Farid Yachou Wins WPT Amsterdam in his First Live Tournament

May 16, 2015

Farid Yachou Farid Yachou has won WPT Amsterdam in his first-ever live tournament appearance.

The Moroccan born cafeteria owner learned the game playing cash games with his friends. He doesn’t even frequent casinos. He only decided to play in this event so he could experience something different.

“I wanted to compete against the best players in the world.” Yachou told us.

Play he did.

He beat the lot.

The inaugural WPT Amsterdam attracted 341 entrants, and created a total prize pool of just over a million dollars. $239,559 of that now rests in the wallet of Yachou. He will also be making the trip stateside for the WPT World Championships. Let’s take a look at how he did it.

Farid Yachou started the final table with the second shortest stack. Jason Wheeler was the only player who had less chips, and the American would be the first player to hit the rail. It’s been a great week for Wheeler – who won the WPT Amsterdam High Roller for €125,000 – but he will be disappointed to leave this one so early. Yachou flopping a set of treys, Wheeler turning two pair, and that proved to be the right combination for an all-in and call. Wheeler was out, and Yachou moved into contention.

With Wheeler out, Joep van den Bijgaart took the role of most prominent player. It wasn’t an honor that was bestowed upon him for very long. The Dutchman losing a flip TT<AQ against the Brit, Steve Warburton, and suddenly we were four-handed, with Warburton at the head of the chip counts.

Whilst all of this was going on, Fredrik Andersson’s day was going downhill fast. The Swede couldn’t get anything going, and even when he got it in good, against Kees van Brugge, the poker gods refused to throw him a bone. Andersson holding Aclub Kspade, Van Brugge holding Kheart Theart, and the Dutchman would river a straight to send our Day 1A chip leader to the rail.

It took 45 hands to reach the three handed action. It took 75 more to lose another player. During that time the form didn’t change one bit. Kees van Brugge pushed the action, Farid Yachou had a few scraps with him, and Steve Warburton sat behind his big stack and let the pair trade blows. Eventually, Van Brugge got shorter, and shorter before Warburton stepped onto the field to put an end to his run. Van Brugge open jamming the button with Aclub 8diamond, and Warburton picked him apart with Adiamond Qheart. Two queens on the flop helped, and an ace on the turn made things even better. Warburton was going to square off against Yachou with all of the experience, all of the guile, and a chip lead to boot.

It was a classic David v Goliath heads-up match. Warburton had been playing tournament poker for the past 10-years. He calls it his profession. Yachou owns a cafe, and was playing his first official live tournament of his life.

The match up was settled in two critical hands.

In the first hand Yachou opened the button for 260,000, and Warburton called. The flop was Kdiamond Jspade 9diamond, Warburton checked, Yachou bet 330,000, and Warburton called. The turn was the 5spade. Warburton checked, Yachou bet 330,000, Warburton moved all-in, and Yachou called. Warburton tabled Kheart 5heart for two pair, but Yachou had flopped a set of nines. The river bricked for the lad from Manchester, and Yachou had 8.2m of the 10.3m chips in play.

The final hand of the tournament saw Farid Yachou limp the button, Steve Warburton move all-in, and Yachou make the call. It was Aspade 8club for Warburton, pocket sixes for Yachou, and five community cards later the Holland Casino was going Farid Yachou mad.

Final Table Results

1st. Farid Yachou – $239,559
2nd. Steve Warburton – $167,134
3rd. Kees van Brugge – $100,281
4th. Fredrik Andersson – $75,768
5th. Joep van den Bijgaart – $56,826
6th. Jason Wheeler – $45,973

That’s a wrap for WPT Amsterdam. We would like to thank our wonderful hosts at the Holland Casino, and the next time we see you will be in Las Vegas for the WPT500 at the Aria Resort.

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