The Card Player Poker Tour (CPPT) is currently holding its Big Poker Oktober festival at The Bike in California and things are going better than expected. The 17-event series is seeing impressive
The inaugural event was a $245 buy-in NLHE tournament with a $500,000 guarantee. It didn’t take long for the guarantee to be topped, as a total of 2,274 entries were recorded, of which 116 were direct buy-ins to Day 2 at $1,800 a pop. The amount of players buying in allowed the prize pool to swell to $644,177.
Triet Nguyen ultimately emerged as the winner of the event. With the field down to three, a deal was struck that saw him take first place and $78,222 and Ronald West take second with $77,060. David Fernandez rounded it out in third with $62,260.
The final table saw a few regulars back in the action. With five WSOP bracelets to his name, Allen Cunningham made a deep run, but was sent packing in sixth place with $19,210. Vinny Vinh, who has been around for over 15 years and has over $2.5 million in live winnings to his credit, exited in fourth place with $30,620.
There were also a couple of relative newcomers at the final table, as well. Peter Cross, who scored his first cash just two years ago, according to Hendon Mob, picked up $24,520 when he was pushed out in fifth place. Huy Minh Nguyen was the first to be eliminated at the final table, exiting in ninth place with $8,765.
There are still a number of tournaments left, including the $1,100 buy-in NLHE Main Event. The tournament offers a guarantee of $500,000, but this will almost certainly be exceeded. The same event last year attracted 550 entries and created a prize pool of $673,180. First place was finally won by Andrew Wisdom, who took home $165,025.
In addition, there are eight other events that will offer guaranteed prize pools. Of these, two have guarantees of $500,000 or more. There is still time to head to The Bike for a little poker fun, but time’s running out.