Day 1a of the $3,800 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Choctaw event wrapped Friday night with a familiar face — Bin Weng — bagging a massive stack.

Weng has an opportunity to make history this week. If he were to reach the final table, which will take place in Las Vegas May 26 at Luxor’s HyperX Esports Arena, it would be one of the most impressive accomplishments in poker history. That’s because on May 25, he’ll enter the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown final table in Las Vegas with the chip lead playing for $1.1 million.

The payouts aren’t set at Choctaw just yet as Day 1b will take place at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday. Registration will be closed following the dinner break. Shortly after, the payouts will become available. Through the first of two Day 1 sessions, 312 players have entered and Day 1b figures to be even bigger.

Andrew Moreno Was Friday’s Top Performer

While Weng had himself yet another banner session, bagging 435,000 chips (174 big blinds), everyone is chasing Andrew Moreno, who started off hot on Friday, cooled off a bit, and then finished the day with a flurry. The 2021 Wynn Millions $1.4 million winner went back to his hotel room at Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma with 510,500 chips (204 big blinds).

The full list of chip counts will be available early morning on Saturday, but some other big names with big stacks include Ren Lin (367,500), Alex Foxen (358,500), Jared Jaffee (220,000), and Tony Miles (100,000).

There are a number of long-time WPT crushers who bagged and tagged, including a pair of three-time champions — Anthony Zinno and Eric Afriat — along with former Player of the Year winners Art Papazyan and Jacob Ferro. Zinno is also a previous World Poker Tour POY recipient.

How Great is Bin Weng?

Weng’s potential run to World Poker Tour history is objectively impressive. But he’s quietly becoming one of the top tournament players in the world, and not just in WPT events.

In early January, he took down the 1,142-player No-Limit Hold’em The Return, a $5,300 buy-in event at Borgata in Atlantic City, for a career-best $1 million. He then followed that up with a World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) win for $227,344 in February at Horseshoe Las Vegas.

Adding on his $238,000 minimum cash in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, the payout for sixth place, he has already cashed for over $1.5 million in live tournaments this year, according to Hendon Mob. And given his chip stack in both the Choctaw and Seminole events, it’s likely by the end of the month he will easily surpass that number.

Weng will return to Choctaw Casino’s Grand Theater on Sunday for Day 2. The tournament will play down to the final table in Oklahoma on Monday and then take a break before returning to action in Las Vegas on May 26. If Weng, who finished ninth at Choctaw last year, is able to reach the final table, he will compete for WPT titles in back-to-back days.

_{*Images courtesy of WPT.}

Mike Matusow used patience and persistence to grind out a $20,000 win against Shaun Deeb on the High Stakes Duel IV undercard Friday afternoon on PokerGO.

“The Mouth” didn’t pick up many monster hands — neither did his opponent — but he avoided having one of his patented meltdowns. The $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em heads-up competition lasted approximately three hours and went back and forth throughout.

Both players came to play and there wasn’t much in the way of punting going on. It was certainly a grind as the big pots were few and far between, and Matusow had to battle to earn that victory. Early on, Deeb was in control, but never could pull far ahead. He simply couldn’t ever find the right spot to take down a game-changing pot.

Matusow Regains the Lead

About 30 minutes into the match, Matusow raised from the button to 600 with 10♠7♠ and received a call from the big blind with K♣8♦. The flop was 8♠K♠2♣ and the under-the-gun player checked top two pair and then called a bet of 600.

When the J♠ appeared on the turn, completing Matusow’s flush, the action went check, 2,500 bet, call. Following the 4♣ on the river, Deeb checked and then was faced with a bet of 8,000, to which he couldn’t fold.

Matusow turned over the flush, took down the pot, and moved into the lead by the narrowest of margins. Shortly after, Deeb would regain a 60/40 advantage when he pulled of a bluff with eight-high on the river because Matusow missed his straight and flush draw and couldn’t call the bet.

