Season XXII of the World Poker Tour opened on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at NagaWorld Integrated Resorts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Players were greeted with a welcome speech by WPT Live Events Specialist, Danny McDonagh, alongside partner Connaissance Management General Manager, Erique Tan, and NagaWorld Senior Operations Manager, Christopher Paul Gros.
“A very warm welcome to you all. On behalf of all the organizers, we thank you all for being here today. This is the fourth time the World Poker Tour has come to NagaWorld in Cambodia and without doubt the most exciting.
This is the first time the WPT Main Tour has come to Southeast Asia. There’s a million US dollar guarantee for the first time and the winners name will be engraved on this magnificent trophy – the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup… We are also very pleased that so many players have already committed to coming to this festival. We are expecting a number of new records to be set.”
With that, cards were back in the air with the NagaWorld Superstack headlining the opening day games. At sundown, the Superstack Turbo joined on the floor, concluding with Cheng Zhang as the first side event champion of the festival. Here are the day’s results.
NagaWorld Superstack – Day 1 results
It was excitement from the start as players quickly pulled up seats for the first event of the festival. Among the eager contenders were Hong Kong’s Hon Cheong Lee, Korea’s Seong Min Lee, South Africa’s Marc Joseph, Russia’s Natalia Rozova, Denmark’s Michael Falcon, Vietnam’s Bien Mai, to name a few. At the close of registration, a total of 207 signed up for a prize pool of USD 72,284.
Playing down to the money round, it was a double elimination during the bubble round with Frank Lillis and Dimitri Isaev both knocking out a player at their table. The fallen split the last place cash and 25 players bagged up. Japan’s Haruto Murata racked the largest of 53 bb, trailed closely by France’s Clement Thumy with 51 bb.
On the opposite end of the rung was one of Taiwan’s leading players, Nevan Yu Chung Chang, with just 5 bb. Chang dropped to < 2 bb on a cooler of pocket Queens over pocket Jacks, then managed to double up on a three-outer to squeak in the money round.
The event resumes on Thursday, January 18, 2024 at 11:30am. Everyone is guaranteed USD 540 while up top is USD 17,780.
Date: January 17 to 18, 2024
Buy in: USD 400
Entries: 207 (158 unique)
Prize pool: USD 72,284
ITM: 26 places
Chips in play: 10,350,000
Average stack: 414,000 (20 bb)
Day 2 opening blinds: 10K-20K ante 20K (17:24 time remaining)
Day 2: January 18, 2024 at 11:30am
End of Day 1 – 25 players
| Player | Flag | Stack | BB |
| Haruto Murata | Japan | 1,059,000 | 53 |
| Clement Thumy | France | 1,022,000 | 51 |
| Frank Lillis | Ireland | 882,000 | 44 |
| Lee Jin Xiong | Singapore | 651,000 | 33 |
| Johnny Tan | USA | 618,000 | 31 |
| Dimitri Isaev | Russia | 540,000 | 27 |
| Rolands Norietis | Latvia | 521,000 | 26 |
| Cho Seong Ho | Korea | 419,000 | 21 |
| Lawrence Pashak | Canada | 396,000 | 20 |
| Ivan Govorov | Russia | 388,000 | 19 |
| Krystian Jacek | Pokand | 378,000 | 19 |
| Pitsan Maksim | Russia | 360,000 | 18 |
| Sam Adams | 353,000 | 18 | |
| Yu Chuen Hung | Taiwan | 323,000 | 16 |
| Jayvon Carreon | Philippines | 300,000 | 15 |
| Abbouchi Mohamad | Lebanon | 300,000 | 15 |
| Anthony Do | Viet Nam | 298,000 | 15 |
| Patrick Standen | Canada | 266,000 | 13 |
| Andrew Leathem | Scotland | 244,000 | 12 |
| Koy David | 213,000 | 11 | |
| Stanislav Kovalenko | Russia | 185,000 | 9 |
| Del Peso | 184,000 | 9 | |
| Young Hun Moon | Korea | 180,000 | 9 |
| Asish Ghosh | India | 162,000 | 8 |
| Nevan Yu Chung Chang | Taiwan | 96,000 | 5 |
CHENG ZHANG wins Superstack Turbo
Impressive turnout as well at the evening’s Superstack Turbo with 98 entries over the nine rounds of registration. Despite the blinds increasing at a fast 15 minute intervals, the event still clocked in at over 8 hours. After a heads up deal, with the champion guaranteed $1 more, the battle for the trophy concluded with Cheng Zhang‘s 
dominating Hawon Song‘s 10-9.
Zhang’s rise began during the bubble round when he doubled up with top pair against Zhi Hao Chen‘s missed draw. This sent Chen down to a third of a small blind but still hung on for a 12th place finish. The bubble was delivered by Dominik Anousith Simmalavong with 
set toppling 
two pair on a board 
. Simmalavong went on to run deep in the final table, exiting in 4th place. He was followed out by Taiwan’s Chao Ting Cheng in 3rd place.
Date: January 17, 2024
Buy in: USD 200
Entries: 98
Prize pool: USD 16,636
ITM: 13 places
*Heads up deal, play for trophy
| Rank | Player |
Payout in USD
|
| 1 | Cheng Zhang | 4,098* |
| 2 | Hawon Song | 4,097* |
| 3 | Chao-Ting Cheng | 1,913 |
| 4 | Dominik Anousith Simmalavong | 1,248 |
| 5 | Jing Huang | 973 |
| 6 | Corrie Esselman | 778 |
| 7 | Rindra Norodom | 661 |
| 8 | Young Hun Kim | 574 |
| 9 | Georgios Skarparis | 507 |
| 10 | Fangliang Wei | 457 |
| 11 | Jia Rong Goh | 457 |
| 12 | Zhi Hao Chen | 457 |
| 13 | Jacson Feng | 416 |
Links:
WPT Cambodia – Coverage
WPT Cambodia – Player Guide
*Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you daily updates of WPT Cambodia from start to finish.
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Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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