USOP Taiwan MAIN EVENT final 9! Champion to be crowned today, Gyeong Byeong Lee leads; Day 2 payouts included

After four days of nonstop poker showdowns, and the booming 1,100 turnout of the U Series of Poker (USOP) Taiwan MAIN EVENT is now down to the final 9 players! At the helm is South Korea’s Gyeong Byeong Lee with a commanding 134 bb stack. Lee is in prime position to seize the coveted USOP title, trophy, and NTD 5,383,700 (~USD 173,300) top cash prize.

Date: January 11 to 15, 2024
Buy in: NTD 33,000 (~USD 1,056)
Guarantee: NTD 15,000,000 (~USD 482,230)
Total Entries: 1100
ITM: 140 players

USOP Taiwan – Main Event – Day 2

Final 9 by stack

Opening blinds: 50K-100K ante 100K

Level intervals: 60 minute blinds

Final table race: Monday, January 15, 2024

Game time: 12:15pm

Remaining payouts

Final 9 players

Briefly reviewing the Main Event final 9 players, South Korea’s Gyeong Byeong Lee is well ahead of the pack with 134 bb at kick off time. Lee emerged into the Asia live scene in 2016 and has since run very deep at numerous Main Events worldwide. His largest score was at the 2019 Aussie Millions Main Event where he placed 6th for A$ 309,000 (~USD 222,080).

Running second rank is Chi Jen Chen who mostly plays on home turf Taiwan. Chen has numerous local titles under his belt starting with his first big win at the 2019 APL Taiwan Road Main Event for NTD 1,278,500 (~USD 41,500). Chen is riding on a victory high having won the GPI Asia Poker Festival / MPS Main Event last November. Chen enters the final table with a healthy 87 bb.

Minh A Nguyen is one of Vietnam’s highly decorated players with two major titles to boast of – Poker Dream Vietnam 2022 Main Event and Asian Poker Festival Hanoi Main Event. He enters the final table with a healthy 79 bb.

Following the top 3 players, the stack sizes drop to about half. Leading that lower pack is Germany’s Oliver Schulze (34 bb) who claimed his first USOP title at the Mini Main Event in Da Nang last November. The next two are Taiwan’s Po Wen Fang (30 bb) and GPI POY Malaysia’s Webster Chin Wei Lim (26 bb). Both players have already won a USOP trophy two days ago. Of the final 9 players, Lim is the most decorated and most feared with over USD 13.8 Million in live earnings and six big world titles to boast of.

Next two are well known local players Sam Chen-Yu Hung (22 bb) and Yu-Sheng Lin (18 bb), both are seeking their first major title. And lastly, running ninth in chips is the lone player holding up the flag for Hong Kong, Yu Chen with 11 bb.

Catch all the action via the livestream on USOP YouTube or click the link below:

Day 2 fallouts

The USOP Taiwan Main Event drew a towering 1,100 entries over four starting flights with 139 players advancing to Day 2. Each returnee was guaranteed a payout of NTD 42,800 (~USD 1,380).

Entering chip leader, Singapore’s Guan Hao Tan, navigated his way to 44th place for NTD 119,000 (~USD 3,830). Superstar Challenge champion Chih Wei Fan entered 10th in chips, bowed out in 24th place for NTD 179,000 (~USD 5,760), Malaysia’s Calvin Kean Wei Tan earned his fourth series cash in 26th place for NTD 157,000 (~USD 5,055), and Philippine’s John Tech just missed the final table, exiting in 10th place for NTD 416,000 (~USD 13,390).

You can view the payouts via the link provided:

USOP Taiwan – Festival Results