[Interview] Homegrown TMT at its high with CTP’s David Tai and Raymond Wong
With the World Poker Tour Prime Taiwan 2024 in cooperation with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association (CTP Club) currently running at the Asia Poker Arena, Taipei, Somuchpoker had a chance to sit down with the Association’s very own founder Hsing ‘David’ Tai and Head of International Relations, Raymond Wong. In the exclusive interview, Tai and Wong gave a closer look on CTP’s growth, its main goals, and what’s on the horizon for the fastest growing brand.
Somuchpoker: Congratulations on a highly successful 16th running of TMT! Did you expect the turnout to be that massive?
David Tai / Raymond Wong: We did not expect it to be that high, but definitely around 5,000 entries, very surprising.
SMP: With such a high local demand, are you looking to expand to a bigger location?
DT / RW: Yes actually, we’re always on the look for a bigger place to host bigger events.
SMP: Is this location – Asia Poker Arena, your biggest room to date?
DT / RW: Yes, it is. Here, we can accommodate 65 poker tables at maximum capacity.
SMP: How many poker rooms does CTP currently operate?
DT / RW: Currently, we have nineteen poker rooms including this one.
SMP: Coming from humble beginnings, is the first CTP poker room in Tao Yuan still running?
DT / RW: Yes, it is still open with eight tables running.
SMP: Was this what you envisioned when you first opened CTP?
DT / RW: At the start of CTP actually, we wanted to host the biggest poker room in Taiwan. Of course over the past few years, we saw that there is a possibility that we can do the biggest one in Asia.
SMP: With a focus on only tournament poker, do you still offer daily events across various cities? Do you think cash games are likely to run in the future?
DT / RW: Yes, we still offer daily events across different locations. No, cash games, just tournaments.
SMP: Have you had any legal hiccups throughout the years? Or has it been easier considering the poker boom in Taiwan?
DT / RW: For the past few years, yes. About 2-3 years ago, about the time before COVID hit, there were still a lot of regulation problems, police coming in to do routine checks constantly. CTP also had to face a lot of court cases but we won all those, that’s why currently we are running legal tournaments in Taiwan. It has definitely been tough but now everything is running smoothly.
SMP: What can we expect from CTP in 2025?
DT / RW: Locally, TMT is definitely the one we are expecting to grow. The last one was almost 7,000, so we are looking forward to hitting 10,000 next year. And of course, the other one is the TMT Championship for October this year, which is more like an international event because the buy-in is roughly $1,100, following the standard of international brands. TMT is more local, small buy-in, but high guarantee. These are the two – Taiwan Millions Tournament and TMT Championship that we are looking forward to offering to the public.
SMP: What about the next edition of TMT? Are you looking to increase the buy-in (NTD 9,000 / US$ 280) or keep it relatively the same? What about the (US$ 1M) guarantee?
DT / RW: We are more focused on the number of entries so we kind of want to keep the same buy-in and if it grows again, then maybe we offer a bigger one.
SMP: Are you looking to branch out internationally? Maybe open a poker room outside of the country?
DT / RW: No, TMT is actually not planning to go out of Taiwan. Yes, maybe we have partnerships with Philippines like Cebu, and Hong Kong but we want people to come to Taiwan rather than bring the brand out.
SMP: Seems like a very fruitful year ahead! We wish you the best of luck, and thank you for your time!
Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association
Asia Poker Arena
10491, Zhongshan District,
Section 1, Jianguo N Rd, 80號b1
Taipei City, Taiwan
02 2577 0051
http://www.ctpclub.com
