William Jia is a player to watch, having gone through a tear across the Asian circuit in 2023 through the first half of 2024. The young gun from Melbourne, Australia favors high stakes poker and already has several titles under his belt in a career that is just taking off. Jia has amassed total earnings of $768,385 to place him in the top 100 of Australia’s All Time Money List. His performance in the last few months though, has pushed him to rank #9 in the GPI National Rankings.

William Jia – Poker Achievements

William Jia blipped into the scene as early as 2018 at the Melbourne Poker Championships but disappeared right away only to resurface in the Asian circuit in 2023, seemingly out of nowhere. Jia announced his return to the live tournament scene barely warming up to claim his first title and maiden APT championship in March. He took down the NLH Turbo 8-Max Event of the Asian Poker Tour Phu Quoc, besting 34 players and defeating compatriot Anton Zhen Lu in heads up play. Jia closed the tournament with a deep run at the High Roller 8-Max to collect a combine total cash of nearly $28,000.

The following month saw him make another deep run, finishing 3rd at the Main Event of the World Poker Championship III Hanoi and banking a $ 48,158 payoff. Jia’s second title came soon after in May, battling it out in the High Roller Event of the Poker Dream Manila 2023, earning $ 36,962. The Australian was crushing the circuit with deep runs at the U Series of Poker Ha Noi, placing third in the High Roller MegaStack for a $ 33,643 cash, and at the Asian Poker Tour Hanoi Billions, Vietnam, where he placed fifth in the NLH Superstar Challenge 8 Max Event, banking $ 65,638. William Jia then capped the year with one more title, shipping the Super High Roller Event of the Asian Poker Festival Hanoi, adding $ 66,013 as his year-end bounty. The Aussie hot hand had an impressive 14 final tables on his first Asian circuit experience. His 2023 haul amounted to $ 427,165.

USOP Taiwan Day 2 highlights: Justin Geronimo bags big at Mystery Bounty; William Jia, Vincent Chauve, Shao Me Yang, Wanyu Lo win events

This momentum continued through 2024 with William Jia absolutely scorching the live felt right out of the starting gates. In his very first tournament of the year at the U Series of Poker Taiwan 2024, Jia captured title number 4, winning the High Roller Warm Up by topping a tough competition of 61 entries which included two-time USOP super high roller winner Hoang Hai Nam from Vietnam. He defeated local favoriteNevan Yu Chung Chang to clinch hisfirst ever USOP title. This was a second cash of the series having finished 3rd at opening day’s Mini High Roller.

The hot start would continue across two more live tournaments in the same month. Jia finished 3rd at the 10K Single Day Challenge Event of the World Poker Tour Cambodia Championship, Phnom Penh for a high cash of $63,955 then finished the month with deep runs at the Poker Dream 8 Malaysia, doing well in the Single Day High Roller and High Roller Event to aggregate a sum of more than $57,000.

The month of April 2024 marked a pair of milestones for William Jia when he clinched his fifth title, winning the Main Event of the Vietnam International Poker Tour Hanoi. Jia conquered a field of 624 entries and bested local favorite Nguyen Van Sang to lift the prestigious trophy and earn a career best cash to date, of $ 88,866.

William Jia’s recent success was at the High Roller Finale of the 2024 Vietnam Poker League Summer Series Hanoi where he made a final table finish at 4th and taking home $ 18,859. Jia’s current total earnings of $340,650 is better than the pace of last year’s red-hot start.

*Profile by Mike Alcazaren

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