After five long days, including four Day 1 flights, and today’s 12 hour Day 2, Emmanuel Derecho emerged as a dominant chip leader ahead of the final table of the WPT League Sydney Championship Main Event.
The remaining runners will be back at the St Johns Park Bowling Club Pavilion Poker Room at 6pm AEDT Monday, with Derecho’s 11,210,000 stack giving him over 30% of the chips in play in a tournament that has broken the record for both number of entries and total prize pool in WPT League Sydney history.
The 30-year-old took a moment to chat with PokerMedia Australia, reflecting on his journey to reach this stage.
“It feels really good cause I launched like four or five bullets at this thing,” Derecho laughed. ”This has gotta be one of the biggest leads I’ve had, I think the biggest.”
Derecho spoke highly of his experience with WPT League, with this series being his first time at the venue.
“In terms of the way it’s run, everyone here’s really professional. It’s almost like a casino standard,” he said.
Derecho enjoyed the relaxed blind structure and 40-minute levels, usually seen at much higher entry games. A top two finish on Monday would see him score a career-high cash, with his current best being $54,000 for a 5th-place finish in the 2017 APL Million, the same event won by Branko Usljebrka who also appears on this final table.
In terms of his approach to closing out this event, Derecho said he plans to “keep the aggression up and try to run as good as I can … though I can’t control that … and try to keep the mood light on the table!”
If he were to claim first place, it’s no surprise Derecho would be most happy with the $105,000 up for grabs, albeit for a heartwarming reason.
“I told my partner if I bink a big one, we’re gonna go overseas, she wants to go on a holiday. All I’ve been doing is grinding, so she’s kind of annoyed,” he laughed.
Coverage of the Main Event will pick back up from 6pm Monday, when our finalists return to fight for the big money up top, plus a WPT Prime Las Vegas package, trophy and ring to match. Tune into PokerMedia Australia as we bring you all the final table action!
WPT League Sydney Championship Main Event – final table chip counts:
| Player | Chips |
| Emmanuel Derecho | 11,210,000 |
| Xuzhou Wu | 6,825,000 |
| Prithvi Nejjur | 6,305,000 |
| Fadi Tabet | 4,240,000 |
| Branko Usljebrka | 2,455,000 |
| Errolyn Strang | 1,750,000 |
| Rory McAlister | 1,710,000 |
| Marco Perri | 1,650,000 |
| Steven Huynh | 1,210,000 |
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