The inaugural Jin Bei Cup Short Deck Main Event ended in spectacular fashion with UK’s Kobe crushing the competition to bank the massive US$ 1,656,000 top prize.
As one of the newest events in Asia, the flagship tournment’s US$ 5 Million guarantee turned heads and even moreso when 98 ponied up the massive US$ 53,000 buy in and a further seven in add-ons. As a result, the prize pool surpassed expectations, closing at USD$ 5,250,000. This now stands as the wealthiest Short Deck tournament in the region.
Jin Bei Cup – Record Prize Pool for Short Deck in Asia
Jin Bei Cup – Final Day recap
The Jin Bei Short Deck Main Event was a two-day action-packed affair running from May 8 to 9, 2024 at the Jin Bei Palace. Organized by the Jin Bei Group, it was the first poker series to be held in Sihanoukville, Cambodia in nearly a decade. With Short Deck a known favorite of Chinese players, it was no surprise to see them dominate in numbers.
The final day opened with 25 players led by Sun Da Seng who won a big pot against Kobe during the last hand of Day 1. Among the re-entries and new arrivals were Daniel “Jungleman” Cates and Kenneth Kee. Surprisingly, Tom Dwan and Martin Nielsen did not return.
As soon as the cards went flying, so did the chips that it didn’t take long for Kobe to jump back in the driver’s seat. Within minutes, Kobe railed two players Ge Hua and Yang Yang, and from then on, Kobe was unstoppable. On the opposite end, Chinese pro Quan Zhou was given the hard halt by Cates, falling on the bubble.
With the cash intact, it was another hyper turbo race for a final table seat. Short stacks Ke Xu (12th) and Guang Hui Luo (11th) couldn’t keep up and were first to cash. Esti Wang (10th) joined the railbirds after losing two showdowns. Kobe cleaned out the next two, Gavin (9th) followed by Cates (8th) to trim the field down to one table.
The incredibly fast race continued with players shoving at every hand. This sent the day’s entering chip leader Sun Da Seng out in 7th place with Kobe collecting again. Tao Zong (6th) fell to eventual runner up Aori. For the lone lady in the running, Joy, her luck ran out in 5th place at the hands of Kobe. After Aori finished the next two Fei Xu (4th) and Liu Ming Zhong (3rd), it was heads up for the the title.
With the payouts built to be top heavy, the final two contenders – Kobe and Aori – were guaranteed seven figures. While it looked like a sure win for the massive stacked Kobe, it was not to be. Aori won two all in showdowns to steal the top spot. As the grinding continued, Kobe was at risk for the first time all day and pulled through by doubling up with quads. Back in control, Kobe closed it out with 
over 
on a board 
.
Jin Bei Cup – Results
Date: May 8 to 9, 2024
Guarantee: US$ 5,000,000
Entries: 105
Prize pool: US$ 5,250,000
ITM: 12 places
Payouts
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in USD |
| 1 | Kobe | UK | $1,656,000 |
| 2 | Aori | China | $1,022,000 |
| 3 | Liu Ming Zhong | China | $670,000 |
| 4 | Fei Xu | China | $461,000 |
| 5 | Joy | China | $327,000 |
| 6 | Tao Zong | China | $240,000 |
| 7 | Sun Da Seng | China | $181,000 |
| 8 | Daniel Cates | USA | $181,000 |
| 9 | Gavin | China | $143,000 |
| 10 | Esti Wang | China | $143,000 |
| 11 | Guang Hui Luo | China | $113,000 |
| 12 | Ke Xu | China | $113,000 |
Read up on the action via the live updates.
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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