– General Introduction –

ho bao qiang poker — Ho Bao Qiang. Credit: The Asian Poker Tour

Ho Bao Qiang is a Singaporese professional poker player. His exact age is unknown, but he’s estimated to be in his late 20’s.

He mainly plays in mid to high stakes live tournaments in the East Asian circuit. He has an APT (Asian Poker Tour) and an APPT (Asia Pacific Poker Tour) title as well. In addition, he’s also cashed in some events in the summer WSOP in Las Vegas.

As for online poker, he plays under the screen name “Yummers19” on Natural8-GGNetwork. There, he made it into the money in a number of WSOP Online events; and took down a GGSF (GG Spring Festival) tournament as well.

– Key Career Dates –

2013: He starts cashing in live tournaments in his home country of Singapore.
2019: He wins the NT$54,000 No Limit Hold’em – High Rollers Single Day event at APT Taiwan for NT$868,000 ($28,381). That is the biggest single live tournament cash of his career to date.
2021: He wins the M-38: $525 Bounty Hunters Main Event at the GG Spring Festival on Natural8-GGNetwork for $119,502.15.

– Ho Bao Qiang’s Career –

Qiang’s first recorded cash on his Hendon page is from April 2013 – and it was a victory right off the bat. He finished first in a No Limit Hold’em tourney with an unknown buy-in at The Leisure World Poker Series for S$7,300 (which equaled around $5,900 at the time). Based on the number of ITM finishes and the total prize pool, we can deduce that the buy-in was around $200-$300.

Qiang must have got really fond of that tourney series, held at the MV Leisure World cruise ship in Singapore, as the first five of his live cashes are from the series. Also, he made at least one in the money finish every year from 2013 until 2015, when the festival was discontinued. Among those four other cashes, one more of them was a first place finish. In September 2014, he won the S$250 NLHE event for S$3,000 ($2,366).

His first recorded result outside his home country of Singapore is from October 2014. He came in 7th in the $165 NLHE – Deep Stack Turbo event at the WPT Nationals in the Philippines for $991. The next year, in January 2015, Qiang delivered his first major tournament victory on foreign land from the Philippines also. He took down the ₱50,000 NLHE event at the PokerStars Live Manila Megastack and won ₱327,400 ($7,314).

In May 2016, he made a runner-up finish in the ₱55,000 Open Face Chinese – Pineapple High Roller Shootout 12 Max event at APT Manila for ₱102,000 ($2,184). He went on to make two 3rd place finishes at that Philippines stop of the Asian Poker Tour, for ₱310,400 ($6,627) combined.

In May 2017, he came in 3rd again, this time in the HK$3,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament at the Poker King Cup at The Venetian Macau Resort & Hotel in Macau. He got HK22,300 ($2,864) for that performance.

2017 was also the first year Qiang cashed in a WSOP event at the Rio in Las Vegas. In 2018, he even managed to make it into the money in the WSOP Main Event! Out of a field of 7,874 players, he eventually busted in 761st place for $19,900.

Qiang’s biggest breakthroughs on the live felt so far came in 2019. First, in October 2019, he came in 4th in the NT$33,000 NLHE – APT Main Event at the Asian Poker Tour in Taipei, Taiwan. He pocketed no less than NT$652,600 ($21,199). Then, only a few days later, he took down the NT$54,000 NLHE – High Rollers Single Day event at APT Taiwan, winning NT$868,000 ($28,381). That is his biggest single live tournament score to date.

In February 2020, he triumphed in the NT$15,000 No Limit Hold’em Superstack event at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour back in Taipei. He won NT$797,000 ($26,310).

Overall, Ho Bao Qiang has cashed for $200,225 in live tournaments during his career. That sum was accumulated by cashing in 40 different live events over the course of 7 years. It puts him in the top 25 on Hendon’s Singaporese all time money list.

As for online poker, Qiang plays under the screen name “Yummers19” on Natural8-GGNetwork.

In 2020, when the dreaded Coronavirus pandemic forced all World Series of Poker events to be played online, he cashed in 5 WSOP Online events on the site. The biggest cash of the 5 was $1,772, which he got for finishing 1,030th in the $500 No Limit Hold’em Mini Main Event.

In April 2`021, Qiang took down the M-38: $525 Bounty Hunters Main Event at the GG Spring Festival on Natural8. He managed to best a 2,745-entry field, beating a player playing under the screen name “Xyc888” from China heads-up for the title at the end. Qiang won the massive $119,502 first prize – that is over 4 times bigger than his biggest live cash!

Event	Buy-In	Prize	Place	Entries
USOP Hai Phong Grand Finale 2024 Main Event 2024.12.05 - 2024.12.09	35,000,000 VND	$7,412 VND 188,000,000	28
USOP Hai Phong Grand Finale 2024 Superstar Challenge 2024.12.01 - 2024.12.02	120,000,000 VND	$10,692 VND 271,000,000	12

Bao Qiang Ho