Another six players captured trophies at the inaugural WPT Asia Online Series. The latest champions were Kosei Ichinose, Jung Chou Chen “DragonChou”, Wai Kiat Lee “Mr Lee”, Walter-White, bigwhailie, & LTC Hong. In addition to the champions, Vietnamese pro Ha Duong “Harry1403” reached the final table again making that four final tables with a victory at the WPT Trophy #1: Beat the Pros Bounty. At the Asia Nation’s Cup weekly leaderboard, China ruled the charts for a back to back victory. Check out our recaps for all the final table action.
The Asia-exclusive online series is down to its final days. It kicked off on October 3rd at online platform Natural8 – GGPoker and is set to conclude on October 25 inclusive. For players geo-located in the continent, this is your last chance to win one of the 5 remaining WPT trophies. The tournament to set your sights on is the headliner WPT Asia Main Event featuring a rich HK$ 10,000,000 (~US$ 1,290,000) guarantee. Starting flights are ongoing. All the information can be found just below.
Final Trophy Events
Open: WPT Trophy #22: WPT Asia Main Event
Buy in: HK$ 10,000 (~US$ 1,290)
Guarantee: HK$ 10,000,000 (~US$ 1,290,000)
Cumulative Entries: 173
Cumulative Final Day Qualifiers: 17 players
Entry Flights remaining: 15
Final Day: October 25 @ 21:00 HKT
Top 15 players
Open: WPT Trophy #21: WPT Macau Championship
Only one National Championship tournament remains. The WPT Macau Championship: HK$ 2,000,000 (~US$ 258,000) GTD takes place on Sunday, October 25 at 20:00 . Buy in is HK$ 3,500 (~US$ 450). In addition to the cash, title, and WPT trophy, the eventual champion will also receive an added US$ 3,000 WPT Passport.
Open: WPT Trophy #18: Turbo Poker Open
Date: October 22 @ 20:00 HKT
Buy in: HK$ 600 (~US$ 80)
Guarantee: HK$ 250,000 (~US$ 32,200)
Open: WPT Trophy #19: Zodiac White Tiger
Date: October 24 @ 20:00 HKT
Buy in: HK$ 800 (~US$ 103)
Guarantee: HK$ 388,000 (~US$ 50,000)
Open: WPT Trophy #20: PLO Finale
Date: October 24 @ 21:00 HKT
Buy in: HK$ 1,000 (~US$ 130)
Guarantee: HK$ 200,000 (~US$ 25,800)
Completed Events
WPT Trophy #12: 6-Max Poker Open – Walter-White – HK$ 67,802.96
The 6-Max Poker Open attracted 725 to just spill over the guarantee for a prize pool of HK$ 400,200 (~US$ 51,600). It took nearly nine hours for the champion to emerge with China’s Walter-White defeating Hong Kong’s Justin Chan “Lettuce_Bro” at heads up. Walter-White shipped HK$ 67,802.96 (~US$ 8,750) and the 12th WPT Trophy of the series. Walter-White adds this victory to the WPT Side Event: Turbo HK$300 he also won for HK$ 8,425 (~US$ 1,100). For runner up Lettuce_Bro, it was another impressive run with two prior WPT Side Event victories.
Buy in: HK$ 600 (~US$ 77)
Guarantee: HK$ 388,000 (~US$ 50,000)
Entries: 725
Prize pool: HK$ 400,200 (~US$ 51,600)
ITM: 98 places
Recapping the action at 12 players, Walter-White railed Khanh_Le when A10o found two tens to outdraw pocket sixes. Lettuce_Bro booted Michael7193 with pocket Tens dominating pocket sixes. jfc81n eliminated HolaComEXtaZ in 10th place to form the final table. Lettuce_Bro led the pack while eventual champion Walter-White ranked third.
Around 20 hands in, Ren Le Lin “li_xiaolong” avoided elimination with Q10o improving to a straight to crack Walter-White’s pocket Aces. Walter-White made up the loss by booting “excellect” in 9th place. This was the first of four players railed by Walter-White. Next on his hit list was Roger0857 (8th) followed by vhc258 (7th) on a bad beat with pocket Jacks flopping a set to dust pocket Kings. At six remaining, the game slowed until Japan’s “jfc81n” put the lid on qujin520. Mongolia’s BadBoyMNG (5th) followed with li_xiaolong delivering the bust.
