It was a race of endurance at the record setting WPT Prime Taiwan Season XX MAIN EVENT with the 108 returning players chasing a seat to the final table. After eleven hours of Day 2 play, the lineup was formed led by Frenchman Marc Inizan with a very healthy 87 BB. Action resumes today, Monday November 21 at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association (CTP Club} in Taipei City. The finalists will be looking to seize the hefty NT$ 4,326,600 (~$139,000) first prize, the WPT champion’s trophy, and the $10,400 WPT Championship Main Event ticket. Cards in the air at 1pm. Follow the action via the WPT Live Updates.
Chip counts by rank
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
Big Blinds
|
| 3 | Marc Inizan | France | 5,245,000 | 87 |
| 5 | Chih Feng Li | Taiwan | 4,385,000 | 73 |
| 9 | Jaeyoung Park | South Korea | 4,220,000 | 70 |
| 6 | Kai Jan Chou | Taiwan | 3,210,000 | 54 |
| 2 | Yuan Hsu Lee | Taiwan | 2,505,000 | 42 |
| 4 | Yao Wei Huang | Taiwan | 2,400,000 | 40 |
| 7 | Chang Le Lin | Taiwan | 2,175,000 | 36 |
| 1 | Sumire Hori | Japan | 1,195,000 | 20 |
| 8 | Yu Fan Chang | Taiwan | 1,030,000 | 17 |
Chips in play: 26,310,000
Average stack: 2,923,333
Reviewing the lineup, four countries are represented namely Taiwan with six contenders, and one each for Japan, South Korea, and France. Chip leader Marc Inizan will be looking to bring it home and he may well do so with a mountain of chips topped by no other. Inizan entered Day 2 running second rank and closed it as heat leader. This is the deepest he has gone at a WPT Main Event and is the most decorated at the final table.
Japan’s Sumire Hori was also consistent throughout and is the lone female in the group. She entered Day 2 in the top 10 and kept her high rank all day. Korea’s Jaeyoung Park was a force to reckon with. Among his biggest pots were the elimination of Yohwan Lim aka BoxeR and to close out Day 2, Chain Ru Chuang on the bubble to the final table. The rest of the finalists are all from Taiwan with Chih Feng Li as their pack leader. With six waving the flag, they have the best odds of lifting the crown.
Main Event Final Table payouts
| Place | Prize (in NT$) | Prize (in US$) |
| 1st | 4,326,600 | $138,851 |
| 2nd | 2,883,500 | $92,539 |
| 3rd | 2,126,400 | $68,241 |
| 4th | 1,585,300 | $50,876 |
| 5th | 1,195,000 | $38,350 |
| 6th | 910,900 | $29,233 |
| 7th | 702,200 | $22,535 |
| 8th | 547,500 | $17,571 |
| 9th | 431,900 | $13,861 |
Main Event rundown
The Main Event kicked off on November 1`7 with three starting days and a NT$ 10 Million guaranteed prize pool. Day 1A attracted 189 entries and another 236 at Day 1B for a combined 425 entries over the two days. With buy in at NT$ 33,000 each, the guarantee was obliterated and the pot was over NT$ 13 Million. Due to this stellar turnout, the upcoming Day 1C was anticipated to be the largest, and proved to be true. A thunder of 452 poured in, which was more than the combined turnout of first two starters. Added together, the Main Event amassed an enormous 877 entry field and a prize pool of NT$ 25,520,700 (~$825,150). This was the largest Main Event (of this buy in) in the history of Taiwan poker.
Hidden amongst the daily crowds were WPT Main Event decorated champions Brian Tougias (WPT Cambodia Main Event 2019), Pete Chen (WPT Beijing Main Event 2017), and Hamish Crawshaw (WPT Vietnam Main Event 2019). Also in the mix were Takao Shimizu (WPT Vietnam 2018 Main Event runner up}, Daisuke Ogita (WPT Australia 2022 Main Event 5th placer), Kitty Kuo (2012 WPT Malta 4th placer), Sung Joo Hyun (2021 WPT High Roller and DeepStacks champion), and Joseph Sandaev who won the Player of the Festival title at the first ever 2022 WPT Australia Main Tour. Chen, Ogita, and Hyun reached Day 2 with the first two falling in 75th place and 55th place. Hyun took it a deeper 21st place.
Other Day 2 fallouts was entering leader Zachary Tay who saw his stack swing all day. His toughest plunge was calling with trips that lost to a full house and was unable to recover to only go as far as 43rd place. Louis Bilodeau was one of the biggest early movers of Day 2, bringing up his stack nearly five times to enter the upper ranks and finished his day in 34th place. Metasit Pratisangkom bagged up the Day 1B chip lead and carried it all the way to 25th place. He ended as the highest ranked player from Thailand with fellow countryman Thananat Therdtakoonrat out in 28th place. Day 2 closed with Chain Ru Chuang eliminated in 10th place.
*Payout list to be posted.
Links:
WPT Prime Taiwan – MAIN EVENT Day 1A
WPT Prime Taiwan – MAIN EVENT Day 1B
WPT Prime Taiwan – MAIN EVENT Day 1C
WPT Prime Taiwan – PLAYER GUIDE
WPT Prime Taiwan – FULL RESULTS
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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