As the iconic World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise Main Event gradually moves through the third of its four starting flights, Japanese player Masashi Oya proved his skill battling against an impressive plethora of poker pros for a potential mouth-watering prize counting seven figures at the largest buy-in event, the Event #9 $100,000 Ultra High Roller.

Oya Took Home a $2,940,000 Top Prize 

The event, which was spread across three days, gathered a total prize pool of $11 million from 111 entries at Atlantis Paradise Island. 

Oya proved his nerves of steel during the third day of the event, held his chips in the lead, and eventually won the top prize valued at $2,940,000 while gathering 550 PGT points. His big win also brought his first WSOP gold bracelet. 

Facing online phenom pro poker names like Ben Heath, Leon Sturm, Danny Tang, Nick Schulman, David Peters, Ren Li, Sorel Mizzi, Taylor von Kriegenbergh, and Justin Bonomo, Oya took the lead into a heads-up battle against Jason Koon.

Oya held a five-to-two chip advantage over his opponent entering heads-up play, and he quickly extended his chip lead. Koon called all-in on the river while Oya proceeded to prove his superiority and pipped Koon, sending the chips in the middle and claiming the win. 

Oya Won Over $4 Million in 2023

So far, the Japanese player has so far scooped up an impressive $5.58 million win in live poker tournaments. Of it, over $4 million came in 2023 alone. 

This makes him the leading pro poker player on Japan’s All-Time Money List, leaping over the iconic Tsugunari Toma. 

Oya’s latest victory along with his 12 PokerGO Tour cashes in 2023 have propelled him to the 39th position in the Top 40 on the leaderboard thanks to the 1,709 PGT points he managed to accumulate out of a total of 12 cashes. 

The Japanese player will most likely have to add to his PGT points total in the other eight events scheduled until the end of the season in order to secure his place in the Top 40. This would also qualify him for a seat in the PGT Championship $1 Million Freeroll that will take place on January 9-10, 2024.

The list of additional players who finished in the money in Event #9 and climbed higher on the PGT leaderboard features Ren Lin, who reached the sixth position, Nick Schulman, who moved to the 12th position, and Justin Bonomo, who reached the 53rd spot. 

Quan Zhou and Justin Bonomo also rose into the Top 100. Ivan Luca and Benjamin Heath made it into the Top 200. Danny Tang is ranked 300th overall on the PGT leaderboard. 

Erik Seidel also grabbed his tenth World Series of Poker bracelet in the $50,000 Super High Roller at WSOP Paradise.

The post Masashi Oya Scoops up $3M at $100K WSOP Paradise Ultra High Roller appeared first on Keno Wizard.

Some gambling venues, especially poker rooms, offer a bad beat jackpot on specific occasions. In general, a bad beat jackpot is offered when two players have significantly good hands but one of the players still loses.

For example, if two players have four of a kind with high cards such as Aces and Kings, the player with Aces would win, but that is likely to also trigger a bad beat jackpot. Although that’s a general rule for bad beat jackpots, different poker rooms can have different rules.

Now, a recent report posted via Twitter by the Texas poker player, Cedrric Trevino, reveals that a bad beat jackpot was nullified by a poker club in San Antonio. Last week, the social media influencer and poker pro revealed that a $100,000 bad beat jackpot was nullified by San Antonio Poker Palace.

Exposing Cards Too Soon

In general, whenever a bad beat jackpot drops, the winner, loser and the players that participated in the particular hand can receive a percentage of the prize. The payout varies from one poker room to another, but besides payout structure, the poker rooms have other rules that seek to ensure the eligibility of the players whenever a bad beat hand drops.

Sadly, not following the rules results in a void of the bad beat jackpot and this is precisely the case for the San Antonio poker room. Trevino posted a video along with a written explanation from the gambling venue, revealing why the bad beat jackpot was nullified.

In a post on Facebook which was consequently deleted, the San Antonio gambling venue wrote that a bad beat hand was dealt which involved two players. The poker room said that sadly, the bad beat hand was nullified due to multiple infractions.

According to the poker room, the hand of one of the players was exposed before the action was completed. Additionally, the player with the losing hand did not confirm with a motion that they called nor said that verbally. “Player saw he had a losing hand after he was shown the exposed cards and then pushes his chips in,” wrote San Antonio Poker Palace.

The poker room reiterated that it is important for players to follow the rules, explaining: “We want to stress the importance of abiding by the house rules while maintaining the integrity of the game and promotion.”

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A common saying goes that “lightning never strikes the same place twice” but not for a 31-year-old woman from Maryland who managed to win big twice within less than 12 hours.

Pink Is the Lucky Number

A nursing assistant and a mother of four, the woman who wished to remain anonymous and played under the name of Chicklet31, first cashed out $11,000 from Ocean Downs Casino she had visited after her late night shift.

Having left the casino at around 1am, she decided to buy a scratch card ticket from the Maryland Lottery the next day and visited a local convenience store located in her hometown of Princess Anne around noon, where she opted for a pink-colored Extreme Cash game ticket, which later won her the top $100,000 prize.

Speaking to the Maryland Lottery, the woman explained why she had bought that ticket and there was not a single drop of logic in it. “I just bought that scratch-off because it stood out to me and pink is my favorite color,” she stated.

She even joked that her luck was due to the same set of clothes she had been wearing in the casino and while purchasing the instant scratch card.

“‘Chicklet’ becomes the 60th top-prize winner in the $100,000 Extreme Cash scratch-off game and is the game’s third top-prize winner in the last two weeks,” Maryland Lottery officials stated, adding that the convenience store where the winning ticket was sold would receive a $1,000 bonus.

Chicklet is planning to use the unexpected windfall to visit her son who lives in China and to further her education so that she could advance in her professional career.

Other Recent Multiple Wins

The Maryland Lottery was involved with another double-win in the state scored by a 56-year-old Amazon employee from Baltimore who managed to win big twice within just two months.

In February, the lucky scratch card player won the top $50,000 prize available from the $5 scratch card game Crazy 8s, to boost his January winnings of $30,000 from the same $5 scratch card lottery game.

And while multiple wins in a row are rare but not unheard of, what did a Vietnam veteran of Fall River, 50 miles south of Boston, Massachusetts, would probably never happen again.

In December, the man decided to buy not one but six Lucky for Life tickets with the exact same combination of numbers, won a cash prize of $390,000 from each, and received nearly $2 million in one lump sum from five of the tickets while leaving one ticket to pay him $25,000 in twenty annual payments.

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