Farid Yachou Wins Monster WPT Tournament of Champions
Farid Yachou seems to know how to make his tournament appearances count. Last May the Dutch amateur outlasted 340 other players to win WPT Amsterdam and $225,073. Part of that prize pool was a seat to the $15,000 buy-in WPT Tournament of Champions.
He didn’t want to fly to Florida to play and he almost didn’t get Visa paperwork handled in time. Yet Sunday night it all came together for him again as he beat Vlad Darie to win the WPT Tournament of Champions for $381,600 – just his second career score.
“It’s something I cannot believe,” Yachou said after the win, smiling. “I am seated with only champions. I said to myself, ‘I will be glad if I finish 30th.’ Then, day by day and hand by hand it came altogether, and everything came to me.”
Darren Elias started the final table fourth in chips, but thanks to the early work of Darie, he found himself as one of the shorter stacks early on. Elias jammed from the cutoff for 261,000 and Yachou reraised all in from the button to 694,000. Everybody else folded and Elias tabled 
while Yachou was well ahead with 
. The board ran out 
to eliminate Elias in sixth place and move Yachou into the lead.
Just two hands later Noah Schwartz joined Elias on the rail. Michael Mizrachi raised to 40,000 from the cutoff and Schwartz moved the last of his 229,000 all in from the small blind. Mizrachi called and tabled 
and Schwartz showed 
. The 
flop was relatively safe for Schwartz but the turn gave Mizrachi flush outs. The river though was the 
to give Mizrachi a pair of jacks and send Schwartz out in fifth.
Darie opened from the button for 40,000 before Jonathan Jaffe took his time in making his decision. So much time in fact that he he had to use one of his remaining “time chips” to give himself and additional 30 seconds to act. Before his time expired he moved all in for 349,000 and Darie called instantly. Jaffe showed 
while Darie tabled 
. Jaffe was unable to connect on the 
board and his run ended in fourth.
When three-handed play began Mizrachi held over 50% of the chips in play with Yachou and Darie each working with 25% each. That turned out to be as close as ‘The Grinder’ would get to the win though. Yachou was the first to take some of Mizrachi’s stack and then Darie took enough to push Mizrachi to third in chips. Darie and Yachou took turns swapping the lead until Mizrachi made his final stand.
After Mizrachi opened to 50,000 from the button, Darie folded before Yachou moved all in from the big blind. Mizrachi called with 
and found himself needing help against Yachou’s 
. The 
flop gave Mizrachi top pair but bottom set to Yachou. Mizrachi was unable to improve on the 
turn or 
flop.
Yachou began heads up play with a small lead over Darie. The pair played heads up for just over 30 minutes before Yachou emerged with the title. Darie raised to 50,000 and Yachou called. After the 
flop Yachou check-raised Darie’s bet of 50,000 to 250,000. Darie called that bet and the 200,000 Yachou bet after the turn. The river was the and Yachou shoved all in for 1,585,000. Darie called and showed 
for two pair with his king playing kicker, but Yachou showed 
for a full house to eliminate Darie in second and win the second poker tournament of his career.
Along with the $381,600 first place prize money including a $15,000 seat to the Season XV WPT Tournament of Champions, a 2016 Corvette provided by Monster Products, a Hublot watch, Aurae Solid Gold MasterCard, Monster 24K headphones, a custom poker table from BBO Poker Tables and a seat to Tiger’s Poker Night next week in Las Vegas.
“The Corvette is something I have never seen a tournament give away, it’s amazing,” Yachou said. “I took my Monster Headphones from WPT Amsterdam because I like to hear the sound it has. It’s not like the others.”
Payouts
- Farid Yachou – $381,600
- Vlad Darie – $224,190
- Michael Mizrachi – $140,450
- Jonathan Jaffe – $95,400
- Noah Schwartz – $74,200
- Darren Elias – $58,300