Throughout the first hour, Deeb had solid control on the match and won 42 of the first 61 hands dealt, but never could win a massive pot. Matusow would start to pick up small pots to even things up again despite having won only about a third of the pots.

Matusow Attempts a Bluff

Throughout the first 90 minutes of the match, there weren’t any major swings. Deeb won numerous small pots for the first hour, and then Matusow returned the favor. But neither player had made any big moves or won a huge hand on a cooler.

Nearly two hours into the game, “The Mouth” decided it was time to make a play. With 9♦8♥ and 16,000 in the pot on a board of K♦3♣J♥2♥J♣, he bet 7,500 and correctly read his opponent for having a marginally weak hand. The only problem for him was Deeb decided to get stingy with 6♥3♠ and made a great call to regain a small lead.

Moments later, Matusow fell further behind but made a wise decision to avoid potentially busting. Deeb opened to 1,600 with J♠J♦ before the big blind three-bet to 5,100 with A♣9♥, a play that didn’t work out because his opponent then re-raised to 12,500, which convinced Matusow, who dropped to just below 30,000, to fold the inferior hand.

The match would start to go the other way when Matusow made a brilliant value bet with a pair of fours on the river to get a call from a pair of deuces to win a 19,800-chip pot, one of the key hands of the game.

Shortly after, on a board of 9♦K♣8♦5♣ and 8,800 in the pot, “The Mouth” went for an almost pot-sized bet (8,000) with K♥10♠ and received a call from 8♥7♥. The J♠ on the river didn’t help either player, so they both checked and Matusow took down another key pot to move back into nearly a 60/40 advantage.

Matusow would then take Deeb to Value Town with trips with a 5,000-chip bet on the river and earned a call from queen-high. He had completely taken control of the match

Moments later, Deeb would again call off a river bet without a pair, this time AxKx, and lose to a rivered top pair in a 21,000-chip pot. Nearly three hours into the session, Deeb’s stack had dwindled down to under 20 big blinds.

On the final hand, Deeb moved all in for 19,500 with Q♣10♠ and was quickly called by K♠J♦. The board came out 5♣2♠4♥4♣9♣. Matusow took down the pot and the $20,000 prize pool.

The High Stakes Duel IV main card will take place May 8-9 on PokerGO with Daniel Negreanu, who is 0-3 on the show, will face loudmouth casino owner Eric Persson. Each player will be in for $50,000 in Round 1 and then the loser will pay $100,000 to enter Round 2.

_{*Images courtesy of PokerGO.}

When he got his start in poker in 2015 playing in Norway’s local underground poker clubs, Kayhan Mokri remembers watching top pros like Timothy Adams and Nick Petrangelo compete at the highest stakes on the televised European Poker Tour (EPT) and elsewhere. Eight years later, the 28-year-old, now a full-time professional, finds himself sitting across the table from those very same players.

“I watched these guys on TV a way long time ago,” recalled Mokri. “Like Steve O’Dwyer, for example, he’s been in the game for like forever and suddenly I’m playing with him every day and joking around with him. It’s kind of fun.”

While he’s mainly stuck to mid and high-stakes cash games since going pro in 2018, Mokri recently pivoted to tournaments and has played a packed EPT schedule since March 2022.

One year since making the jump to tournaments, the Norwegian has become one of the hottest players on the live high-stakes circuit. He has made eight EPT final tables and crushed the Mystery Bounty format in particular. At the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure alone, the Norwegian pulled over $300,000 in bounties — including two $100k bounties — en route to three final table runs worth another $468,000.

“It’s been crazy. I’ve been running good, obviously,” Mokri said with a smile.

Mokri sat down with PokerNews last stop at the EPT Paris to talk about his incredible bounty run and rise to poker’s highest stakes, including playing six-figure pots in the legendary Bobby’s Room at Bellagio in Las Vegas and getting ready for his first Triton series. The full interview with Mokri can be heard on the Feb. 24 episode the PokerNews Podcast.