Four handed was another long round. Walter-White scooped a big pot against Lettuce_Bro to jump to a big lead. Lettuce_Bro recovered and more by finishing off both jfc81n (4th) and li_xialong (3rd) to enter heads up ahead by 8 BB. The initial action was dominated by Lettuce_Bro, however, one double up was all it took to tip the scales to Walter-White’s favor. Walter-White 
held against 
. Four hands later, Walter-White laid the final push with 
victorious over 
.
Final table payouts
1st Walter-White – China – HK$ 67,802.96
2nd Justin Chan “Lettuce_Bro” – Hong Kong – HK$ 49,699.17
3rd Ren Le Lin “li_xiaolong” – China – HK$ 36,429.35
4th jfc81n – Japan – HK$ 26,702.62
5th BadBoyMNG – Mongolia – HK$ 19,572.91
6th qujin520 – China – HK$ 14,346.91
7th vhc258 – Vietnam – HK$ 10,516.23
8th Roger0857 – Taiwan – HK$ 7,708.33
9th excellect – China – HK$ 5,650.20
WPT Trophy #13: Zodiac Golden Dragon – bigwhailie – HK$ 78,370.18
Another triumph for China with player “bigwhailie” winning the Zodiac Golden Dragon trophy event for a first cash this series worth HK$ 78,370.18 (~US$ 10,100). The event drew 612 entries to bump up the prize pool to HK$ 450,432 (~US$ 58,100). Among the players that cashed outside of the final table were notable pros Vincent Li Kwun Ngai “Peleus34”, Chi Chung Ho “chipuker”, and Lita Hsu “Kench”. Taiwanese pro Pete Chen had the misfortune of falling on the bubble.
Buy in: HK$ 800 (~US$ 103)
Guarantee: HK$ 388,000 (~US$ 50,000)
Entries: 612
Prize pool: HK$ 450,432 (~US$ 58,100)
ITM: 89 places
The final table got underway with Hon Cheong Lee “GoodahGoodah” backed by a very big stack while eventual champion bigwhailie ranked second. Causing havoc early was the shortest stacked jeehyip, doubling up off chip leader GoodahGoodah then a second one off Lucus Chou. GoodahGoodah lost another flip, this time it was a much larger payoff to bigwhailie. GoodahGoddah was able to recoup some by railing donkish (9th) however, the struggles continued leading to an 8th place finish.
After two shoves that paid off players, Srihari B “bangbang1999” met his end with pocket Tens out-flipped by niuniuxy’s AJo that found an Ace. Despite the rise in chips, niuniuxy tumbled next with AQo missing against chip leader bigwhailie’s pocket eights. Marvin Tay “TheCrippler” and Lucus Chou then faced off with the latter doubling up showing A5 trips (two fives on the board) against A8o. This crippled TheCrippler to half a small blind and soon busted in 5th place.
On a rush, Lucus Chou went on to rail jeehyip (4th) and Rajat Sharma “Oye Como Va” (3rd) to carry in the largest stack at heads up. Numerous hands in, bigwhailie scored a big pot to take the lead. From there it exchanged multiple times until bigwhailie won a succession of pots to widen the gap. Bigwhailie rose to 6:1 with trip Aces against pocket nines and from there, went on to seize the title.
Final table payouts
1st bigwhailie – China – HK$ 78,370.18
2nd Lucus Chou – China – HK$ 57,444.82
3rd Rajat Sharma “Oye Como Va” – India – HK$ 42,106.85
4th jeehyip – Hong Kong – HK$ 30,864.21
5th Marvin Tay “TheCrippler” – Singapore – HK$ 22,623.40
6th niuniuxy – China – HK$ 16,582.92
7th Srihari B “bangbang1999” – India – HK$ 12,155.21
8th Hon Cheong Lee “GoodahGoodah” – Hong Kong – HK$ 8,909.77
9th donkish – India – HK$ 6,530.83
WPT Trophy #14: PLO Bounty – LTC Hong – HK$ 30,98.57
After four deep runs at WPT Side Events, LTC Hong shipped the PLO Bounty event to give Hong Kong its first WPT trophy this series. LTC Hong topped the 290-player field to bank the HK$ 14,705.55 first prize. LTC Hong also collected HK$ 16,293.02 in bounties for a cool HK$ 30,998.57 (~US$ 4,000) payday. As a Natural8 winning player, LTC Hong secured a HK$ 10,000 WPT Live Event Sponsorship.
