The 2024 WPT Voyage has officially arrived back at its starting destination, having awarded over $1.5 million in total cash prizes and crowned several new World Poker Tour title holders in the process.
Following is an event-by-event summary of the live poker tournaments that took place on Virgin Voyages’ Valiant Lady cruise ship between March 31st and April 6th, 2024.
2024 WPT Voyage Main Event Winner Aram Oganyan | Image Credit: WPT Flickr
2024 WPT Voyage Tournament Results
Live poker tournament action began on the evening of March 31st Eastern Time with the $2,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Turbo event.
Once the dust had settled, high stakes rounder Taylor von Kriegenbergh of Massachusetts had outlasted a field of 86 entries to collect a $58,319 first place prize.
The win places von Kriegenbergh even closer to achieving $5 million in career live poker tournament cash prize winning, according to The Hendon Mob.
On April 1st, the $5,000 buy-in 2024 WPT Voyage championship tournament began, which quickly filled up the sea-faring poker room.
Cards are in the air for Day 1 of our $5,000 @WPT Voyage Championship!
Players start with 50,000 chips and 40-minute levels for Day 1, with Day 2+ being 60-minutes.
Late registration remains open until the start of Level 10.
Chip Counts & Live Updates: https://t.co/UrIrV0V1hh pic.twitter.com/xdMFk2mM9X
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) April 1, 2024
Shortly thereafter, Kenneth Compton picked up his first-ever WPT Seniors title with a $12,379 haul upon outlasting a competitive field of nearly 200 hopefuls.
It was Joshua O’Neal who came out on top of the 2024 WPT Voyage Tag Team event. Joshua received close to $10,000 for winning the event.
Next up, on April 1st, was the 2024 WPT Voyage HORSE tournament, which attracted 30 total players who entered the $660 buy-in live event.
“Sea-HORSE” winner Jesse Hollander | Image Credit: Allison Hollander
Jesse Hollander blazed a trail through the Mixed Game event and received $7,100 in prize money plus the exclusive trophy upon winning the tournament.
Paul Chung walked away with a $25,062 payday for his victory in the mid-week Pot Limit Omaha event that boasted a $1,100 buy-in and attracted 85 entrants.
Meanwhile, in the highly competitive 2024 WPT Voyage Ladies Event, it was award-winning poker personality, content creator, and player Caitlin Comeskey who collected $10,221 upon surviving a field of 230 opponents.
I won a @WPT title!!!! Thanks to the best rail ever
pic.twitter.com/EtpE2TPxvA
— Caitlin Comeskey (@CaitlinComeskey) April 5, 2024
WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage is an award-winning executive within the poker world who’s has received many more accolades for his professional industry role as opposed to his poker playing skills.
However, Matt became a World Poker Tour title holder himself this past week when he won the only tournament he played in while aboard the Virgin Voyages Valiant Lady.
If you are going to only play one tournament @WPT @VirginVoyages you might as well win it!!!
pic.twitter.com/TsedE7Jjkt
— Matt Savage (@SavagePoker) April 5, 2024
Poker player Duy Ho was the first place finisher in the $325 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha tournament during the cruise.
The $1,100 Mystery Bounty event was won by Mitchell Halverson, who took home the lion’s share just over $20K of the $167,000 prize pool. Notching an even bigger payday, however, was Ben Ludlow, who scored the coveted $25K Bounty prize. Ludlow also finished 5th in the event, for an additional $5K+ to further pad his bankroll.
Easy game @WPT pic.twitter.com/ZvrL6amRr3
— Ben Ludlow (@Bloodlow) April 4, 2024
While results of the $10K High Roller Event haven’t been made available as of press time, we spied a very happy and content-looking Dylan Linde cashing in his payslip — celebratory bottle of wine in hand — just before the ship docked back in Miami, for just over $280,000 after taking the event down.
2024 WPT Voyage Main Event and Prime Champions
Brazilian Gregory De Faria punched his ticket into this year’s WPT World Championship in Las Vegas upon winning the 2024 WPT Voyage Prime Main Event.
Gregory De Faria is your @WPTPrime Voyage Champion!
After cruising through a field of 968 entries, and battling Trent Hopper heads up, he’s taking home the title and $155,400 including a seat to the #WPTWorldChampionship @WynnLasVegas this December!
1st: Gregory De… pic.twitter.com/CTd0Lj2MGS
— WPT Prime (@WPTPrime) April 5, 2024
De Faria claimed $155,400 in cash prize winnings while giving his exuberant fan base something to cheer for all tournament long.
The most highly coveted live poker tournament prize during the cruise was awarded to high roller Aram Oganyan.
Aram Oganyan (@Smackems818) is your $5,000 @WPT Voyage Champion!
After boarding the #WPTVoyage on Sunday, Oganyan navigated the 293 entry field to take home the title and 1st place prize of $214,245 including a seat to the $10,400 @WPT World Championship @WynnLasVegas!… pic.twitter.com/1Xkf5aEOD2
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) April 4, 2024
The Armenian-born poker pro who now resides in California took home $214,245 in a three-way final table deal for the 2024 WPT Voyage Main Event.
Finally, it was Las Vegas poker pro Brian Battistone who added $304,920 to his career live tournament earnings upon taking down the $25,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em high roller event.
2024 WPT Voyage Deemed a Resounding Success
Based on overall attendance and live poker tournament atmosphere, the overwhelming hope among both those preset as well as those FOMO-ing from home is that the World Poker Tour will consider hosting another WPT Voyage during the 2025 calendar year.
Would this be a fair representation of the response if @WPT were to run a #WPTVoyage again?
pic.twitter.com/uZwsfDvO7y
— Lynn Gilmartin (@LynnGilmartin) April 6, 2024
Special thank to Virgin Voyages and the crew of the Valiant Lady for their role in providing approximately 1,800 poker players with an unforgettable experience.
The 2024 WPT Voyage was attended by a full cadre of WPT Ambassadors, including Andrew Neeme, as well as Lynn Gilmartin, Vince Van Patten, and Tony Dunst. Also present were many other industry notables like Aceholes podcaster Nikki Limo, GGPoker’s Game of Gold cast members Olga Iermolcheva and Lukas “Robin Poker” Robinson, among many others.
@RobinPoker_ got the opportunity of a lifetime as part of the cast of Poker After Dark: Game of Gold, and as he continues his dalliance with live poker on @WPT Voyage, the online poker streamer has received more attention than expected from fans.
https://t.co/nPbQghR2xB
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) April 5, 2024
Finally, a private game was also held aboard the seafaring vessel, which saw nosebleed-stakes games taking place pretty much every moment the Valiant Lady was sailing through international waters.
While we don’t know the exact results of that exclusive cash game, it’s known that Matt Berkey, Jean-Robert Bellande and Rob Yong were among the participants, that many hundreds of thousands of dollars changed hands… and that all the participants had a blast.
What I like most about playing poker with @BrokeLivingJRB is that he has the same temperament- win or lose – always gracious, it’s been a pleasure
KTF @WPT Voyager Rob
pic.twitter.com/ma85BYBNHn
— Rob Yong (@rob_yong_) April 5, 2024
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