Leron Washington Knocks Out the Competition at the WPT Celebrity Invitational

Submitted by Luckylizzy on Fri, 2010-03-05 15:18

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Professional boxer and part-time poker player Leron Washington landed a major victory for himself this week. The ring fighter knocked out the competition at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Celebrity Invitational on Wednesday taking first place.

Washington won his seat at the invite-only tournament the best way we know how; through an online tournament. The boxer is a member of the subscription-based online poker room Club WPT and managed to snag himself a spot off one of their many tournaments.

Despite competition from the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) in Las Vegas the West Virginia event still managed to pull a very respectable playing field. All and all there were 567 players vying for a piece of the $225,000 in cash and prizes up for grabs at the final table.

While some players seemed perfectly content to take in the scene and make use of photo ops Washington had different things in mind. He pushed hard to make it to the very end.

His first place finish earned him $100,000, a commemorative watch and bracelet and a seat to play in next month’s WPT Championship Event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Shortly after the big win he told reporters, “It's a dream come true. I've been waiting for this day a long time… I've been trying to get out there to show what I can do, but you have to earn it. ClubWPT gave me the opportunity to make it happen, and here I am. The $20 a month subscription is definitely the best investment I've ever made."

Commerce Casino Director of Poker Operations, John Griffo said the following, "One of the great highlights of the WPT Invitational for Commerce Casino is the opportunity to reward people who love poker, but may not be full time established professionals, whether they are Hollywood stars or people who earned their way through Commerce satellites or partners like ClubWPT.com. We applaud LeRon for the 'fight' he showed in getting through the field of more than 500 and becoming our new WPT Invitational champion.”

Often overlooked the Invitational was also a great fundraising event for charity. The event raised $109,700 for Chrysalis, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals become self-sufficient through employment opportunities.

The final table results:

1st Place: Leron Washington - $100,000
2nd Place: Sean Urban - $50,000
3rd Place: Trishelle Cannatella - $20,000
4th Place: Neev Baram - $15,000
5th Place: Thor Hansen - $10,000
6th Place: Steven Elliott - $5,000

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