Jin Bei Cup: Xiao Yao bulldozes through Single Day NLH

China’s Xiao Yao fully dominated the first event of the inaugural Jin Bei Cup, eliminating a staggering seven players at the final table to clinch the Single Day NLH title and lock up the US$ 131,000 top prize. In a brief interview with the newly crowned champion, Xiao Yao shared,

“I am very happy and I was very lucky!”

Just before the final table was formed, Xiao Yao began his knockout spree at two spots before the money. He finished off Chinese online pro Xuming Qi with a dominated Ace then delivered the bubble to Wei in the same fashion.

Entering the final table as chip leader, Xiao Yao’s hot-hand continued with Tom Dwan (8th) and Ge Zhong (9th) meeting his mighty axe simultaneously. The all ins were seen at a flop that completed . Xiao Yao’s crushed Dwan’s and Zhong’s top pair. Reminiscing the big takedown, Xiao Yao was all smiles,

“I felt I could beat Tom Dwan. I knew I could when I went all in.”

It was indeed a game-changer as Xiao Yao soared way above the rest and never looked back. Leading up to his victory, Xiao Yao eliminated Liu Jiang (7th), Travis (6th), Ken Lin (5th), and Xia Feng (3rd), to face Mic at heads up. It didn’t take long for Xiao Yao to nail it shut with the final hand over .

This event was just practice for Xiao Yao who shrugged off the win saying,

“I will definitely play the Main Event tomorrow. This is just small, just practice. Tomorrow is what matters.”

Read up on Xiao Yao’s road to victory via the Live Updates – Single Day NLH 

The Jin Bei Cup – Single Day NLH drew 77 entries for a prize pool of US$ 385,000. The top 10 earned a cut. Among those that ran strong but missed the mark were Chinese pro Quan Zhou, Malaysia’s Woon Yoke Wei, Singapore’s Jacson Feng, and Indonesia’s Jhon Hendri.

Buy in: US$ 5,300
Entries: 77
Prize pool: US$ 385,000
ITM: 10 places

Place	Player	Flag	Prize (in USD)
1	Xiao Yao	China	$131,000
2	Mic	China	$78,000
3	Xia Feng	China	$48,000
4	Jhon Tanaka	Indonesia	$34,000
5	Ken Lin	China	$26,000
6	Travis	China	$21,000
7	Jiang Liu	China	$16,000
8	Tom Dwan	United States	$12,000
9	Ge Zhong	China	$12,000
10	A Zheng	China	$7,000

Jin Bei Cup – Short Deck Main Event $5 Million guaranteed

Up next is the Jin Bei Cup – Short Deck Main Event featuring a US$ 5 Million guarantee. This is the first time a seven figure USD prize pool of this size has been announced in Asia and it will be top heavy. Guaranteed payouts are as follows: 1st place receives US$ 1,500,000, 2nd place receives US$ 800,000, and 3rd place will earn US$ 600,000.

As shared, newly crowned Xiao Yao will be attending, other confirmed players are poker maestros Tom Dwan, Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, and Martin Nielsen. The latter Nielsen recently finished runner up at the Triton Short Deck Main Event in Jeju, South Korea and has a WSOP braclet in this variant.

Another player certain to join is Chinese pro Quan Zhou who finished 4th at the same Triton event. More notables are expected including Wang Qiang, widely known as “Shanghai Wong” as well as Kenneth Kee. Buy in for the flagship tournament is US$ 53,000.

Main Event Structure

Jin Bei Cup Day 1 will play a  total of 12 levels of 30 minutes each with six-handed tables and two bullets of 150,000 chips each for every initial entry. Unlimited re-entries are available during the registration period, which is open until the start of the final day at 2 p.m. local time on May 9, 2024.

From the 10th level, players who are eliminated can choose to make a one-time buy-in of two stacks and pay a registration fee of US$ 104,000 to recommence their journey with 600,000 in chips. Before the start of Day 2, all players can then also choose to add-on for one or two stacks as well, with each stack exchanging the buy-in amount for 300,000 chips.