The first-ever WPT Voyage is in the books, and the fun times in the Caribbean on board the Valiant Lady are now a distant memory.
While there were plenty of non-poker highlights — including a pajama party, tennis and golf outings and pickleball lessons from Vince Van Patten — it was the poker tournaments that brought hundreds of grinders on board. And while most of of those players went home with seashells as souvenirs, a handful of them were fortunate enough to leave with a WPT trophy in their travel bags.
One of the biggest winners of the weeklong Voyage was Aram Oganyan, who took down the $5,000 buy-in WPT Voyage Championship for $203,845 after a three-way chop with Carlo Basurto (2nd - $202,885) and Austin Srur (3rd - $188,670). Meanwhile, Brazil's Gregory De Faria shipped the $1,100 WPT Voyage Prime Championship outright for $155,400.
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The WPT Family.Virgin Voyages' private pool and beach area.An inflatable WPT pool floatie.Sand artists were brought in to do some WPT sand castles.The PokerNews Team even had a nice WPT Voyage beach day!THe WPT Voyage Player PartyThe WPT Family thanks you for coming!
The $1,100 buy-in, $500K GTD WPT Prime Voyage Championship attracted 968 runners over a trio of starting flights, and on Thursday 122 players returned to action. They were already in the money competing for a share of a $968,000 prize pool, and after a long day of play, it was Brazil’s Gregory De Faria emerging victorious to capture the title and $155,400 first-place prize, which included a $10,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas.
Before the win, De Faria had just $14,062 in lifetime tournament earnings according to The Hendon Mob with a prior career-best of just $3,930 for finishing 22nd in the 2022 Kings Series of Poker Special (KSOP) in Baleário Camboriú.
WPT Voyage Prime Championship Final Table Results
Place
Player
Prize
1
Gregory De Faria
$155,400
2
Trent Hopper
$97,000
3
Nico Betbese
$72,000
4
Brandon Takao
$54,000
5
Brian Monigold
$41,000
6
Allison Hollander
$31,000
7
Gustavo Carmona
$24,000
8
Lukas Zaskodny
$18,500
Others to cash the tournament were Darren Rabinowitz (10th - $14,600), Maria Scardaville (13th - $10,700), Brian Green (17th - $9,100), Jesse Sylvia (19th - $9,100), Nancy Birnbaum (24th - $6,400), Larry Ormson (42nd - $4,500), Calvin Anderson (55th - $3,800), Josh Reichard (58th - $3,200), Princess Love (61st - $3,200), and Ethan Yau (71st - $2,700).
Princess Love
According to WPT Live Updates, Princess Love fell in Level 20 (10,000/20,000/20,000) after Oliver Jarny raised to 50,000 from the hijack with pocket tens and then called when Princess Love three-bet jammed for 100,000 with queen-jack suited. It was a race but Jarny’s pocket pair held strong to put an end to Love’s run.
Similarly, Birnbaum busted in Level 24 (25,000/50,000/50,000) in a race situation after getting it all in with ace-queen of spades and failing to get there against the pocket jacks of Brian Monigold.
The elimination of 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Ryan Riess in ninth place for $14,600 established the final table of eight with Nico Betbese and De Faria sitting atop the counts by a decent margin.
On Hand #12 of the final table, Lukas Zaskodny lost a flip with pocket jacks to the ace-queen of Brandon Takao making him the first casualty. Not long after on Hand #17, Gustavo Carmona was next to go after calling off on the river with a queen-high straight only to see De Faria tabled a king-high straight.
Fan favorite Allison Hollander, who many players know for her work at bestbet Jacksonville, took her leave in Level 30 (100,000/200,000/200,000) on Hand #28 when she got her short stack all in with king-queen and was up against Takao’s ace-seven suited. Hollander failed to get there and had to settle for sixth place, good for $31,000 in prize money.
Allison Hollander
It took a while for the next elimination to occur but it came on Hand #68 when Monigold got his stack all in with two red sevens and lost a flip to Trent Hopper’s ace-queen suited. In the very next hand, Takao followed him out the door in fourth place losing ace-deuce to Hopper’s pocket queens, and just four hands later Betbese bowed out in third his king-jack being pipped by the ace-jack of De Faria.
De Faria held a slim chip lead headed into heads-up play, and the two would battle for more than 50 hands! On Hand #131, which took place in Level 34 (250,000/500,000/500,000), De Faria had opened up a lead and moved all in with queen-nine of hearts and Hopper called off with king-six offsuit. The board ran out with three hearts and Hopper officially finished as runner-up while De Faria claimed the title and $155,400 first-place prize.
While tournament play at the WPT Voyage has ended, Friday will see sailors enjoy a day at Bimini in The Bahamas where a player party will take place at Virgin Voyages’ private beach club. Upon returning to the Valiant Lady, players will have the opportunity for one last night of cash games before returning to Miami for disembarkation on Saturday morning.
