NAGAWORLD Kickoff ($500)

First ever PokerStars spadie for Hong Kong’s Cheuk Wai Wong after clinching the 2025 APPT Cambodia NagaWorld Kickoff! Along with the coveted trophy, Wong earned a cool ICM deal payout of $13,879.

The NagaWorld Kickoff attracted 206 across two flights, each one contributing $500 to swell the pot to $86,171. Entering the final day were 31 players, all guaranteed a cut. Overnight chip leader Wong brought in mountain of chips into a stacked table that included Cheng Zhang, Van Tien Dinh, Avneesh Munjal, and PokerStars regular Christian Cloutier.

While Wong weathered the heavy action, it was the opposite for Cloutier, who got rivered twice in near back to back hands to send his stack plunging and eventually out in 10th place.

Once the final 9 was set, Wong entered the lineup sitting third in chips. When the field thinned, he was seen shoving multiple times, and in a pivotal hand against Adam Lydford, luck shined with A♣ T♠ flush cracking J♣ J♥ on a board of K♠ 4♠ 6♠ 8♣ 7♠ .

At five handed, Wong's stack dropped to as low as 13 bb then bounced back after eliminating Lydford in 4th place. A three-way ICM deal was then struck and Wong proceeded to clean out Van Xuan Nguyen in 3rd place. With his larger stack, another deal was reached. Wong was instantly crowned champion for his larger stack.

Congratulations to the champion!

After Van Xuan Nguyen was eliminated, Cheuk Wai Wong and Anh Tuan Ho struck another deal. With Wong sitting on the bigger stack, he was automatically crowned the champion and was awarded the PS spadie. For runner up Anh, he was awarded the APPT Main Event ticket worth $,1750.

After the three-way deal, Van Xuan Nguyen went all in with Q♥ 2♣ and fell to Cheuk Wai Wong's A♥ K♥ on a board of T♣ 2♠ A♣ 9♦ 7♣ .

After Adam Lydford's fall, the fina three players agreed on an ICM deal with the Main Event ticket and PS trophy left to play for. Listed below are the guaranteed payouts.

Cheuk Wai Wong - $13,879

Anh Tuan Ho - $13,642

Van Xuan Nguyen - $10,185

Cheuk Wai Wong wins back to back hands with the first one just an uncalled raise. The next was much larger, defending on the big blind by calling a 120,000 raise from cutoff Anh Tuan Ho. At the flop 4♦ A♠ K♠ , Anh continued for 100,000, Wong put the heat on with a 300,000 raise, Anh called. On the turn Q♣ , Wong wasted no time counting and shoved 745,000, Anh surrendered his hand for a well deserved pot for Wong.

With action now moving faster, Cheuk Wai Wong watched his stack drain out by losing his blinds. Back on the big blind again, he shoved his last 620,000 on top of Van Xuan Nguyen's 150,000 raise and won the pot.

Van Xuan Nguyen raises 125,000 from utg then folds to Anh Tuan Ho's 300,000 raise. Nguyen shows A♥ before folding.

Another pot for the leader Anh who three-bet again to 250,000. Initial raiser Cheuk Wai Wong called then folded to the 150,000 c-bet at the flop 4♠ 8♥ 5♣ .

Dinh Van Tien raises 100,000 and gets to see a flop with the blinds tossing in the call. Dinh continues fro 150,000 on a board of 2♣ 7♣ A♦ and only small blind Van Xuan Nguyen wants to see the turn which comes Q♦ . Liking what he sees, Nguyen leads out 165,000 and Dinh calls. With the river 5♦ , both check it then Nguyen wins with A♠ 5♠ .

A little bit more action was seen in this hand with Anh Tuan Ho raising 60,000 then went hunting at the flop with caller Cheuk Wai Wong on the big blind. Wong led out 60,000 then folded to Anh's 150,000 raise.

Cheng Zhang claimed the first pot of the final table to join the millionaires. He opened 50,000 from cutoff and the blinds defended. At the flop 2♣ J♥ 6♥ , small blind Cheuk Wing Wong decided to lead out 50,000, big blind Hoseong Ha calls, then Zhang pumped it up to 300,000. No one dared and Zhang dragged in the win.

The Final Table of the NagaWorld Kickoff is set! One of the nine remaining players will be the first big winner of the festival and collect the $18,203 top prize along with the big spadie on display.

Jinlin Shi added several big blinds to his ammunition by starting off the hand with a 12,000 raise that's called by Christian Cloutier and Cheuk Wai Wong. The three-way quickly ended on the flop A♣ 4♦ 7♠ with Shin's 28,000 bet uncalled.