Erkut Yilmaz is the WPT Season 17 Player of the Year; Chan wins down under

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World Poker Tour tales from two continents as Erkut Yilmaz wins the World Poker Tour Season XVII Player of the Year, and Ken Chan takes down WPT New Zealand.

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[Image credit: World Poker Tour via flickr]
Eight players could have been named The World Poker Tour (WPT) Season XVII Hublot Player of the Year as the $10,000 buy-in WPT ARIA Summer Championships began, and by the end of Day 1, three remained, hoping to raise a teacup full of champagne, or a flute of tea depending on their taste.

Erkut Yilmaz was the man in the Apache Attack Helicopter; Jake Schwartz and Anthony Zinno were wearing wings pieced together by Icarus. Schwartz needed to finish fourth or higher to gazump Yilmaz, and Zinno had to win the thing to beat them both and become the first player to be bestowed twice.

Someone unstrapped their holster to down Yilmaz during Day 2, and the two-time champ could do nothing but wait, like an impatient toddler looking out of the window at a white Christmas.

Zinno was the first to drown, suffocated by rose petals stuffed into his mouth by Liv Boeree. It wasn’t a quick death, nor glorious. Boeree doubled through Zinno when Ad4d hit a four on the river against the big, hard AsKc, and then Boeree finished off the job when As9d felled the pretty looking KhJh.

Schwartz would make it to 17th place before Yilmaz breathed a sigh of – “Yeah Boyeeee!” Tom Marchese gets a free green juice from All American Dave after his AdJd cut Ac6c to shreds.

The newest WPT POY, Yilmaz, wins a $15,000 WPT Passport, accommodation in the ‘majority’ of WPT Main Tour stops, ground transportation to selected WPT Main Tour events, food and drink credits at selected stops, a Hublot watch, and of course, the trophy and bragging rights.

In September, Yilmaz won the 1,075-entrant WPT Borgata Poker Open for $575,112, and in March he beat 280-entrants to win WPT Rolling Thunder for $303,920. Yilmaz also finished 43/898 in the WPT Seminole Rock N Roll Poker Open, and 41/554 at WPT Maryland Live! He has earned $1.8m playing live tournaments.

WPT Season XVII Player of the Year standings

1. Erkut Yilmaz – 2,300
2. Dylan Linde – 2,150
3. James Carroll – 2,100
4. Ping Liu – 2,000
5. Tony Ruberto – 1,850

And that’s it.

It’s time for the next white page, to devour some ink.

Ken Chan wins WPT New Zealand

We’ll zip line from Las Vegas to Auckland, and WPT New Zealand fell under the WPTDeepStacks umbrella for the second successive time. The tournament attracted 333-entrants, and Ken Chan took it down to Kiwi town after an eight-hour final table at the SKYCITY Auckland – a place so fabulous they capitalised it.

Final table results

1. Ken Chan – $100,119
2. Sarah Saifi – $66,371
3. Simon Thwaites – $42,439
4. Fotios Mandakos – $32,643
5. John Pye – $26,114
6. Adrian Stockman – $20,880
7. Glen Young – $16,534
8. Renae Baker – $12,534