Dimitar Blazhev Wins the 2020 WPTDeepStacks Philippines Main Event!

A new champion has been crowned in Season 18 of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Asia Pacific as Dimitar Blazhev has emerged in the WPTDeepStacks Philippines PHP75,000 ($1,500) Main Event after topping a field of 344 entries.

He has defeated Kunwoo Kim in heads-up takes home the biggest slice of the PHP 22,523,400 ($445,513) prize pool, banking a payday of PHP 4,812,000 ($95,181) while Kim has to settle for the runner-up spot and PHP 3,372,000 ($66,698) for his efforts.

Initially, Blazhev had not planned to visit the Philippines and take part in the tournament at the stunning five-star Okada Manila in Paranaque City, but a friend spotted the event on the poker calendar and they headed here for a vacation. He even had to postpone the next part of the Asia trip as he was deep in the tournament, but with a near six-figure score it won’t be as difficult to book new flight tickets.

Blazhev only has one other result to his name on the Hendon Mob, however, the 34-year-old Bulgarian from Sofia has been primarily a cash game player for 12 years and plays “maybe five tournaments a year.” He certainly made this one count as he becomes the latest WPT DeepStacks champion in the Asia-Pacific region.

While the 900 points for the leaderboard put him into a position to challenge the top three with another deep run, he has no plans to visit Taiwan for the final stop of the season at the end of May. Speaking of points, there was one particular finalist that had a shot at taking over first place and that was local poker pro David “Dave Spade” Erquiaga.

David Erquiaga

Down to the final four, Erquiaga was even the chip leader but he eventually had to settle for fourth place and 630 points, which will put him on 1,380 total points and into fourth place overall. All other contenders missed out on adding further points to their tally, leaving a trio atop on 1,500. You can check out the current leaderboard by clicking here.

Another player that bowed out much earlier than he had hoped for was Australia’s Christos Vlahos, who entered the final table as the chip leader. As hot he was running in the previous day, as cold was the streak for the Melbournian when each pay jump was worth thousands of dollars.

While the short stacks Jongjun Park and Vikaash Shah quickly departed, Vlahos tumbled into the middle of the pack. Ryn Naito then four-bet jammed ace-king suited into the aces of Rogel Del Rosario, who became the commanding chip leader.

Del Rosario knocked out Vlahos in sixth place when he won a flip with ace-queen versus deuces, but the Filipino was the next casualty after he went from hero to zero in just half an hour. Erquiaga would suffer the same fate and his downfall started when he doubled eventual champion Blazhev with tens versus kings.

That turned into a key hand for the Bulgarian, who was only in danger of elimination one more time later on. Erquiaga’s exit in 4th place and the departure of Mark Dela Cruz in 3rd place set up a heads-up duel with Kunwoo Kim, which turned into an endurance battle of more than two hours.

Ultimately it was Blazhev who prevailed with ace-nine versus king-jack and that brought an end to the tournament in Manila. For now, it looks like there will be a break of three months for the WPT circuit in the Asia-Pacific region as the final event in Taiwan has been moved to the end of May. However, stay tuned to WPT.com for future announcements as another stop may be added.

Final Table Results:

1st Place: Dimitar Blazhev (Bulgaria) – PHP 4,812,000 / $95,181
2nd Place: Kunwoo Kim (South Korea) – PHP 3,372,000 / $66,698
3rd Place: Mark Dela Cruz (Philippines) – PHP 2,168,000 / $42,883
4th Place: David Erquiaga (Philippines) – PHP 1,397,000 / $27,633
5th Place: Rogel Del Rosario (Philippines) – PHP 1,077,000 / $21,303
6th Place: Christos Vlahos (Australia) – PHP 891,000 / $17,624
7th Place: Ryo Naito (Japan) – PHP 748,000 / $14,795
8th Place: Vikaash Shah (India) – PHP 613,400 / $12,133
9th Place: Jongjun Park (South Korea) – PHP 481,000 / $9,514