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WPT Prime Taiwan: Motoyoshi Okamura wins Mini High Roller; Ya Wen Hsieh dominates Ladies Event

 

Another action packed day at WPT Prime Taiwan concluded with two players added to the winners list. The newly minted were Japan’s Motoyoshi Okamura at the Mini High Roller and Ya Wen Hsieh at the Ladies Event. These two players are now proud owners of their first WPT Prime trophies. More awards on offer with four events taking place today, Wednesday, November 16. Here are the highlights and the updated Player of the Festival standings.

WPT Prime Taiwan – PLAYER GUIDE

MOTOYOSHI OKAMURA adds Mini High Roller to career achievements

Exactly one year ago, Motoyoshi Okamura made headlines by locking up his first ever WSOP bracelet. Last night, the Japanese pro added another title to his name with a victory at the Mini High Roller. Okamura defeated Malaysia’s Natalie Teh at heads up to win his first ever WPT trophy and the NT$ 1,214,300 (~$39,260) top prize. Relive the action via the recorded live stream on CTP Club Twitch

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Motoyoshi Okamura

Buy in: NT$ 66,000 (~$2,130)
Entries: 66
Prize pool: NT$ 3,841,200 (~$124,200)
ITM: 9 places

Payouts

1st Motoyoshi Okamura Japan $1,214,300
2nd Natalie Teh Malaysia $809,600
3rd Fu Bang Huang Taiwan $539,700
4th Yoon Kang Australia $375,100
5th Wei Chen Liu Taiwan $272,200
6th Sin Ren Chen Taiwan $206,700
7th Phachara Wongwichit Thailand $164,500
8th Panitan Poopadsri Thailand $137,700
9th Yosuke Nakazawa Japan $121,400

Event recap

The Mini High Roller was the first event attracting the heavyweights with buy in coming in at NT$ 66,000 (~$2,134). Among the 66-entry field were international players Michael Soyza, Haimish Crawshaw, WSOP bracelet winner Sung Joo Hyun, and Australia’s Joseph Sandaev who was on his first Asia poker trip. Making up a big bulk were local pros that included Zong Chi He who fell on the bubble to fellow countryman Wei Chen Liu with AhQc losing the flip against 10c10h.

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With the money intact, the remaining 9 players battled for the largest portion of the NT$ 3,841,200 (~$124,200) prize pool. Minutes in, heavy action went down. It opened with utg player Fu Bang Huang min-raising to 40K, two spots over Natalie Teh three-bet 120K, cutoff / chip leader Panitan Poopadsri four-bet 300K, button Sin Ren Chen jammed for 550K, and called only by Okamura. Chen had KsKd and held against Okamura’s JsJh. Shortly after, Yosuke Nazawa was first to grab a piece of the pot in 9th place, and the live stream was finally underway.

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Leading up to heads up, Teh doubled up twice and Okamura eliminated four players that included a double elimination to Yoon Kang and Liu. The hand saw Okamura’s KhKc stand firm against pocket Jacks and Ace-Ten suited. After Okamura eliminated Huang in 3rd place, a two-hour heads up followed with both players tugging at the chip lead. The game changer hand saw a board 2d5d6hAdKd with both all in at the flop. Teh had 8c6c, Okamura with 7d8d. Down to 1 Ante, Teh was forced all in on the next hand and was eliminated.

YA WEN HSIEH dominates the Ladies Event

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Healthy turnout at the Ladies Event with 29 taking to the felt for a prize pool of NT$ 143,500. In the lineup was WSOP circuit double ring winner Christine Hia who was looking to add a second Ladies Event title to her stats having won one at the 2018 Sydney Championships. Her bid ran short in 4th place with pocket Twos losing to Ya Wen Hsieh‘s pocket Nines. Hsieh went on to rail recently crowned APPT winner Hua Wei Lin to enter heads up backed by a dominating stack.

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She closed it out in ten minutes with 10c4c spiking the flush on the river against Chi Ying Tsai‘s AsJd top pair on a board 8c9cAdQhKc, the shoves were on the flop.

Buy in: NT$ 6,000
Entries: 29
Prize pool: NT$ 143,500 (~$4,640)
ITM: 4 places

1st Ya Wen Hsieh Taiwan $64,600
2nd Chi Ying Tsai Taiwan $38,700
3rd Hua Wei Lin Taiwan $24,400
4th Christine Hia Malaysia $15,800

Player of the Festival – update as of 6 completed events

CHINYAO WANG 500
MOTOYOSHI 400
LEE KUN HAN 375
YI WEI PENG 350
WEI TING CHEN 300
YU SHENG LIN 300
CHUNG LIANG LIN 300
WU HUNGHSIANG 300
NATALIE TEH 300
CHUNG YI HO 250

Stick with us at Somuchpoker as we bring you updates of the ongoing series.. All photos courtesy of CTP Club.

Links:

WPT Prime Taiwan – Event Payouts

WPT Prime Taiwan underway – first five events 

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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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