Dong Hyun “Tommy” Kim Wins Maiden Win Win Poker Opening Event

The live poker scene in Taiwan is one venue richer with the successful opening of the Win Win Poker Club in Taipei after four days of action concluded with the victory of Dong Hyun “Tommy” Kim in the TWD 5,000 Opening Event.

While most of the participants were hailing from Taiwan, including eight of the nine finalists, it was the South Korean player who came out on top of the 1,344-entry field after a heads-up deal with Yi Yang. Both players shared the biggest slice of the TWD 5,419,008 (USD 173,408) prize pool.

Kim was arguably the most well-known of the 138 hopefuls who returned to their seats on March 1, 2026 with more than USD 1.4 million in cashes to his name, often referred to as “Triton Tommy” after three big scores on the High-Roller circuit back in 2022 and 2023. He entered the final day among the larger stacks and reached the final table second in chips before asserting dominance. For his fifth win in a live poker event, Kim collected TWD 700,000 while runner-up Yang scored TWD 600,000 as part of a deal agreement.

The Opening Event in Numbers:

Buy-In: TWD 5,000 (USD 160)
Guarantee: TWD 3,000,000 (USD 96,000)
Total Entries: 1,344
Total Players ITM: 172 (138 in Day 2, 34 multiple qualifiers)
Total Prize Pool: TWD 5,419,008 (USD 173,408)

How the Day Played Out

The TWD 3 million guarantee for the event was already surpassed mid-way through the seventh of twelve starting flights, with each of them playing down to the 12.5% in the money. Several players took advantage of the qualification bonus for multiple stacks, of which only the largest was carried over to the final day, which rolled back the blinds to the earliest Day 1 finish.

Five players had turned their starting stack of 40,000 into seven figures, and leading the way for the final day was Ho Yin Cheung with 1,770,000 in chips, followed by Hongcheng Chen (1,537,000) and Jia Cheng Chu (1,302,000). Most of those to bag up chips were locals from Taiwan, but several South Koreans also secured a portion of the prize pool as well.

It came as no surprise that the eliminations came at a rapid pace in the opening stages with many short stacks making it through combined with a 25-minute level duration until the final table. QQPoker’s Shiqian Lin bowed out in the opening stages while Poker Queen Yi Jhen Ke doubled with quad fours with around 100 players remaining. Throughout the first three levels, the field was nearly cut in half and among the casualties was also Chao Ting Cheng who has nearly $1 million in live tournament cashes to his name already.

The chip leader by some margin on the final five tables was Chu with four times the average and he appeared to have plenty of fun while doing so, not afraid to put his massive stack to use and even show several cheeky bluffs. Four female players still had chips at their disposal with 40 left and Wanru Liao received a healthy boost after her queen-jack suited flopped the nut straight to knock out Yuwei Zhang . She added another elimination soon after and leaped to more than two times the average.

Kim was not too far behind the largest stacks as the action eventually slowed down on the final four tables after claiming several pots in a row. Out of the blue, five players busted within three minutes and the final three tables were reached. Bo Sin Wu was among those to notch up a knockout during that frenzy with ace-king versus ace-jack preflop.

Start-of-the-day chip leader Cheung jumped back into the overall top five when his opponent raise-called all-in for eighteen big blinds with pocket nines. His queens were already in front and another queen on the flop made the rest of the runout a formality. Soon after that, Poker Queen Ke departed from the very same table right after with ace-queen against the pocket aces of Chu and finished in 24th place for TWD 22,500 as third-last woman.

The top of the leaderboard was still dominated by Chu, who was involved in almost every pot. For example, he knocked out Yiqing Zheng by cracking pocket kings with ace-king after spiking Broadway on the river. Hsiao Yung Ko prevailed in a three-way all-in with ace-king versus ace-ten and ace-eight to more than double in the process.

The next clash was only a few minutes after when last woman standing, Liao, flopped the nut flush only for the river to pair the board against bottom set. On the same table, Cheung lost more than half of his stack when putting pressure on shorter stacks behind and saw his ace-jack outkicked by the ace-king of Kim and that kick-started a hot streak for the South Korean player.

