Suspected Money Launderer Gal Yifrach Wins NAPT Main Event

The $5,300 buy-in NAPT Main Event ended dramatically last night at Resorts World in Las Vegas as the American poker professional Gal Yifrach came back from a massive chip deficit to deny the overnight leader Thomas Boivin victory. Winning an amended top prize of $543,025 after a heads-up deal, Yifrach hardly smiled as he locked up the win, with a pre-trial conference just days away in California.

Could the latest PokerStars NAPT winner be heading for jail? We’ve investigated the details.

*after a heads-up deal

Early Eliminations Hit at Heads-Up Battle to Come

When the last six players who had survived from 738 entries gathered at the final table, one man was in charge. Thomas Boivin held a massive chip lead over the field, with over four times the chips of his nearest opponent. Gal Yifrach sat third in chips but needed to start fast to have any hope of victory and his elimination of Peter Mugar helped greatly. Mugar had king-three and began and ended his final hand well behind Yifrach’s ace-eight, which hit an ace on the flop. No cards came to help Mugar, who cashed for $132,850 in sixth place.

Boivin was mostly winning all-ins, but he lost a big one when Michael Berk struck the leader with a cooler. All in with pocket aces, Berk defeated Boivin’s ace-king after the final ace in the deck hit the flop. Yifrach had aces soon after, chipping up through Boivin too but the chip leader responded, winning with ace-nine to take out Berk in fifth place for $172,650 as the latter’s king-queen couldn’t find the right paint across the board with all the chips committed pre-flop.

The drama was not unexpected. This was, after all, the same NAPT Main Event where Jeremy Ausmus hit a royal flush against quad aces on Day 1b. And the hits kept coming in the final, with Ekrem Bozkurt dominating yet defeated in fourth for $224,450. The American player held ace-king but lost to Boivin’s king-seven of clubs as a seven landed on the flop and no ace came to rescue the home country player.

Chess Queen Suffers Checkmate as Deal Done

If there is one position in poker that hurts the most to bust in, it is probably the place just before a deal takes place. The chess grandmaster and PokerStars ambassador Jen Shahade bowed out in third place for $291,800 after she ran into a monster. Effectively committing her stack pre-flop with ace-queen of hearts, Shahade’s rail was distraught to see Boivin iso-call with pocket kings.

“Ace from space! Ace from space!” Shahade’s rail cheered loudly. The flop contained nothing of any help, coming J-4-3. A ten on the turn, however, gave Shahade the straight draw too, but also provided Boivin with flush outs. Neither came, though, as the river produced the five of hearts, an ineffectual card that sent Shahade home with six figures and the support of her fans ringing in her ears.

With just the two men left, Yifrach and Boivin agreed a deal when Yifrach went runner-runner and took the lead heads-up. Each man guaranteed themselves $518,575 and left $24,450 over to play for along with the PokerStars ‘Golden Shard’ trophy. At the time of the deal, Yifrach’s stack of 12,575,000 was a chunk clear of Boivin’s pile of 9,525,000 chips.

Yifrach ‘Celebrates’ Win but Court Case Looms

Yifrach increased his advantage over the course of the next few hands and soon he had all the chips. All-in and at risk with pocket tens, he started the final hand ahead of Yifrach’s ace-nine of diamonds but a nine and two diamonds on the 9-4-3 flop made things interesting for viewers and Yifrach. On the turn, a five of diamonds landed to give Yifrach the nut flush and Boivin was drawing dead to the river of an offsuit queen of spades as the two men shook hands.

In other PokerStars Main Events, this is where a rail might have gone crazy, or the winner leapt around the room. Nothing like that happened this time, due mostly to the bizarre circumstances in which the winner had been playing the tournament. For the last three years, Yifrach has been living under the threat of a trial due to his federal indictment for operating an illegal gambling business and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Accused of washing money by “supplying, operating, and maintaining video slot machines and devices”, Yifrach’s illegal operation apparently took place from January 2018 to January 2022. Indicted in March of that year, Yifrach and his accomplices are accused of continuing to run the operation for over a year after the indictment, with Schneur Zalman Getzel Rosenfeld pleading guilty to the charges last summer.

If convicted, Yifrach could face up to 25 years in jail, $750,000 in fines and 36 months of supervised release, so even though he won the NAPT Main Event on his 39^th birthday for the biggest single score of his poker career, it was hardly the time for confetti at Resorts World Las Vegas.