Buy in: HK$ 525 (~US$ 64)
Guarantee: HK$ 150,000 (~US$ 19,350)
Entries: 290
Prize pool: HK$ 150,000
ITM: 39 places
To form the final table, India’s Ravinder Singh “DRUMLORD88” eliminated fellow countryman Gaurav Sood “Haversham” to bring in the largest stack. Israel’s “GeorgeTheVet” ranked second and fourth ranked Ren Le Lin “li_xiaolong” were on their second final table visit. Also on the virtual round was live circuit Asian pro Li-ta Hsu on his first final table of the series.
The final battle for the WPT glory took two hard fought hours with the bulk of it at six-handed where LTC Hong won a three-way showdown that sent ktx1998 tumbling. With a big stack to play with, LTC Hong held on to face kujira at heads up still ahead. LTC Hong went on to ship it with a set of Kings to two pair.
Final table payouts
1st LTC Hong – Hong Kong – HK$ 14,705.55 + HK$ 16,293.02 bounties = HK$ 30,998.57
2nd kujira – Japan – HK$ 10,936.68 + HK$ 1,320.31 bounties = HK$ 12,256.99
3rd Ren Le Lin “li_xiaolong” – Hong Kong – HK$ 8,133.84 + HK$ 890.62 bounties = HK$ 9,024.46
4th Ravinder Singh “DRUMLORD88” – India – HK$ 6,049.30 + HK$ 5,371.09 bounties = HK$ 11,420.39
5th “GeorgeTheVet” – Israel – HK$ 4,498.99 + HK$ 2,992.18 bounties = HK$ 7,491.17
6th ktx1998 – China – HK$ 3,345.99 + HK$ 2,148.43 bounties = HK$ 5,494.42
7th 2shine – Vietnam – HK$ 2,488.48 + HK$ 1,390.62 bounties = HK$ 3,879.10
8th Lita Hsu “Kench” – Hong Kong – HK$ 1,850.74 + HK$ 2,281.25 bounties = HK$ 4,131.99
9th Hud6 – Hong Kong – HK$ 1,376.43 + HK$ 1,234.37 bounties = HK$ 2,610.80
WPT Trophy #15: WPT Cambodia High Roller Championship – Kosei Ichinose – US$ 82,531.85
For players with the big bucks, the WPT Cambodia High Roller Championship was the most attractive trophy event on the menu with buy in at US$ 3,500 and a guarantee of US$ 350,000. At the close of registration, 98 entered, resulting in an overlay of US$ 24,150. Clocking in at nearly nine hours, the tournament wrapped up with Japanese pro Kosei Ichinose defeating the hot running Ha Duong “Harry1403” to capture his first ever career WPT title and trophy. Ichinose shipped the US$ 82,531.85 first prize, the added US$ 3,000 WPT Passport, and as a Natural8 winning player, he also secured a HK$ 10,000 WPT Live Event Sponsorship. This was Japan’s second WPT trophy this series.
Prior to Kosei Ichinose’s win, he cashed at two trophy events – WPT Vietnam Championship in 26th place and WPT Superstack Classic in 18th place. In late-August, he came close to a WSOP title, taking 4th at the US$ 1,500 No Limit Hold’em Championship. Before the pandemic, his long list of live tournament achievements included multiple high roller wins earned all over Asia. His largest score was US$ 83,296 for finishing 3rd at the 2016 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) Warm-Up event.
For runner-up Harry1403, it was another incredible performance. Harry1403 became the first player to reach four final tables this series. He added US$ 62,503.52 to his earnings, which was double the amount he shipped for his win at the WPT Trophy #1: Beat the Pros Bounty.
