Carlos Chang

– General Introduction –

Carlos Chang is a Taiwanese poker player.

He has $1.519 million in live tournament cashes. Despite that, he describes himself as a “hobby player”.

He even said so after he won his first WSOP gold bracelet. He took down the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout event for $364,589 in 2021. Online, he plays under the screen name “cyphellus” on PokerStars and Natural8-GGNetwork, where he collected a little over $200K in MTT cashes.

– Key Career Dates –

• 2008: He starts cashing in live tournaments around Asia.
• 2020: He finishes 3rd in the High Roller Club: $530 Bounty Builder HR [Progressive KO] event on PokerStars for $58,560. That is the biggest single online tournament cash of his career to date.
• 2021: He wins his first WSOP gold bracelet after finishing first in the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout event for $364,589. That is the biggest single live tournament cash of his career to date.

– Carlos Chang’s Career –

Chang’s first recorded cash on his Hendon page is from September 2008. He finished 3rd in the HK$4,000 No Limit Hold’em event at the Macau stop of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour, and won HK$35,520 (which equaled around $4,550 at the time). Soon after, in November 2008, he bagged his first victory on the live felt as well. He won the ₱10,000 No Limit Hold’em APPT event in Manila, Philippines for ₱218,900 ($4,462).

He then spent the next 5 years collecting cash after cash in mid stakes tourneys played exclusively in Macau. His big break there came in July 2012. He took down the HK$25,000 Main Event at Asian Poker Tour (APT) Macauand pocketed no less than HK$1.913 million ($246,600). That was the first time Chang made a live score for over $100K. In May 2014, he came in 6th in the APPT Macau Main Event for HK$464,000 ($59,852).

This gave him the bankroll and the confidence to travel to Las Vegas for his first World Series of Poker in 2015. He got back home with 3 cashes under his belt. The biggest one of which was $158,404 for a 5th place finish in the $1,111 NLHE Little One for One Drop event. Later that year, in October 2015, he also made his first major cash in Europe. He finished 3rd in the €1,650 No Limit Hold’em – Monster Stack event at WSOP Europe in Berlin, Germany for €80,170 ($91,048).

Chang’s next major live tourney success came from the WSOP as well. He came in 4th in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em – The Closer event in 2019, out of a massive field of 2,800 players. He got $189,584 for that impressive performance. The next year, in July 2020, he scored his biggest victory on his home turf, Taiwan. He took down the NT$63,600 NLHE High Roller 6-Max event at the Taiwan Millions Tournament Season 8 in Taipei City for NT$1.109 million ($37,658).

However, his greatest poker achievement to date by far came in October 2021.

That year, Carlos Chang won the $2,500 WSOP No Limit Hold’em Freezeout event. This earned his first ever gold bracelet along with the $364,589 first prize, which is his biggest single live tournament score to date. He beat Brady Osterman from the United States heads-up for the title.

Carlos Chang outlasts 896 entrants in the $2,500 NLH Freezeout to earn $364,589 and his first gold bracelet.
📸: @timeweavers https://t.co/xQERGSC8sW pic.twitter.com/caCsuAkHoc

— WSOP (@WSOP) October 24, 2021

As for online poker, Chang plays under the screen name “cyphellus” on PokerStars and Natural8-GGNetwork. He actually started playing online tournaments before live ones, as his first recorded online MTT cash on his PocketFives profile is from December 2007. He collected $206,000 in online tournaments across all sites over his career.

His biggest tourney score to date on the internet is $58,560. He earned that sum for finishing 3rd out of a field of 3,203 entries in the High Roller Club: $530 Bounty Builder HR [Progressive KO] event on PokerStars in March 2020.