Farid Yachou Wins Monster WPT Tournament of Champions

By Ryan Lucchesi (@Luccrazy)
Photography by Joe Giron and Jayne Furman / PokerPhotoArchive.com

The final table at the Monster WPT Tournament of Champions was rough for the big-name American professionals tonight in South Florida. Darren Elias, Noah Schwartz, Jonathan Jaffe, and Michael Mizrachi fell in quick succession to give us a heads-up final between two European WPT champions – Vlad Darie (partypoker WPT Vienna champion) and Farid Yachou (WPT Amsterdam champion). Yachou emerged victorious during a short heads-up match (12 hands) that also capped off a short final table (72 hands) that was the first to use a 30-second Action Clock to speed up the action.

This is Yachou’s second WPT cash. He won the WPT Amsterdam Main Event nearly a year ago to take home $239,559. His career tournament earnings now stand at $606,673. After he won his first WPT title, Yachou had this to say, “I wanted to compete against the best players in the world.” He has certainly done that tonight, and he is now our champion of champions. Yachou emerged from a field of 64 of the best poker players in the world to win his second WPT title.

Seat 1. Darren Elias – 324,000 (27 bb)
Seat 2. Farid Yachou – 264,000 (22 bb)
Seat 3. Michael Mizrachi – 871,000 (73 bb)
Seat 4. Vlad Darie – 214,000 (18 bb)
Seat 5. Noah Schwartz – 532,000 (44 bb)
Seat 6. Jonathan Jaffe – 996,000 (83 bb)

The final table kicked off with a series of double ups by the two European players at the table. Vlad Darie went from the short stack to the chip lead in just four hands thanks to surviving elimination three times in a row. Farid Yachou scored a pair of doubles at the expense of Noah Schwartz.

Darren Elias was the first player to fall on Hand 38. His Q-10 found no help on the board against the pocket jacks of Yachou. Elias was eliminated in sixth place, good for $58,300.

Just two hands later Schwartz was all in with A-5 against the Q-J of Michael Mizrachi. The board ran out K-7-2-3-J and Schwartz was eliminated in fifth place, good for $74,200.

The hits kept coming five hands later when Jonathan Jaffe got the last of his chips into the middle holding K-10. Darie woke up with pocket queens and Jaffe busted in fourth place, good for $95,400.

Hand 60 saw the next big name fall when Mizrachi got all of his chips into the middle with K-9 in the hole. Yachou woke up with pocket fours and then flopped a set to end Mizrachi’s tournament run. Mizrachi took home $140,450 as the third-place finisher.

The chip counts were close to even when heads-up play began. Yachou held the lead with 1,656,000 against Vlad Darie’s stack of 1,545,000. Darie took a slim lead on the first hand in the final match, but then it was all Yachou after that. The heads-up match lasted a dozen hands, and Yachou had built a nearly 2-1 advantage before the final hand.

In that hand, Darie raised to 50,000, and Yachou called. The flop came , Yachou checked, Darie bet 50,000, and Yachou check-raised to 250,000. Darie tanked for nearly 30 seconds before he called.

The turn card was the , Yachou bet 200,000, and Darie thought for a while before he called. The river card was the , and Yachou moved all in for 1,585,000, easily covering Darie’s stack. Darie thought for about 20 seconds before he called with for two pair on the board with a king kicker.

But Yachou turned over to win the pot — and the inaugural Monster WPT Tournament of Champions — with a full house, deuces full of eights. Vlad Darie finished as the runner-up, earning $224,190. Congratulations to our champion — Farid Yachou.

Here are the payouts:

1st: Farid Yachou – $381,600*
2nd: Vlad Darie – $224,190
3rd: Michael Mizrachi – $140,450
4th: Jonathan Jaffe – $95,400
5th: Noah Schwartz – $74,200
6th: Darren Elias – $58,300

In addition to the first prize of $381,600, our champion receives the following additional prizes valued at more than $150,000**:

• A 2016 Corvette, courtesy of Monster
• A Hublot King Power Unico Titanium watch
• An Aurae® Solid Gold MasterCard
• A pair of gold Monster® 24K Headphones
• A custom premium poker table from BBO Poker Tables
• A seat in Tiger’s Poker Night Presented by World Poker Tour
• A round of golf for you and two guests at the world-class Shadow Creek Golf Course with Matt Savage

* First-prize amount includes a $15,000 seat into next season’s WPT Tournament of Champions.
** Subject to change. No cash substitutions. Prizes do not include taxes, fees, or gratuities.

That concludes our coverage of the Monster WPT Tournament of Champions. Thanks to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for hosting a great series of events to end Season XIV on the World Poker Tour. We will back to kick off the new season a few days from now. The partypoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship runs from April 29-May 5 at the Playground Poker Club, and the WPT live reporting team will bring you all the action from Montreal.