WPT Cambodia: Choi Hun Tae leads final 7 of Championship Warm Up; Bien Mai bags big at Mystery Bounty Day 1A

Day 4 at World Poker Tour (WPT) Cambodia saw the Championship Warm Up trim down to seven players with Choi Hun Tae bagging the chip lead. At the Mystery Bounty, the opening flight drew 146 entries with 19 at bagging time led by Vietnam’s Bien Mai. Scroll down for the recap and highlights.

WPT Cambodia – News Coverage and Results
WPT Cambodia – Player of the Festival standings
WPT Cambodia – Player Guide
WPT Cambodia – Photos

Choi Hun Tae leads final 7 of Championship Warm Up

Day 2 of the Championship Warm Up saw 103 players return to action, each one aiming for a piece of the USD 340,518 prize pool. Just over two hours in, Ilya Firstov delivered the bubble, ensuring a payout for the remaining 62 players. From there, the race raged on as players hunted down a seat to the final table.

After 11 hours of play, the official WPT final table of six wasn’t reached, instead seven players remained led by Korea’s Choi Hun Tae with a strong 60 bb. Choi was a grinding machine all day, often seen raking in chips to hold top rank for quite some time.

Running second in chips was Philippine player Jonald Garcia with 43 bb. Garcia was also seen up top for several levels. Dropping down at the final 9, Garcia picked up a couple of pocket Aces to surge back up, eliminating Diego Uechi in 8th place.

Yuwen Pan and Koen Breed were next down the rung, both players struggled with short stacks for most of the day, Pan was nearly out in 15th place but a lucky river Queen saved his against Laury Vanlerberghe’s .

Day 1 chip leaders, Samuel Adams (Day 1A) and Marc Joseph (Day 1C) followed in chip rank. Joseph maintained a mid-stack all day, Adams was at risk of elimination at the final table with , but like Pan, he spiked the river card for a pair to survive against .

To round out the pack is Xin Zhao who was a strong force all day. He carried the second largest stack into the final 9 until several bad bouts against Choi sent him down to 23 bb.

The final 7 players return on January 21, 2024 at 11:30am to chase down the title and the hefty USD 66,029 top prize.  

Buy in: USD 800
Guarantee: USD 150,000
Entries: 489 (289 unique)
Prize pool: USD 341,518
ITM: 62 places

Chips in play: 24,450,000
Average stack: 3,492,857
Opening Day 3 blinds: 50K-100K ante 100K

Final 7 players

Seat	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	Jonald Garcia	Philippines	4,275,000	43
2	Samuel Adams	New Zealand	2,525,000	25
3	Koen Breed	Netherlands	3,375,000	34
4	Xin Zhao	China	2,250,000	23
5	Yuwen Pan	China	3,425,000	34
6	Choi Hun Tae	Korea	6,000,000	60
7	Marc Joseph	South Africa	2,600,000	26

Remaining payouts

Place	Payout in USD
1	$66,029
2	$43,960
3	$32,338
4	$24,046
5	$18,073
6	$13,732
7	$10,543

The Championship Warm Up drew 489 entries over three entry flights for a prize pool of USD 340,518. Day 1B pulled in the largest of 217 entries. 103 players advanced to Day 2

Day 1 results

Day 1A entries: 123 entries (107 unique)
Day 1B entries: 217 (135 unique)
Day 1C (Turbo): 149 entries (47 unique)

India’s Amit Kaushik carried in the chip lead and bowed out in 12th place. In mid-day, Vietnam’s Dao Minh Phu built a fortress until a four-bet shove with Jack-Ten cost him a chunk and eventually the rest against Martin Gonzales‘s pocket Aces. At three tables remaining, Philippine’s Christopher Mateo and France’s Adrien Berger drove their stacks to the top and finished in 11th and 10th place to form the unofficial final table of 9 players.

You can read up on some of the action via the WPT Cambodia – Daily Updates. We will have the payouts for you once it has been made available.

---

Mystery Bounty – Day 1A

The Mystery Bounty attracted 146 runners to the tables with 19 making the cut into the next round. Vietnam’s Bien Mai enjoyed a late game surge to zoom to the top and bag a dominating 862,000 stack (86 bb). In second rank was Canada’s Thomas Lee with 64 bb, and to round out the top three was Slovakia’s Andrej Desset who delivered the bubble to close with 53 bb.

Mai’s fast rise happened in two big hands against Taiwan’s Chao Ting Cheng. The first hand saw the board complete with a pot of 175,000 brewed. Mai checked, Cheng fired 85,000, Mai shoved, Cheng tank-folded.

The second hand was about the same. On a board that completed and 240,000 in the middle, Cheng bet 100,000, Mai check-raised all in again, Cheng tank-folded. Shortly after, Andrej Desset railed a player with standing firm against to burst the bubble and wrap up Day 1A.

Date: January 20, 2024
Buy in: USD 800
Guarantee: USD 200,000
Day 1A: 146 entries (119 unique)
ITM: 19 players

Day 1B: January 21, 2024 at 11:30am (30 min blinds)
Day 1C: January 21, 2024 at 4pm (25 minute blinds)

End of Day 1A – 19 players

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack
1	Bien Mai	Viet Nam	862,000
2	Thomas Lee	Canada	646,000
3	Andrej Desset	Slovakia	536,000
4	Renji Mao	China	453,000
5	Mr. Fendy	Indonesia	395,000
6	Oleg Titov	Russia	350,000
7	Dmitrii Gnusaev	Russia	318,000
8	Sean Joseph Keeton	United Kingdom	277,000
9	Eike Soren Strub	Germany	267,000
10	Anthony Cierco	France	249,000
11	Chao-Ting Cheng	Taiwan	237,000
12	Rolands Norietis	Latvia	236,000
13	Conor Mark Berry Grimsley	United Kingdom	235,000
14	Maximilian Detlef Horst Von Nolting	Germany	192,000
15	Bin Yang	China	158,000
16	Younghun Moon	Korea	131,000
17	Ville Jyrki Santeri Pohjalainen	Finland	109,000
18	Chul Woong Joo	Korea	101,000
19	Yoay Ram	Israel	97,000

WPT Cambodia

WPT Cambodia is the first Main Tour in Southeast Asia currently taking place at NagaWorld Phnom Penh. The games opened on January 17 and runs through January 30, 2024. Games have been heating up players continuously flocking in preparation for the big one.

The WPT Cambodia Championship takes place on January 25 to 29 featuring a USD 1 Million guarantee. The champion will be forever memorialized on the iconic Mike Sexton Champions Cup! Already seen in action are WPT champions Hoyt Corkins, Mel Judah, and Masato Yokosawa. 

*Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you daily updates of WPT Cambodia from start to finish. 

Softest fields at WPT Global!

Want to play the softest fields online? WPT Global is it! This is  one of the fastest growing rooms, has soft fields, and offers action in every limit.

Read our WPT Global review or click here to register.

Please contact us for any questions.