Wei Zhao

For Chinese poker professional Wei Zhao, the more the merrier. Tournaments that is. Zhao is successful in online play and seeks to equal, if not, surpass his achievements on the live felt by sheer volume. Wei Zhao, to date, has participated in more than 120 tournaments since 2014 and by the law of averages has been able to make it to enough finishes in the money to push him to 63rd in China’s All Time Money List.

Wei Zhao – Early Success

Wei Zhao showed early success since his first appearance in 2014 at the World Poker Tour National China, Sanya. Then, in only his fourth live tournament, Zhao took Game #13 at the 2015 European Poker Tour Barcelona winning a first 5-figure cash of $57,526. He backed this up a few months later shipping the Deepstack Championship Event at the APPT Asia Championship of Poker, Macau banking $54,501 then finished runner up at the KO Big Bounty Event adding $25,676 more to his APPT payoff. Zhao finished 2015 by clinching 3 side events at the European Poker Tour Prague and made final table finishes at the Hyper Turbo and Turbo Bounty events pocketing more than $60,000 in prize money.

Wei Zhao continued his packed schedule through 2016, working the live felt at the European Poker Tours in Monte Carlo and Barcelona plus several Macau events. In March, Zhao made a final table finish at the High Roller Re-entry Event of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Poker for a cash of $ 38,204. The Chinese added more titles clinching the Macau NLH 6-Max & Teams Championship events of the 2016 Asia Championship of Poker Macau.

While 2017 had Wei Zhao continue his multiple-event strategy, he played only in Macau and Korea. Zhao did perform consistently but was not as impressive compared to the previous 2 years with only a runner-up finish as highlight at the PokerStars Championship Macau, Turbo Event. The following years until 2018 had Zhao slow down considerably with no notable achievements. Then with the pandemic, the Chinese player shifted to online play like many poker professionals. But even after the lockdown, Wei Zhao would prefer playing at World Series of Poker GG Online where his success grew.

Zhao played a few live tournaments sporadically in 2021 and 2022 but only in China, like the HSPC Huangshan Cup and the new brand Top Joy Poker Tour in Cangshan. He finally returned to live felt action with a full schedule in September 2022. Zhao found his rhythm again and in May 2023, notched a runner-up finish at the Main Event of the HSPC Huangshan Cup – ShaoXing, cashing $ 74,941.

He continued to pick up pace with back to back titles at the Rush Event of the TJPT Changsha Poker Tournament and the Single High Roller Event of the World Poker Tour Korea, Jeju. The win in Jeju gave him his career best live cash of $ 83,948 and a maiden WPT title. In 2024, Wei Zhao picked up another maiden title, this time at the Asian Poker Tour Jeju, clinching the Turbo Event. He also finished 3rd at the Baby Superstar Event for an additional $ 45,839 in the bank.

Wei Zhao’s strategy seems to be paying off as he has currently reached the $500K Milestone with total live earnings of $729,149.

*Profile by Mike Alcazaren