Chino Rheem Wins WPT $25k Championship For $1.15m
May 26, 2013 12:33 pmChino Rheem has won the 2013 World Poker Tour $25,000 Championship, after defeating a field of 146 players over six days to capture the title, and collect the $1,150,297 first place prize.
With his latest victory at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Chino Rheem now takes his live tournament winnings to $7,116,471. However, just like runner-up Erick Lindgren, he has discovered that being a successful professional poker player also requires managing your bankroll carefully and above all steering clear of a myriad of other gambling pursuits, such as sport betting. Commenting on what he now intends to do with his million dollar score, Chino Rheem explained:
“So [this win] was very special to me. Because I’ve been giving a lot of chances in my life, and before when I had score I would tell myself that I wouldn’t put myself in the same position, and I still found myself in the same position. Hopefully I can have a better outlook on life and what I’m going to do with it..I’m definitely going to try to not be so impulsive, and just make better life decisions.”
Ironically, as the six-man final table played down to the heads-up phase, it was the two controversial pros who had previously earned the scorn of their peers over unpaid debts, who ended up squaring off against one another for the title. Eventually, the tournament was decided with Cheem (K-9) and Lindgren (Q-9) all-in preflop, and after the board rolled out A-4-4-3-8, Chino Rheem was crowned the WPT champion. Later, showing great empathy towards his heads-up rival, Rheem commented:
“I want the public to realize: Don’t judge unless you really understand or you know. Erick’s a great guy. Yeah he’s had his ups and downs, but who hasn’t? Who hasn’t made mistakes? He’s just trying to make better with his life doing what he’s very good at doing.”
The final table payouts were as follows:
1: Chino Rheem – $1,150,297
2: Erick Lindgren – $650,275
3: Jonathan Roy – $421,800
4: Matt Hyman – $289,988
5: Brandon Steven – $223,203
6: David Peters – $173,993