Home » News » Ben Palmer Wins Career-First WPT Title in Season XVII WPT at Venetian For $431,655; India’s Nipun Java Finishes 27th For ₹8.94 Lakhs

Ben Palmer Wins Career-First WPT Title in Season XVII WPT at Venetian For $431,655; India’s Nipun Java Finishes 27th For ₹8.94 Lakhs

Attreyee Khasnabis March 27, 2019
5 Minutes Read

The Season XVII WPT at Venetian kicked off on March 22 and attracted a massive field of 734 entries through two starting flights, creating a prize pool of $2,333,800. Gainsville, Florida native Ben Palmer clinched his first WPT title, along with his career-best score of $431,655 in this event!

Palmer’s previous best-live cash was in the $5,180 NLHE event at the 6^th Annual Festa Al Lago Classic, Las Vegas in 2008 which he had won for $189,975. He has several notable wins to his name including the 2018 October Extravaganza, The Wynn Fall Classic and the 2016 WSOP Circuit – Nevada. This latest win has taken his live tournament earnings well over the $2.5 Million mark.

Palmer entered the final table with a commanding chip lead where he went about eliminating Mark Ioli and eventual runner-up Tony Gargano to take down the title. In fact, Palmer came from behind during the heads-up battle to snatch the victory away from Gargano and additionally booked himself a seat worth $15,000 into the season-ending Baccarat Crystal Tournament of Champions!

India’s Nipun Java was also seen in action at the event and made it till Day 3 with a stack of 222,000. He managed to double up against Millard Hale during level 21. Hale’s was up against Java’s . The board was of no help to Hale who lost the pot to Java. The latter’s stack swelled to 495,000. However, his deep run ultimately came to an end in 27^th place for $12,965 (₹8,94,941).

A total of 92 players received payouts, and the notable names among them were Jay Farber (8^th for $52,790), Aaron Massey (10^th for $41,665), Eric Baldwin (12^th for $33,270), David Williams (14^th for $26,890), and Nam Le (17^th for $18,215), along with Indian-origin players Ravi Raghavan (24^th for $15,270 ~₹10,54,049), Dilip Das (28^th for $12,965~₹8,94,941) and Ankush Mandavia (32^nd for $12,965~₹8,94,941).

Final Table Chip Counts

1.Ben Palmer – 9,525,000

2.Danny Qutami – 5,275,000

3.Mark Ioli – 3,975,000

4.Tony Gargano – 3,750,000

5.Orlando Barrera – 3,450,000

6.Will Givens – 3,350,000

Final Table Recap

Will Givens was the first player to depart from the final table when his were cracked by Mark Ioli’s which improved to three-of-a-kind aces on the runout . Givens exited in sixth place.

Mark Ioli‘s run came to an end on the 109^th hand of the final table when Ben Palmer’s bested Ioli’s , leading to the latter’s fifth-place elimination.

Ioli was soon joined by Orlando Barrera at the rail. The latter’s ran into Tony Gargano’s which hit a set of kings on the flop to knock Barrera out of the competition in fourth place.

Three-handed play continued for a full three levels before Danny Qutami hit the rail. Gargano raised from the button with , and Qutami shoved all-in from the big blind holding . Gargano tanked for a while before calling. The board spread out , and though both players picked up a pair of aces, Gargano’s queen kicker was good enough to win him the pot sending Qutami to the rail.

Tony Gargano (16,800,000) started the heads-up play against Ben Palmer (12,525,000), holding a slight edge over the latter. However, Palmer made a fantastic comeback during level 35, winning some crucial hands against Gargano. By level 36, the chip lead had changed hands in favor of Palmer. Gargano managed to win the chip lead back by the start of the next level, but he lost it to Palmer yet again. This time Palmer held on to the lead till the very end.

After 64 hands had been played in the final showdown, Gargano announced all-in from the button with . Palmer asked for a count following which he went into the tank for a while. He eventually called with . The community cards showed and Paler rivered two pairs of queens and tens to claim his first-ever WPT title and a career-best score of $431,655!