From 3 bb to champion! Sheng Ye wins record breaking WPT Prime Gold Coast Main Event 

 

Chinese-Australian player Sheng Ye emerged as the newest World Poker Tour Prime champion and he did so by rising from 3 big blinds! Ye defeated Ben Richardson at heads up of the WPT Prime Gold Coast Main Event for a career high AU$ 374,953 (~US$253,843) and his second major title in a span of just four months. 

At Day 2 with 22 players remaining, Ye was down to 3 bb and was nearly out the door when his survived overcards for a double up. Shortly after, he banked another double up with pocket Jacks dominating pocket Nines, and just like that, he was out of the hole and up to a decent 21 bb. Ye reached the final table of 9 players with a healthy 45+ bb.

At eight players remaining, Ye catapulted to the top in a three way showdown. On a board showing . Ye’s crushed Andreas Vasiliou’s to drag in a huge side pot while short stacked Gary Lin claimed the main pot with set. Ye went on to clean out three players to bag the coveted title.

Buy in: AU$ 2,000 (~US$ 1,320)
Entries: 1,224
Prize pool: AU$ 2,203,200 (~US$ 1,457,700)
ITM: 52 players

Final table payouts

1	Sheng Ye	A$ 374,953	US$ 253,843
2	Ben Richardson	A$ 238,978	US$ 161,788
3	Mo Haidary	A$ 176,753	US$ 119,662
4	Josh Foster	A$ 132,048	US$ 89,396
5	Anita Savage	A$ 99,654	US$ 67,466
6	Gary Lin	A$ 75,981	US$ 51,439
7	Slav Rypinski	A$ 58,534	US$ 39,628
8	Andreas Vasiliou	A$ 45,564	US$ 30,847
9	Noman Mirza	A$ 35,847	US$ 24,268

WPT Prime Gold Coast ran from February 23 to March 6 at The Star Gold Coast. The Main Event lit up the felt from March 2 to 6 with a record 1,224 entries over three starting days. To date, this was the largest WPT Prime Main Event, surpassing the recent Paris turnout of 1,071 entries. As for prize pool, it was also the richest of all Prime events, with the exception of WPT Prime Championship, of AU$ 2,203,200 (~US$1,457,700).

Among the players running deep was Angel Guillen (28th place) who overcame a deficit at heads up of the festival’s $5K Challenge to beat 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem. Crowd favorite Anita Savage won the festival’s 15/15 PLO One Day Event and hoped to bring home the more prestigious Main Event title however her deep run ended in 5th place for AU$ 99,654  (~US$ 67,460).

Up next for WPT in Australia

Itching for more WPT? The next Prime series is underway in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The festival kicked off today, March 9 and runs through March 21. A total 30 events are lined up and US$ 1 Million in guaranteed prize pools. Check out the schedule provided.

Season XXI WPT Prime Cambodia – Player Guide

If you are looking for games at home, you’ll have to wait six months. The WPT brings its Main Tour back to the land down under from September 14 to 27 at The Star Gold Coast. The Main Event buy in has been raised to AU$ 8,000 (~US$ 5,300).

Last year, the inaugural WPT Australia amassed AU$ 8,617,000 (~US$ 5,700,400) over 13 events. The AU$ 5,400 buy in Main Event drew 710 entries for a AU$ 3,500,000 (~$2,352,583) prize pool.

For more details on WPT Australia, head to the WPT website.

*All images from WPT