Lirui Zhang aka Ivan Zhang’s Instagram account lists him as a property developer and investor; Texas Hold’em player and a car enthusiast. Of which is a priority? You can guess from his lean poker resume’. The Chinese player from Chengdu, is based in Australia where Zheng had begun playing professional poker almost exclusively in the island-continent since 2019. Zhang would shuttle between the cities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney participating in small low-stakes club tournaments like the Matchroom Poker. His most notable achievement for his first recorded year was a 3rd place finish at the 2019 WSOP International Circuit Sydney to get his first five-figure paycheck of $19,340. This was a rare foray into the bigger tournaments.
Zhang continued playing local tournaments post-pandemic and improved with a win in November 2020 at the Big Stack Poker Festival, Adelaide Main Event banking a cash of $42,174. 2021 was pretty much of the same low stakes games until Zhang ventured out of his comfort zone ironically at a tournament in his home country of China. Zhang made a deep run at the 2021 China Poker Games Sanya Championship, Sanya Bay, placing 3rd in the High Roller Event bagging a career high cash of $78,217. This spurred him to take on a more adventurous path into mainstream tournaments.
Coming back to Australia, Zhang would make a table finish at the World Poker Tour Deep Stacks Sydney for another 5-figure pay-off. In 2024, The Chinese player would bag his maiden World Poker Tour Title in Jeju, Korea, smoking a field of 376 entries, to take the WPT Opener. Zhang would accrue a total cash of over $70,000 in 3 events.
To date, Lirui “Ivan” Zhang has a career total earnings of $320,093. It’s a decent output in four years of professional poker play. It remains to be seen though if Zhang would shift his priorities and build on his first WPT title.
Apart from attending live events, Zhang is one of the creators of The Lord Poker Tournament, a new high stakes brand emerging in Asia.