Li Wei Liu was a cat with many lives and came back from two big blinds to score several double-ups. He also had the best of it with queens against the ace-jack of Liao and almost reached the average with 14 left. Chu then beat ace-deuce with queen-nine to knock out Elvin and Kim’s ace-king did the same versus ace-five suited to leave a dozen hopefuls still in the mix. Two hands later, Liao’s tournament ended with king-eight suited against the ace-queen of Ko and the last lady in the field bowed out in 12th place for TWD 44,000.

The three chip leaders to start the day were still in contention but Cheung narrowly missed the final table. His ace-queen was up against the pocket deuces of Kim and he needed runner-runner despite flopping an ace. The same then also applied for Chen when he three-bet jammed with king-queen. He was up against the rampant Chu with ten-four suited and jokingly put on his jacket already. That fear was warranted, as Chu flopped a ten to reach the final nine with the lead.

Final Table Action

The two chip leaders dominated the start of the final table without any major action and the only early confrontation ended in an unusual split pot. Yi Yang with ace-jack suited and Min Ze Chuang with pocket jacks got it in preflop. The case jack appeared to give Chuang a set only for them to chop with a jack-high straight on the board. Guang Ming Chiu then doubled with sevens versus ace-eight suited as one of the bottom stacks.

Wei Cheng Wen was the one to lose that hand and his next all-in showdown ended with the same result when his pocket jacks were cracked by the pocket sixes of Kim, the flopped gutshot straight draw of the South Korean got there on the river. The South Korean slowly took over control and also showed the goods with jacks and aces in quick succession, narrowly pulling ahead of the equally active Chu.

Liu was the next player at risk with ace-jack against the king-queen of Chiu and survived in style with jacks full of aces. Kuei Yang Chen had dropped to three big blinds when he moved all-in from the cutoff and was called by Yang in the big blind. Both paired their weaker kicker on the flop but a jack on the turn spelled the end for Chen in eighth place. Chuang’s story with pocket jacks wasn’t done yet as his queens beat the jacks of Chu with both players hitting a set to continue seven-handed.

Five players were fighting for survival and there was a large gap to the duo atop. Kim wrestled his way into a comfortable lead with a hero-call on a paired seven-high board with ace-queen, though, as he caught Chu bluffing with king-jack suited for a missed flush draw. He was also on the verge of sending Liu to the payout desk with ace-queen suited versus ace-nine suited but a nine on the flop brought a five big blind setback. The next misstep was more expensive when Chuang held with pocket kings versus jack-ten suited for seven big blinds.

Yang’s patience was then rewarded in a massive three-way all-in with three premium pocket pairs causing an uproar among the finalists. Chiu pushed all in with pocket queens, Chu isolated with pocket jacks and Yang called his stack off with pocket kings right behind. The flop brought both a king and jack to knock out Chiu, while Yang nearly tripled and jumped into second place.

Soon after, Yang even took over the lead from Kim when he called a river-bet and received the muck to claim the chips without showdown. Former chip leader Chu plummeted towards the short stacks when his two barrels were jammed upon by Kim and he suddenly found himself in the danger zone. Chu doubled once with pocket fives versus ace-eight before Kim finished him off in another flip, holding with pocket tens against king-queen.

Liu survived another all-in with pocket tens against the pocket sevens of Yang, who then found pocket queens to leave Ko with pocket fives second-best. Short-handed play however heavily favored Kim and he pulled into a commanding lead, which grew even bigger with the elimination of Liu for the last three big blinds. King-ten suited was alive versus ace-eight but failed to catch any help. Right after, the heads-up duel was set when Chuang’s ace-six fell in three-way action.

The potential battle for the trophy saw South Korea’s Kim with a near 2.5 to 1 chip lead but no hand was played, as both agreed to a deal with Kim taking the larger cash prize as well as the trophy inside the new Win Win Poker Club.

Final Table Results

The result also marked a successful debut for Win Win Poker Club, which is expected to host more live poker events in Taiwan in the future. With a strong turnout and an energetic atmosphere throughout the four-day festival, the new venue has already made a promising first impression on the local poker scene. Keep an eye out for future articles covering upcoming events and developments from Win Win Poker Club.