Buy in: US$ 3,500
Guarantee: US$ 350,000
Entries: 98
Prize pool: US$ 350,000
ITM: 13 places
Recapping the action at the bubble round, Kartik Ved “Mandovi” 
fell to Daniyar Aubakirov’s 
when both overcards paired up. WPT Vietnam Championship winner Peiyuan Sun “fish3098” was first to dip in the money jar with sute flopping a set of nines to crack pocket Tens. Harry1403 railed Marc Carola “Face-O” next, Aubakirov met his end against Ravid Garbi “jerbi9999”, and Jerome Finck “gorgiAAs” denied WPT Taiwan Championship winner “Loris51” a third final table visit.
Jerbi9999 led in the final 9 with 80 BB, though not close, Joshua McCully “thefreshest” in second rank, and Harry1403 ranked third. Players “sute” and “FacelessMan” were both on their second final table this series.
Action proceeded with gorgiAAs knocking out Ran Ilani “TheCrane” with pocket Queens dominating pocket sixes. Thefreshest bad beat bust Johan Haugen by cracking 
with 
turned diamond nut flush. gorgiAAs claimed his second player stack by busting FacelessMan with AK over J10.
Six-handed didn’t seem to want to end. During that long run, Harry1403 picked up numerous pots to slide into the leader’s seat. Ichinose dropped to a short stack then recovered on a double up through Harry1403. It finally ended with jerbi9999 AKo bouncing out thefreshest AQo. From there, the next four players fell to Ichinose. First was gorgiAAs, then sute. At three-handed, Harry1403 had the biggest stack, Ichinose won six consecutive pots to overtake jerbi9999 for second rank. A three-way showdown (hand below) led to Ichinose winning the main pot and the other two splitting the side pot on a board 
. For the first time at the final table, Ichinose was chip leader.
Immediately after, Ichinose lost two costly pots. jerbi9999 doubled up and Harry1403 won a big one. Ichinose railed jerbi9999 with K10s straight to pocket Jacks to bring about heads up. Harry1403 was ahead by just 1 BB. After numerous exchanges with the lead switching from one to the other, Harry1403 won a big pot with a flush to two pair to create a substantial gap. Ichinose answered with a big pot of his own followed by 9 consecutive wins to climb over 2.5:1. The final hand arrived with Ichinose’s AKo dominating A5o.
Final table payouts
1st Kosei Ichinose – Japan – US$ 82,531.85
2nd Harry Duong “Harry1403” – Vietnam – US$ 62,503.52
3rd Ravid Garbi “jerbi9999” – Israel – US$ 47,335.56
4th sute – China – US$ 35,848.47
5th Jerome Finck “gorgiAAs” – Hong Kong – US$ 27,148.97
6th Joshua McCully “thefreshest” – Thailand – US$ 20,560.64
7th FacelessMan – Hong Kong – US$ 15,571.09
8th Johan Haugen – Macau – US$ 11,792.40
9th Ran Ilani “TheCrane” – Israel – US$ 10,132.50
WPT Trophy #16: WPT Asia Mini Main Event – Jung Chou Chen “DragonChou” – HK$ 606,515.01
Another overlay at the series with the WPT Asia Mini Main Event offering great value to players. At HK$ 1,000 (~US$ 130) buy in, 4,727 entered across 29 entry flights for an overlay of HK$ 651,160 (~US$ 84,000) to the HK$ 5,000,000 (~US$ 645,100) guaranteed prize pool. After nine hours of final day play, Jung Chou Chen “DragonChou” emerged victorious to earn HK$ 606,515.01 (~US$ 78,200) on a three-way deal and give Taiwan its first trophy this series. As a Natural8 winning player, DragonChou also secured a HK$ 10,000 WPT Live Event Sponsorship.
Not much is known of the champion other than this was his largest cash to date and first known major victory. Prior to the win, DragonChou also reached the money at the WPT Trophy #4 event and shipped one of the WPT side events. Other online achievements were four cashes at the 2020 WSOP Online Series amounting to a combined US$ 24K.
