Christopher Michael Soyza
Kuala Lumpur,
Last Result
| Date | Country | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 11 - 12, 2024 |
No Limit Hold'em - 8-Handed (Event #8)Triton Poker, Jeju |
6 | $465,000 |
Profile
Christopher Michael Soyza is a poker player born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He currently ranks 7th in Malaysia’s all-time money list with total live earnings of $10,281.015.
Poker beginnings
Soyza’s first taste of victory in live poker tournaments started in 2011. Clearly a greenhorn, he barely cashed in those tournaments. In 2012, however, he won two titles: one for a Pot Limit Omaha event in the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Macau for $10,699, and another for a Deep Stack Turbo No-Limit Hold’em event in APT Manila for $3,050.
His early run was cut short but then three years later, he smashed the 2015 Aussie Millions Poker Championship in Melbourne, winning a title and $111,520 to go with it. The following year, he repeated the same feat for $102,118.
From 2017 to present
The back-to-back wins represented a huge upswing in Soyza’s poker career. He managed to replicate the run in 2017. In May of that year, he finished 2nd place in the Main Event of the Poker King Cup in Macau for $145,812. Several months after, he bagged a title for a High Roller event of the Macau Poker Cup 27, scooping $260,552 in the process.
Positively buoyed by this success, 2018 saw an uptick in Soyza’s participation in live tournaments. In April of that year, he won the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Main Event in Incheon, Korea for $148,629.
The year also saw him take his chances at the mecca of poker, Las Vegas, USA. While there, he took down an astounding $588,249 prize for a title in the DeepStack Championship Poker Series. He also participated in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) circuit with not much success. Barely past the middle of the year, he snagged yet another huge prize amounting to $344,086 for winning a title in the European Poker Tour (APT) Barcelona, Spain.
High Roller achievements
Not quite done with the year and with plenty of ammo to join tournaments with larger prize pools, Soyza took part in Leon’s High Roller event in the WSOP Europe circuit and won $592,594 for his 3rd place finish. A month later, he booked two high roller events in the Jeju Red Dragon 2018 circuit at 2nd and 3rd places for a combined payday of $501,787 to close out the year.
However, this proved merely to be a prelude to the year Soyza will have in 2019. In March 2019, he returned to Jeju to play the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. Beating tough competition, he managed to win the title and an astounding $1,420,581 – his best live cash to date. In August, he played the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series again, this time in August. He placed 4th in the Main Event and won another handsome $1,363,027 payday.
Just before the health pandemic closed poker tournaments in 2020, Soyza managed to secure three substantial wins. In the Aussie Millions Poker Championship, he placed 5th for $290,342. Then in Sochi, he finished two Short Deck events in the partypoker MILLIONS Sochi Super High Roller series at 2nd and 4th places for $561,780 and $300,000, respectively.
When live poker returned in 2022, Soyza put up a solid year-round performance, finishing at the top 10 of 14 events, although missing out on a major title. All in all, he won $1,779,473 for the year.
In 2023, Soyza started his campaign in his home country Malaysia. He won 2nd place in a Super High Roller event of the Poker Dream Malaysia for $119,174.
Read more about this player on Somuchpoker :
September 11, 2107: MPC 27 Big winners: Qiuming Qin, Michael Soyza, and James Lee; Alan Lau retakes APOY lead
Read more about Asian Poker Players
Data source: Global Poker Index