The WPT Voyage kicked off earlier this week with a pajama-themed meet-up game and some tournament action in the form of a $2,200 buy-in Turbo No-Limit Hold'em event. That event drew 86 entries, including resident crusher Jesse Lonis and content creator Ben Ludlow, for a prize pool of $197,800.
Ludlow was among the 11 players who cashed the event, finishing in tenth place for $5,576 after the elimination of Michael Wang, who received the same payout. But it was Taylor von Kriegenbergh who came out on top to win the trophy and $58,319 after a heads-up battle with Daniel Neilson, who earned $38,878 for his runner-up finish.
Others at the final table included Americans David Moses (8th - $6,740), Matthew Wantman (4th - $18,537) and Corel Theuma (3rd - $26,358), as well as Brazil's Ueberton De Aquino (6th - $10,293) and Germany's Niko Koop (7th - $8,152).
Dozens of poker players on board the WPT Voyage got a special experience on Tuesday, April 2 when the Valiant Lady set up shop on the shore of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. Those poker players became pickleball grinders as they received lessons from WPT commentator Vince Van Patten, a former tennis pro who made the transition to professional pickleball.
Van Patten, whose pickleball prowess was highlighted by Sports Illustrated last month, was joined by pickleball champion Mattias Johannson for two separate sessions of the popular sport on the balmy Cayman Islands with plenty of palm trees bordering the courts.
The third and final day of the WPT Voyage $5,000 Main Event saw the final nine players from a 293-entry field return to play down to a winner. Farid Jattin began the day as the chip leader, while reigning WPT World Champion Dan Sepiol was looking to follow up his $5.3 million win with a second title.
However, when the dust settled it was Aram Oganyan who emerged as the champion for $214,245 after a three-way deal with Carlo Basurto and Austin Srur.
“I feel amazing,” Oganyan told Vince Van Patten after the victory. “This is so fun. This is like unbelievable, won some flips at the end. Got some bluffs through and here we are we got our name on the trophy.”
On the very first hand of the day, Marcelo Giordano bowed out after losing a flip with pocket tens to Sepiol’s suited Big Slick, which rivered a spade flush. On Hand #23, Iman Dan also fell at the hands of Sepiol, who turned a flush holding ace-seven to beat the former’s pocket fours.
The short-stacked Kasey Mills bowed out eight hands later after moving all in under the gun with pocket fives only to run smack dab into Basurto’s pocket kings in the big blind. Mills’ exit in seventh place set up the official WPT final table of six, and soon after popular Brazilian vlogger Romulo Dorea hit the rail after shoving the small blind with king-nine suited and failing to overcome Jattin, who called from the big blind with ace-three.
Sepiol’s run came to an end in fifth place after he got his stack all in on the turn holding pocket queens on a ten-high board and was called by Jattin’s pocket eights. Jattin spiked a straight on the river and just like that Sepiol’s day came to an end.
Dan Sepiol
Four-handed play lasted a while and proved to be a back-and-forth affair. Eventually, in Level 28 (75,000/125,000/125,000) Jattin four-bet jammed for 1.6 million with two red aces and was called by the king-queen of spades of Basurto. Jattin was way ahead until two red kings appeared on the flop to give Basurto trips.
After Jattin’s departure in fourth place, the final three players worked a deal that saw them leave $31,400 to play for, which included a $10,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship. The trio opted to blind flip for things, and Oganyan tripled up in the first. In the second, he held pocket deuces and flopped a set to score a double elimination and officially close out the WPT Voyage Main Event.
“I feel like it’s nice to win it, but I still don’t 100% feel like I actually won it, because of the flipping,” Oganyan told the WPT after the tournament. “I feel like it would have been nice to play it out, and it would have felt more of like a real deal championship. But they wanted to chop it, and I always take someone asking to chop as a compliment, like, ‘Hey, I think you’re good at poker and I don’t think I have a big edge over you.’ So we just agreed to cut the variance down, flip for the championship and here we are.”
The WPT Voyage $5,000 Main Event may be over, but there is still plenty of poker action to be had on the Virgin Voyages’ Valiant Lady. That includes the $1,100 WPT Prime Voyage Championship, which will see all the survivors from three starting flights return for Day 2 action on Thursday. PokerNews will have a recap of that tournament upon its completion.
It hasn't been all fun and games on the currently underway World Poker Tour (WPT) Voyage, or maybe it has been. Much of the fun on the weeklong venture through the Caribbean took place on the first night, which featured a pajama-themed WPT Voyage Meet-Up Game followed by the WPT Voyage PJ Party.
Both events took poker players out of their comfort zones and put them in comfortable clothes. From fleece onesies to branded PokerNews two pieces, there were no shortage of entertaining, intriguing and outright hilarious outfits.