Buy in: HK$ 1000 (~US$ 130)
Guarantee: HK$ 5,000,000 (~US$ 645,100)
Entries: 4,727
Prize pool: HK$ 5,000,000
Final Day Qualifiers: 574
ITM: 500 places
Overlay: HK$ 651,160 (~US$ 84,000)
Final Day of the WPT Asia Mini Main Event kicked off with 574 players gunning for a share of the large pot. After influencer “xiaoyuanlian” bubbled, numerous pros were among the ones cashing out well before the final table such as Wei Zhao, Chi Chung Ho “chipuker”, Ho Yin Tai “hoyintai”, Zhe Feng “jjsjsjjsj”, LTC Hong, Pete Chen, Vincent Li Kwun Ngai “Peleus34”, Jr_hiroki, Jingxiang Ong “Fuzzy Wuzzy!”, Kosei Ichinose, Sang Yeon Hwang to name a few. Among the top 30 were Ren Le Lin “li_xiaolong, Goonjan Mall “gm-ind”, Nethanel Klein “natykkk”, and tam arai who missed out on the final table by one spot.
Several known players from both the live and online scene were among the final nine. GG Network regulars Mark Kohner “RvrWhisperer” and jahexotic were on their second final table visit. Prior to this event, both players reached the final table of WPT Trophy #2. Then there were India pros Kunal Patni “JacKKingOff” and Aditya Sushant “inonhmeansfu”. Hong Kong’s “Jeeeeez” entered with the chip lead after doubling up twice off blgs777.
The final race to the trophy was a grueling one. After inonhmeansfu fell to RvrWhisperer, it was followed by an extremely long 8 handed round where zoroken doubled up twice. DragonChou finally ended the round with pocket Aces sending blgs777 out in 8th place. Before the next bust, yuhtaro enjoyed a moment as chip leader and JacKKingOff found some luck on the flop with A8s pairing the eight to survive DragonChou’s A9s. yuhtaro’s run ended when RvrWhisperer delivered a bad beat to pocket Queens with Q7o improving to trip sevens. With this pot, RvrWhisperer amassed a third of the chips in play.
Next shoves, DragonChou seesawed. He doubled up off the leader, jahexotic doubled up off him, then he eliminated JacKKingOff with AKo over A10s. This gave DragonChou the lead and half the chips in play. DragonChou continued his ascent, knocking out zoroken for his third victim of the final table. Another long round followed with both DragonChou and RvrWhisperer tugging at the chip lead. RvrWhisperer eventually railed short stacked Jeeeeez in 4th place.
The final three players struck a deal. As chip leader, DragonChou was guaranteed the largest pay followed by jahexotic then RvrWhisperer. Playing for the title and trophy, DragonChou proceeded to rail jahexotic to enter heads up against RvrWhisperer who was up by just 7 BB. The lead quickly switched on a failed bluff shove on the river by RvrWhisperer with DragonChou risking it all showing trips. This gave DragonChou a 10:1 advantage to which RvrWhisperer could not overcome. The final hand was DragonChou 
two pair to RvrWhisperer’s 
lower two pair.
Final table payouts
1st Jung Chou Chen “DragonChou” – Taiwan – HK$ 606,515.01 (deal made)
2nd Mark Kohner “RvrWhisperer” – Thailand – HK$ 546,347.40 (deal made)
3rd jahexotic – Thailand – HK$ 588,459.85 (deal made)
4th Jeeeeez – Hong Kong – HK$ 259,982.55
5th zoroken – Israel – HK$ 178,139.82
6th Kunal Patni “JacKKingOff” – India – HK$ 122,061.62
7th yuhtaro – Japan – HK$ 83,636.71
8th blgs777 – China – HK$ 57,308.02
9th Aditya Sushant “inonhmeansfu” – India – HK$ 39,267.17
WPT Trophy #17: WPT Japan Championship – Wai Kiat Lee “Mr Lee” – JPY 3,063,776
638 came out for the WPT Japan Championship to more than double the guarantee for a closing pot worth JPY 17,608,800 (~US$ 166,860). The top 89 places took a cut with the lion’s share JPY 3,063,776 (~US$ 29,000) and WPT Trophy won by Malaysia’s Wai Kiat Lee “Mr Lee” after a commanding performance at the final table. This was Mr Lee’s first ever WPT title. Mr Lee was also awarded the added US$ 3,000 WPT Passport, , and as a Natural8 winning player, a HK$ 10,000 WPT Live Event Sponsorship. With this win, Malaysia got on the trophy scoreboard.
