his home country of the Philippines.

Chu padded his bankroll with $120,980 in cash and narrowly missed out on the victory. The Taiwanese represents the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club (CTP), which was one of five partners in the Asia-Pacific region to send qualifiers to the stop in Cambodia. For third-place finisher Pamplona, the $106,482 was the far biggest of his career and 

The CTP Group from Taiwan

With three events to come during the series, Erquiaga also takes the lead in the Player of the Festival ranking with 900 points total. He pulls narrowly ahead of Kunal Patni (850 points) and Trong Hieu Ngo (825 points) to potentially earn another $5,000 package for a WPT Main Tour stop.

Patni was one of the finalists in the $1,100 Main Event as well, which he entered second in chips. However, he ultimately had to settle for sixth place and cashed for $35,690. French poker pro Jean Robert Autran missed out on a spot on the podium but made the deep run after a three year hiatus from the live poker circuit count with a career-best cash of $62,060.

The WPT Prime tour now heads to Europe as the next stop at the Casino Gran Via in Madrid runs from September 10 to 19, 2022 before returning to Asia with a stop in the aforementioned CTP in Taiwan at the end of the year.

Final Table Results:

1st Place: David Erquiaga (Philippines) – $137,008*
2nd Place: Chi Jen “Justin” Chu (Taiwan) – $120,980*
3rd Place: Junnie Pamplona (Philippines) – $106,482*
4th Place: Jean Robert Autran (France) – $62,060
5th Place: Patrick Soh (Malaysia) – $46,820
6th Place: Kunal Patni (India) – $35,690
7th Place: Ankit Jajodia (India) – $27,510
8th Place: Ji Jun Xu (China) – $21,430
9th Place: Hoang Van Nguyen (Vietnam) – $16,880