Here's a look at some of the best outfits from the Day 1 activities, which brought out the likes of Vince Van Patten, Lynn Gilmartin, Alexandra Grey, Andrew Neeme, Ethan "Rampage" Yau, Caitlin Comeskey, Nikki Limo, Tyler Patterson, Julie Cornelius and ClubWPT Qualifier Monika Heppner, who PokerNewswrote about ahead of the Voyage.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Voyage on Virgin Voyages’ Valiant Lady set sail from Miami, Florida on Sunday, and for a solid 36 hours, it was all about the poker action with both the $5,000 Main Event and $1,100 WPT Prime tournaments kicking off, not to mention a slew of side events and cash games.
On Tuesday, poker took a back seat for a bit as the luxurious cruise ship docked at George Town in the Cayman Islands. Whenever a cruise ship is at port, most onboard activities pause so that guests can go ashore to partake in excursions or whatever activities tickle their fancy.
While players like WPT champs Dan Sepiol and Tyler Patterson were busy at Matt Savage’s golf event, and others such as Matt Berkey and my colleague Connor Richards at Vince Van Patten’s pickleball tournament, I took the opportunity to hang out with some friends from the Midwest.
Chad Holloway, Amber & Ben Valder, and Josh & Ashley Reichard.
I met up with MSPT Hall of Famer Josh Reichard and his wife Ashely, as well as Minnesota’s Ben Valder and his wife Amber – who actually won their way aboard the WPT Voyage via an Andrew Neeme social media giveaway – and took a shuttle to 7-Mile Beach, which won “The Caribbean’s Best Beach” in 2015 from Caribbean Travel and Life Magazine.
Both Reichard and Valder are well-known in Midwest poker circles. The former spent several years working for the MSPT and is no stranger to the poker table having amassed more than $240,000 in tournament winnings according to the Hendon Mob. That includes a career-high $40,866 for finishing third in the 2015 Poker Night in America $1,650 Main Event.
As for Reichard, he has nearly $3.2 million in lifetime earnings including a career-best $339,646 for finishing second in last year’s WSOP Event #74: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em. Reichard is tied for second place on the WSOP Circuit’s all-time ring list with 15, and he is also an MSPT Hall of Famer. When it comes to Midwest crushers, Reichard is near the top of most everybody’s list.
7-Mile Beach in George Town, Cayman Islands.
While actually only 6.3 miles long, the beach featured beautiful white sand and crystal-clear blue water. There were a lot of people taking advantage of the hot-but-not-so-stifling weather, but with plenty of beachfront property, it didn’t feel crowded.
By happenstance, while walking down the beach, I wandered by LearnWPT Team Member Adrian Naggy, who the day before helped lead a special ClubWPT training session alongside poker pro Brian Altman. He had just eaten at the seaside Coccoloba, a part Mexican street taco joint, and part beach hut. He spoke highly of the establishment, which was “mango-throwing distance from the water,” and recommended the fish tacos.
Naturally, we decided to check it out for ourselves and let me tell you Naggy wasn’t wrong. The food was fire, which was fitting given it was a part of the Seafire Resort & Spa, and the margaritas weren’t bad either.
By the time the check arrived – Reichard gave us a freeroll of him picking up the check by playing a game of Crocodile Roulette, but yours truly lost and blew a chance for the Valder’s and I to have a free meal – it was time to head back to the dock and catch the shuttle boat back to the main ship.
For Reichard, Valder, and myself, poker awaited in the form of the $1,100 WPT Prime Day 1b Turbo Flight. The WPT Voyage might not be all about poker, but there’s always poker to look forward to at the end of the day.
Back on Virgin Voyages' Valiant Lady for the WPT Voyage.
Reigning World Poker Tour (WPT) world champion Dan Sepiol is well on his way to becoming the inaugural WPT Voyage Main Event champion, and that's no April Fool's joke. The first day of the $5,000 buy-in WPT Voyage Championship kicked off on Monday, April 1 and saw Sepiol bagging third in chips to closely trail chip leader Landen Lucas and fellow WPT champion Matthew Wantman, who bagged second in chips.
There were plenty of other familiar faces among the 37 players who bagged Day 1 of the WPT Voyage Main Event, which drew 293 runners for a prize pool of $1,347,800. Among those who bagged are WPT champions Tony Dunst, Matthew Wantman, Ryan Riess, Masato Yokosawa, Tyler Patterson and Eliot Hudon, WPT Global Ambassador Andrew Neeme and notables Greg Himmelbrand, Jerry Wong and Kasey Mills.