On the live circuit, Mr Lee is one of Malaysian high ranking tournament pros with over a million in live earnings. Although he has been on a victory drought since 2016, he reached the final table at multiple events around the world. Mr Lee’s largest score was in March at the partypoker 2020 LIVE MILLIONS Super High Rollers Sochi where he finished 3rd at the US$ 50,000 No Limit Hold’em Short Deck for US$ 374,520.
Buy in: JPY 30,000 (~US$ 285)
Guarantee: JPY 7,500,000 (~US$ 71,000)
Entries: 638
Prize pool: JPY 17,608,800 (~US$ 166,860)
ITM: 89 places
To form the final table, Matthew Chan “Jokerine M” 
paired the Queen to deny hanxing0068’s 
and carry in the largest stack. Two players from Japan were also in – Hiroki Matsuura “oniku29” and KABAO – hoping to bring home the title to the host country. All of the final 9 players were on their first final table of the series.
Action was dominated by Mr Lee and Jokerine M. Both went on to eliminate four players each and finish in the top two spots. Rundown of the chase, opening hand, Mr Lee grabbed a big chunk off oniku29 then picked up another against TangGu0 on a higher two pair. Several hands later Mr Lee cleaned out TangGu0 with pocket Tens dominating pocket fours, and Jokerine M finished off INNO-C.
Both big stacks eventually tangled. Mr Lee raked in the pot on a higher two pair to amass forty percent of the chips in play. Mr Lee continued to run hot, booting zhangning with diamond flush to 
set for his second victim. Jokerine M went on to knock out xiaotaiyang then oniku29 with a lucky nut flush hearts against 
.
At four-handed, fukessss doubled up off KABAO 
to send the latter plummeting to 6 BB. KABAO grinded back up but plunged again on a second double up to fukessss. Down to 2 BB, KABAO survived a shove against Jokerine M, however, on the next one, Mr Lee shipped it to burn Japan’s last hope for the title. Mr Lee continued to dominate the action with both opponents – fukessss and Jokerine M – unable to dent to his enormous stack. Even after Jokerine M delivered fukessss a bad beat bust with AJo pairing the Jack to defeat AKo, Mr Lee was ahead 3:1 at heads up.
The gap quickly widened to 5:1. The final hand arrived with Jokerine M top pair shoving on a flop 
and Mr Lee calling with 
two pair. With the turn 
and river , Mr Lee shipped it to become the 17th WPT trophy winner of the series.
Final table payouts
1st Wai Kiat Lee “Mr Lee” – Malaysia – JPY 3,063,776
2nd Jokerine M – Hong Kong – JPY 2,245,698
3rd fukessss- Taiwan – JPY 1,646,089
4th KABAO – Japan – JPY 1,206,579
5th Hiroki Matsuura “oniku29” – Japan – JPY 884,419
6th xiaotaiyang – China – JPY 648,278
7th zhangning – China – JPY 475,185
8th INNO-C – Turkey – JPY 348,310
9th TangGu0 – China – JPY 255,310
CHINA wins WPT Asia Nation’s Cup 2nd Week Leaderboard
Once again, China came out on top to claim the WPT Asia Nation’s Cup for the second consecutive week. Accruing the most points between October 11 to 17 was player “Loris51” who shipped the WPT Taiwan Championship. As a reward, 705 players from China qualified for the HK$ 50,000 freeroll. It closed with the final five players reaching a deal and “naotanbisi” as the winner.
The leaderboard race is in its final week. Points counted are those earned between October 18 to 24. Players who contributed a single point to the hosted country will earn a seat to the HK$ 100,000 freeroll.
Stick with us at Somuchpoker as we bring you the final rundown on the WPT Asia Online Series.
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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