“It’s Unbelieveable!” Hyundong Lee Clinches 2025 WPT Prime Taiwan Championship For Second Major This Year

“It’s unbelievable!” That was Hyundong Lee’s first words when asked about winning the 2025 WPT Prime Taiwan Championship.

Local players may recall Lee’s breakthrough win just two months back at the same stage during the Ace Poker League Taipei Main Event . Now, under an even bigger spotlight, he has done it again for a much larger score. Reflecting on both triumphs, he noted,

“Last time at APL, I came from 5 big blinds, now also very short stack, so lucky.”

Indeed. Lee was down to just 7 big blinds at three-handed before three winning showdowns sent him skyrocketing back to the top of the leaderboard. 

Hyundong Lee Clinches 2025 WPT Taiwan Championship

The 2025 WPT Prime Taiwan Championship ran from August 14 to 19, 2025 at the CTP Asia Poker Arena in Taipei City featuring a TWD 35,000 (~US$ 1,170) buy-in and a TWD 30 million (~US$ 1 Million) guarantee. Over the course of four starting days, the flagship event attracted 1,470 entries to cruise past the guarantee and drive the prize pool to TWD 45,343,700 (~US$ 1,507,938). 

Taiwan Female Contenders Run Deep

Among the players in attendance was poker veteran Joanne Liu aka “JJ”, Taiwan’s 3rd ranked player in the Hendon Mob All Time Money List, though she resides in the US. This was Liu’s first ever event on home soil. She ran deep, finishing in 31st place. Also in the field was Hui Chen Kuo aka “Kitty” , another top female player from Taiwan ranked 4th in the All Time Money List. Kuo made it to Day 3, finishing in 18th place.

Unlike the famous players mentioned above, a new female player made her mark on the WPT stage. This being only her second live poker tournament, Ting Wei Li, nearly became the first WPT Prime female champion. She finished in 3rd place for her largest career cash.

A Swingy Final Table

On the final day, Korea’s Hyundong Lee overcame a roller coaster run to claim the title and the top prize of TWD 6,375,000 (~US $212,005), inclusive of a seat worth US$ 10,400 to the WPT World Championship in Las Vegas this December. 

#39 WPT PRIME CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT (35,000 TWD)

Total Prize USD

$1,507,938

Total Prize

NT$45,343,700

Guaranteed

NT$30,000,000

Entries

1,470

ITM

179

#	Payout	Player
1	NT$6,375,000 $212,930	HL Hyundong Lee Korea (Republic of)
2	NT$4,315,000 $144,125	CH Ci Hong Ho Taiwan
3	NT$3,200,000 $106,880	TW Ting Wei Li Taiwan
4	NT$2,400,000 $80,160	MP Manwoo Park Korea (Republic of)
5	NT$1,820,000 $60,790	CJ Chan Justin Pak Kwan Hong Kong
6	NT$1,380,000 $46,095	YL Youngjong Lee Korea (Republic of)
7	NT$1,065,000 $35,570	WL Wangkei Lau Hong Kong
8	NT$825,000 $27,555	SY Seungmin Yu Korea (Republic of)
9	NT$650,000 $21,710	RK Robert Kiss United States of America

Check the 179 Payouts & Results ...

Lee entered the six-handed final table as chip leader, but found himself in a constant battle as momentum shifted rapidly from one player to another. Just twelve hands into play, Lee lost the lead after paying a double up to Man Woo Park.

Park’s time at the top was short-lived, however, as Ci Hong Ho surged ahead with a massive double of his own, padded further by eliminating Justin Chan (5th) and Park (4th).

Three-handed action opened with Ho holding a commanding 2:1 chip lead over Ting Wei Li, while Lee had tumbled to just seven big blinds. Li managed to wrest the lead from Ho after a gutsy four-bet shove on a flop, but her reign was also challenged immediately.

Lee doubled through her twice, and on their third clash he vaulted back into the chip lead while Li was left crippled (hand below as reported by WPT). She exited in third place soon after, setting up heads-up play with Lee holding a dominant 77 big blinds to Ho’s 20. Together with her fall ended the possibility of a first WPT Prime female champion.

With both players maintaining aggression, the duel was anything but straightforward. Despite Lee’s sizable advantage, Ho battled back with an early double to snatch the lead once again. And while both were still deep compared to the blinds, the winning hand arrived very fast. After Lee reclaimed the lead, he finally closed it out on just the eleventh hand of heads up play.

Final Hand

As reported by WPT – with blinds at 400,000-800,000 ante 800,000:

Ci Hong Ho – 24,600,000 (30 bb)
Hyundong Lee – 34,200,000 (42 bb)

With his WPT Prime title now secured, Lee has firmly established himself as one of the region’s rising stars, and he’ll carry that momentum onto the global stage at Wynn Las Vegas in December.

Ting Wei Li’s Bluff Catches

While there were many great hands at the final table, there were a few standouts by 3rd placer Ting Wei Li starting with the second hand of the day with blinds at 125,000-250,000 ante 250,000:

Hand #29 with blinds at 150,000-300,000 ante 300,000:

*Photos by WPT