Landen Lucas
WPT Voyage Main Event Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
RANK
PLAYER
CHIP COUNT
BIG BLINDS
1
Landen Lucas
1,139,000
95
2
Matthew Wantman
845,000
70
3
Dan Sepiol
784,000
65
4
Carlos Miguel Basurto Romero
645,000
54
5
Bart Dowling
631,000
53
6
Dong Min
630,000
53
7
Adam Weinraub
563,000
47
8
Aram Oganyan
544,000
45
9
Tyler Patterson
504,000
42
10
Jeff Farnes
503,000
42
William Tweed Falls to Three-Nine Offsuit on the Bubble
There was high energy inside the Red Room on board the Valient Lady as the ship filled with poker players sailed through the Atlantic Ocean.
The field of a few hundred players dwindled slowly throughout the day, with Xuan Liu, Olga Iermolcheva, Aaron Massey, Steven "Cuz" Buckner, Stephen Song and Martin Zamani among those to bust.
Mike Sexton Champions Cup
Action slowed toward the bubble with a half dozen tables remaining and slowed further at the stone bubble with 38 players remaining. During the second hand of hand-for-hand play, William Tweed moved all in for less than three big blinds with Big Slick only for Toby Boas to hunt him down the big blind with nine-three offsuit, according to WPT updates.
A flop featuring a three was bad news for Tweed and a brick runout confirmed his elimination on the stone bubble.
There's still plenty of action to come with Day 2 slated to get underway on Tuesday, April 2 at 8 p.m. local time, giving players ample of time to enjoy a day on the shores of Grand Cayman. Day 2 will play down to a final table of players that will return for Day 3
Each returning player is guaranteed a payday of at leat $9,600 and $285,800 waits up top for the eventual champion. Head to worldpokertour.com for further updates on the Main Event action.
With decades of poker experience, Illinois' Monika Heppner is ready to take on the pros, and hopefully get a few photos with them, on the upcoming WPT Voyage after winning a package on ClubWPT.
From March 31 to April 6, 2024, the World Poker Tour (WPT) will take over an entire Virgin Voyages cruise ship for a six-day poker festival that features $1.5 million in guarantees, including a $5,000 buy-in and $1,000,000 guaranteed WPT Main Event.
PokerNews caught up with Heppner, who is originally from Poland, to learn about her poker background and how she got one step closer to achieving her dream of having her name etched on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
PokerNews: What brought you to the US from Poland?
Heppner: I came from Poland 21 years ago to my mom. Not long after that I met my son's dad. My Boy is 19 now. He is a very special boy, his name is Maxwell and he is autistic. My math genius. He is my number one fan and tells me every day that I will win and he wants to see me on TV.
How did you win your WPT Voyage trip?
I registered on the WPT website and I became a Diamond member. Three months later, I played satellite to a main event where you can win a passport for a Voyage cruise. I qualified for that event, and I took first place. I was so happy and very excited at the same time.
When and how did you learn to play poker?
I was the only girl in the family and I had an older brother and he always wanted a brother, so he raised me like one lol. I played soccer in Poland and we played a lot of card games, one of them was poker.
Monika Heppner
I never thought I would play later in my life, Then I met my husband and we started playing poker together, We started playing more when we moved to Wisconsin for 4 years so Maxwell could finish high school (that was Covid time). We were playing poker with people we met in a small bar and we became friends. After Covid, I started playing cash games at Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin, IL. I started with $1-$3 and after six months I went to $2-$5 games and I started winning. I started playing WSOP Circuit events. I cashed 80% of them but I haven't won yet. I played a couple events in Florida I played WPT Rock 'N' Roll Poker Open in Hollywood I cashed one.
"I joined a Smoke'n Aces Poker league so much fun. I'm a member of the Women's Poker Association."
I played a couple events in Vegas. I started playing tournaments two years ago, I'm usually a cash player. Since Grand Victoria Casino started playing daily tournaments. I've been playing more often. I joined a Smoke'n Aces Poker league so much fun. I'm a member of the Women's Poker Association.
How long have you been a member of ClubWPT and what inspired you to join in the first place?
I've been a member of ClubWPT for more than a year now. I started playing on WPT for fun and to practice my tournament skills.
Have you ever been on a cruise or poker cruise?
It will be my first cruise, and I think that's my biggest prize in tournaments. I'm very excited that I can meet people I see on the TV. I'm hoping to get even more experience and learn to play better.
What’s your proudest poker accomplishment to date?
I met Chris Moneymaker and I had a chance to play with him, a very nice and respectful person. It was a great experience.
Monika Heppner and Chris Moneymaker
What are you most looking forward to about the WPT Voyage? Are there poker pros you would like to meet or play with?
I would love to meet Phil Ivey I like his style of playing, Daniel Negreanu, Kristen Foxen I love to watch her playing, Erik Seidel is an icon, Jason Koon ... and of course Jennifer Tilly, a great cash player.
I think meeting them and being able to talk with them will be a great chance to learn more about being a great poker player.
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