Poker Dream Taiwan: career first win for Eng Siang Ewe at Single Day HR; Taiwan Open draws 452, Cheuk Him Tsang leads 55 into ITM round

Poker Dream is known for bringing some of the region’s heaviest hitters together alongside aspiring masses. On opening day in Taiwan, that attribute was immediately displayed. As players clamored in the Asia Poker Arena for the more affordable Taiwan Open TWD 2,000,000 guaranteed event, a tight group of elite players put their skills to the test at the TWD 80K Single Day High Roller. Here’s a review of the action and all the info on the Taiwan Open – recap, chip counts, payouts.

*All photos provided by Poker Dream

Eng Siang Ewe bags first career title at Single Day High Roller

19 poker heavyweights came out for the Single Day High Roller event with several needing multiple entries before registration closed. This bumped up the total count to 29 and the pot to a juicy TWD 2,070,368 (~USD 67,375). Among the attendees were PD founder Winfred Yu, Singaporean pro Alex Lee, and multi-decorated Irish pro Steve O’Dwyer who dusted off his big stack on a failed bluff against 2023 Triton SHRS GG Super Millions champion Webster Lim. 

While O’Dwyer missed the money round, Lim went on to reach heads up. He faced Eng Siang Ewe who carried in the chip lead after eliminating Wei Lo in 3rd place. This was the first time Lim was behind in the count since taking the lead at 8-handed. It took only two hands for Ewe to end it. On a turn board , Ewe pushed with , Lim called with , the river was .

After the win Ewe shared that he finally won a trophy after two 2nd place finishes at other festivals. On his victory, he said,

“It was my first trophy, I have one Liar’s Dice trophy but this is my first one. It was a really fast end. He had two pairs and I had open ended flush draw and I hit it. I am very happy to win. I will be here until the event ends and I will play all the other events, all the high rollers.”

If this was all Ewe needed to get past that last hurdle then we may just see him back in the winner’s seat. This was Ewe’s first career title and first ever trophy. He earned TWD 766,000 (~USD 24,927) for his achievement.

Relive the action via the livestream link provided below.

Buy in: TWD 80,000 (~USD 2,636)
Entries: 29 (19 unique, 10 re-entry)|
Prize pool: TWD 2,070,368 (~USD 67,375)
ITM: 5 places

Rank	Player	Flag	Payout in NTD	Payout in USD
1	Eng Siang Ewe	Malaysia	766,000	~24,927
2	Chin Wei Lim	Malaysia	528,000	~17,180
3	Wei Lo	Taiwan	336,300	~10,940
4	Eng Soon Ewe	Malaysia	243,000	~7,907
5	I Lin Chiu	Taiwan	197,000	~6,410

Taiwan Open Day 1 review

To welcome in players, the first trophy event was the Taiwan Open 2M guaranteed. Three flights were offered with varying buy ins. While the cheaper Flight A was popular, it was the higher buy in Flight B that brought more to the tables. The lightest was Flight C. See breakdown below. The opener drew 452 cumulative entries for a prize pool of TWD 2,526,600 (~USD 82,220).

Bagging up the overall largest stack was Flight C (Turbo) chip leader Cheuk Him Tsang from Hong Kong. Tsang railed a player with higher straight against on a board .

Total Entries: 452
Prize pool: TWD 2,526,600 (~USD 82,220)
Total ITM round: 57 players
*Two players min-cashed for busting after ITM; only 55 players will return

Flight A results
Buy in: TWD 4,000 (~USD 132)
Entries: 164
ITM: 13 players
Chip leader: Justin Geronimo

Flight B results
Buy in: TWD 8,000 (~USD 264)
Entries: 212
ITM: 31 players
Chip leader: Kar Wee Chee

Flight C (Turbo) 
Buy in: TWD 8,000 (~USD 264)
Entries: 76
ITM: 11 players
Chip leader: Cheuk Him Tsang

Final Day info
Chips in play: 9,250,000
Average stack: 168,181
Opening blinds: 3000-6000, 6000 ante

