Niagara Falls was the spectacular setting for two major World Poker Tour tournaments this week as top poker players battled it out in Season 5 of the North American Poker Championship, and the inaugural Canadian Open Poker Championship. In a switcheroo result, an American took the Canadian Open, but a Canadian wears the North American crown!
Canadian Soren Turkewitsch, a 27 year old factory worker prevailed at the final table of the North American Poker Championship, coming out on top to win $1 352 224. The big win will enable Turkewitsch to improve his living arrangements somewhat – reports are that he and his girlfriend live in the basement of her parent’s home! The total prize pool was $4.8 million.
After four days of play, the WPT event was whittled down from 497 poker players to the final table of six players. Joining Turkewitsch were Jason Sagle, John Lam, Jim Worth, Marc Karam and John Juanda, the lone American at the table. Sagle finished second with prizemoney of $ 676 107, but even tghe first player out of the final, Marc Karam took home $169 027.
On the following day, the brand new Canadian Open played out its final table with the American ace Scott Clements dominating it from the start and collecting the $250 027 winner’s cheque. 298 players started the new tournament.