From Norway to Bobby’s Room

For someone playing nosebleed cash games and high roller tournaments, Mokri considers himself “pretty fresh.”

Like many young poker players, Mokri started playing while he was still in college. And, like many young poker players, the game eventually overtook Mokri’s studies.

“I just played that while I was studying, but eventually I was winning enough money that I ended up stop(ping) studying and played instead,” he said.

Mokri started playing online poker in 2017 and by the end of the year, he considered himself a professional. “I could say I was making a good enough living.”

After making the jump to pro player, Mokri went overseas to Las Vegas and eventually made his way up to the biggest games in town, including in the fabled Bobby’s Room (now the Legends Room) where poker icons like Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Eli Elezra and Tom Dwan all made names for themselves.

“I’ve had some big hands in my life,” he recalled. “At the Bellagio in Vegas, I’ve had multiple pots over $200k. One was versus seven-deuce because we have this game in Bobby’s Room that if you win with seven-deuce you get like $500 or $700 from each player. So we got bloated up in a big pot versus seven-deuce.”

Not all the big pots went Mokri’s way. “Last trip, I was just there in January, I lost a $300k pot almost with (a set of) tens versus kings in a six-bet pot on Qx10x5xKx. Went all in and he had a set of kings. These things do happen. It’s not only on TV. It was like a $280k pot or something. Pretty big. In a $100/$200 game.”

In 2021, he lost a “heartbreaking” $500,000 pot in Bobby’s Room, “but since then I’ve been playing regularly $10/$20, $25/$50, $100/$150.”

“If It Was Easy, I Wouldn’t Enjoy It”

Before he lost that half-a-million pot in Bobby’s Room, Mokri decided to switch up from his online $2/$5 Zoom grind and registered a $1,000 buy-in Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) event that he ended up taking down for a decent score. “Then I decided, ‘OK, I will try to play these Main Events.”

Mokri went on to make two SCOOP final tables, including chopping the $10,000 Main Event for $791,074.

“So that was a pretty big spot for me in that situation. Probably wasn’t very responsible (of me) to play it at that time,” he laughed. “So after that, I probably haven’t looked back since.”

While it’s a long way from Europe, Mokri has the Bellagio to thank for his pivot to high-stakes tournaments. He was playing there when Adrian Mateos, a longtime high-stakes tournament crusher who Mokri noted was the same age as him, suggested he give the high rollers a try.

Now, Mokri finds Mateos putting him in tough spots at poker stops like this 2022’s EPT Prague, where he finished eighth in a €10,000 High Roller for $72,308 (Mateos finished in sixth place for $177,049).

“The guys who have been giving me the most trouble (are) Timothy Adams, Sam Grafton and Mateos,” Mokri said. “They’re giving me the most trouble, I would say. But that’s just for now, next stop it might be some other guys. It’s just because I’ve played the biggest pots against them.”

While he still considers himself mainly a cash game player, Mokri has had no trouble competing in live tournaments.

“I enjoy live tournaments way more because you talk to people, you meet a lot of cool people.”

“I enjoy live tournaments way more because you talk to people, you meet a lot of cool people,” he said. “Especially in the high roller scene. Because they’re all so close … they all know each other and it’s very calm and everyone’s laughing. It’s a good atmosphere. I kind of enjoy them, to be honest.”

As one of the youngest players on the high-roller circuit, Mokri knows that most of his opponents “have a lot (more) experience and they’ve been in the game so long.”

“Everybody plays very well. It’s been fun, you learn new things and you have to try new things. So I still have some work to do for sure, but I feel like I could stay for sure. I feel that way myself. I don’t know, if you ask them it might (be) different.”

Another reason he enjoys competing against the world’s best players is that “you learn a lot … it’s always like high-level pressure, you have to think, you’re playing for the big bucks, too.“

“Your brain stops thinking about the money,” he said. “I enjoy the experience. I think it’s cool to be challenged. And if it was easy, I wouldn’t enjoy it.”