Day 2 players by chip rank

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack	BB	Table	Seat
1	Tsang Cheuk Him	Hong Kong	461,000	77	5	6
2	Chee Kar Wee	Malaysia	435,000	73	1	8
3	Shih Yang Hsin	Taiwan	408,000	68	5	5
4	Geronimo Justin Jerome	Philippines	369,000	62	4	6
5	Lee Wei Wen	Taiwan	316,000	53	7	5
6	Lai Wei Chun	Taiwan	305,000	51	7	3
7	Kiwanont Sukhum	Thailand	284,000	47	2	8
8	Tsang Ka Shun	Hong Kong	282,000	47	2	4
9	Chang Eli	United States	276,000	46	3	1
10	Li Nien Heng	Taiwan	235,000	39	4	4
11	Tu Chia Hui	Taiwan	231,000	39	1	5
12	Lin Hung Gheng	Taiwan	229,000	38	6	6
13	Weng Yi Ming	Taiwan	225,000	38	2	5
14	Oh Sumin	Korea, South	201,000	34	4	3
15	Huang Pin Hao	Taiwan	196,000	33	3	7
16	Yu Wei Hsin	Taiwan	190,000	32	1	1
17	Hung Chien Hsiang	Taiwan	185,000	31	1	4
18	Tan Inkuei	Taiwan	185,000	31	1	2
19	Liu Jia Yu	Taiwan	180,000	30	7	4
20	Hou Chunyao	Taiwan	178,000	30	2	3
21	Lam Pak Chuen Burton	Hong Kong	173,000	29	5	4
22	Tsai Chia Te	Taiwan	172,000	29	7	1
23	Shih Pei Chih	Taiwan	168,000	28	3	8
24	Li Chen Wei	Taiwan	167,000	28	5	7
25	Wang Philip King Chung	Taiwan	145,000	24	3	3
26	Pan She Long	Taiwan	140,000	23	4	7
27	Wong Ho Shing	Hong Kong	140,000	23	5	1
28	Chi Wang	Taiwan	136,000	23	3	5
29	You Hong Wen	Taiwan	134,000	22	2	7
30	Liu Po Chun	Taiwan	132,000	22	2	1
31	Tsang Dicky Siu Hang	Hong Kong	131,000	22	1	6
32	Chen Tzu Shiang	Taiwan	130,000	22	1	7
33	Li Yun	Taiwan	130,000	22	4	1
34	Yeh Yi Chen	Taiwan	126,000	21	6	5
35	Lew Ern Hsien	Malaysia	123,000	21	5	2
36	Chiang Chih Hsuan	Taiwan	120,000	20	2	2
37	Yong Wai Keong	Malaysia	119,000	20	4	2
38	Ho Yao Yu	Taiwan	112,000	19	1	3
39	Chan Hung Pun	Hong Kong	107,000	18	6	7
40	Wang Hung Kai	Taiwan	104,000	17	2	6
41	Hsu Kai Cheng	Taiwan	100,000	17	3	6
42	Lai	Taiwan	100,000	17	3	4
43	Ng Wai Loon	Malaysia	98,000	16	6	3
44	Lee Huai Sheng	Taiwan	96,000	16	4	5
45	Lin Ting Yao	Taiwan	95,000	16	3	2
46	Tan Chan Yew Ken	Singapore	93,000	16	4	8
47	Chuang Kai Lun	Taiwan	89,000	15	7	6
48	Lian Herry	Germany	88,000	15	6	4
49	Tu Ti Wei	Taiwan	75,000	13	5	3
50	Chogo Kento	Japan	71,000	12	6	2
51	Lee Ruo Tian	Taiwan	70,000	12	7	7
52	Kong Chen Ming	Malaysia	58,000	10	6	8
53	Lam Wai Kin	Hong Kong	58,000	10	6	1
54	Tseng Wen Yi	Taiwan	40,000	7	5	8
55	Teow Roger	Hong Kong	39,000	7	7	2

Payouts in TWD

1	483,000
2	304,500
3	218,200
4	175,600
5	137,800
6	105,700
7	81,400
8	59,600
9	48,300
10-11	39,900
12-13	34,600
14-15	31,000
16-17	28,000
18-20	25,200
21-23	22,500
24-27	19,900
28-31	17,400
32-39	14,900
40-55	13,000