Phil Hui win $50,000 Poker Players Championship at WSOP

Staff Writer, July 2, 2019 6:13 pm

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Aside from the main event, the most prestigious event on the schedule at the World Series of Poker may be the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.

According to some poker pros, it is more prestigious.

One player holding that opinion is Phil Hui, the 2019 winner of the Poker Players Championship. Hui outlasted a 74-player field made up of some of the best poker players in the world, including Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi and Justin Bonomo.

For winning the tournament, Hui received his second career WSOP bracelet, cashed $1,099,311, and gets his name on the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

Hui’s first WSOP bracelet win came five years ago in the 2014 WSOP. That year he won the $3,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better tournament to cash $286,976.

Not only did Hui have to battle a lineup of poker’s best, he also had to display a wide range of poker knowledge. The Championship is made up of eight different poker variations including Hold’em, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Razz and 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw.

The six-player final table at this year’s Championship was a collection of former WSOP winners with nine WSOP bracelets between them. In the end it came down to Hui and 2-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh heads-up.

When head-up play began Arieh had a massive chip lead with 16.2 million chips to Hui’s 6 million chips. Hui slowly chipped away at Arieh’s stack before grabbing the chip lead. His hold on the chip lead was short lived, as the pair traded the lead back and forth several times over a near five-hour heads-up battle.

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On the final hand of the tournament with Hui now holding nearly a 20-to-1 chip lead, the game was 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw with Arieh all-in from the start. After the second draw Hui stood pat with 9-5-4-3-2. With one draw remaining Arieh had 6-5-2 and drew two cards.

His first draw a 3, was a good one giving him outs with a seven or an eight. He didn’t hit his draw though with an Ace turning up eliminating him and giving Hui the win.

For second place Arieh received $679,246.