Crushing the Bounty Format

The Mystery Bounty format, where players can win six to seven figures simply by knocking out an opponent, is as popular as ever, and Mokri is one of the primary beneficiaries of that popularity.

Separate deep runs in Mystery Bounty events at the PCA earlier this year put him in a prime position to pick up one of the elusive $100,000 bounties, and he managed to get two of them, first in the $3,000 Mystery Bounty en route to a seventh-place finish for $37,400 and then in $10,000 Mystery Bounty before finishing runner-up for $90,400.

“I think we were like 18 left or something in the $3,000, I pulled 12 $1,000 bounties, and I came back every time I was like, ‘I’m going to get the $100k. I’m going to get the $100k,'” he remembered. “And then suddenly I was like boof … Yeah, it was a great moment. $100k is a lot of money.”

There were 17 bounties in play in the $10,000 event, and Mokri ended up with nine of them. “I pulled another $100k there and one $50k and two $25ks. Yeah, so it was crazy. Unreal.”

If the massive bounty haul wasn’t enough, Mokri finished the PCA trip with a fourth-place finish in a $25,000 High Roller for $340,200. He kept his bounty mojo with him at EPT Paris and picked up at least ten bounties for €105,000 in €10,200 Mystery Bounty. While he finished second for €82,950, his bounties made him the biggest winner of the tournament.

While there’s plenty of luck in drawing the biggest bounties, Mokri’s play style set him up to do so.

“I’m for sure calling wider than most people would,” he explained. “I have (what) some people would say a very aggressive style of poker playing. And then that factors in when you’re playing bounties, you’re obviously going to be hunting wider probably. And when you’re playing very aggressively, you get in a lot of big pots. So either you have a very big stack or you don’t have much of a stack or you’re out. In those Mystery Bounty tournaments, I like to have a big stack or no stack almost … I feel like that makes sense.”

Read About Some of the Biggest Hands at PCA!

“I’ve Always Been the Clown”

Like Grafton, Ren Lin and Tom Orpaz, Mokri is one of the select few players on the high-roller circuit who doesn’t mind getting loose at the table.

“I’ve always been like the clown, I would say. I like to joke around. The problem for me is (that) if things get too serious and too dry, I don’t enjoy it. And if I stop enjoying it I probably won’t do it anymore. I try to just be myself. This is just the way I am, my character. It’s not a fake thing, it’s just the way I am.”

While some players like Will Kassouf and Scott Seiver have made careers out of table talk, Mokri said there isn’t an exploitative factor to his extroversion at the table.

“A lot of people ask me this. I’ve always joked about I ask them (at the poker table) where they’re from, how old they are, (and) after they answer I’m joking like ‘information is key, blah, blah, blah.’ But no, I don’t really do it for the information. I just like to get to know people better and know who I’m playing with every day. And most of them, like I would say 99.9% of the guys I talk to are super cool and the nicest guys, no matter what tournament; not just the high rollers, just in general. But I act the same way at the $1k table as I do there. For me, I just like talking to people. I’m just trying to distract myself from thinking about how much money we’re playing for. Maybe it’s mostly for me than it’s for others.”

As jovial as he is, Mokri still feels it when he busts a tournament. When PokerNews spoke with him, Mokri had just returned from dinner after being eliminated from the EPT Paris Main Event on his second bullet.

“I just busted the 50k and I came in with a very bad mindset,” recalled Mokri. “I would say I was playing my D-game at this point. I had a big hand versus (Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari) where he stacked me, so I re-entered, and then the next bullet… I was just a bit dicey from beforehand, probably wasn’t a good idea to play the tournament at this stage. But I did anyway, and now I’m going to go home tomorrow and relax for a week or ten days and then go to Triton Vietnam. That is the plan, at least. We’ll see how it goes.”

Mokri did make the trip to Triton Vietnam and managed to finish ninth in a $30,000 7-handed event for $119,000. He didn’t pick up any five or six-figure bounties, but there are plenty of future poker stops for him to do so at.