Asian players continue to hunt down the last gold bracelets of the 2024 World Series of Poker taking place at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Among those that got close were Vietnam’s Harry Duong and Xiaochuan Zhang, both reached final tables. Others running deep were Chang Le Lin, Yu Chung Chang, and Qiang Xu.
Taiwan’s Chang Le Lin and Nevan Chang Go Deep
Kicking off the month of July was the $800 Independence Day Celebration No Limit Hold’em bracelet event, a huge crowd pleaser with 4,263 entries building a substantial prize pool of $3,630,213. Numerous Asian players were among the 356 that reached the money round. Among the more significant names were Taiwanese poker pros Chang Le Lin and Yu-Chung Chang.
At the wrap up, Yu-Chung Chang bagged a 25th place finish for a payout of $20,050. As one of the more notable players from Taiwan, Chang has had prior deep runs at the ongoing series. Chang reached the final table of Event #14: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty for a 3rd place finish. In total, Chang has earned 9 cashes this WSOP series in both live and online events.
India’s Premnath Kasinath ran even deeper with a 19th place finish. It was his 5th career WSOP cash and his career biggest payout yet.
Among the three, Chang Le Lin went the deepest for a 10th place finish to win $39,110, marking his 7th cash this series and 11th overall. The 10th place finish is a career best in the WSOP.
Topping them all was USA’s Francis Anderson who overcame a 4:1 deficit at heads up against fellow American Brent Lee to capture his career first bracelet and a massive $501,040 payout.
First WSOP Final Table For Harry Duong At Ultra Stack
Another crowd favorite was the $600 Ultra Stack No Limit Hold’em with 6,628 signing on for a juicy prize pool of $3,380,280. Asian players were scattered around the room with many claiming a piece of the pot. Going the farthest was Vietnam’s Harry Duong who shared his excitement on Facebook having reached his first WSOP final table. Duong eventually exited in 9th place for $34,220. This was his fourth WSOP career cash.
The most envied player was Germany’s Carsten Heidenmann whose WSOP debut turned into a golden bracelet catch and a payday of $343,010.
Chinese Players Run Deep At $1,500 Eight Game Mix
A short list of notable Asian players put their versatility to the test at the $1,500 Eight Game Mix (6-handed) which featured Omaha Hi-Lo, Pot-Limit Omaha, Stud Hi-Lo, Stud, Razz, No-Limit Hold’em, Limit Hold’em and 2-7 Triple Draw.
Among those that earned a piece of the $659,490 prize pool were Chinese bracelet holder Qiang Xu in 28th place for his 4th cash this series and Xiaochuan Zhang who just missed the final table in 7th place. Zhang earned a payout of $14,397, marking his 5th cash this series, and his career best payday in a WSOP event. Outside of the WSOP, Zhang has been making waves in Asia with side event victories at various festivals.
Closing it out with a big win was USA’s Garth Yettick for his first ever WSOP gold bracelet, first ever WSOP cash, and largest score of $131,061.
*Article by JJ Duque
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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