WPT Prime Taiwan underway at Asia Poker Arena in Taipei City – Opening day highlights and results

Shuffle up and deal! At 1pm on August 8, 2023, local and international players dove into action on opening day of World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Taiwan Season XXI. This eagerly anticipated two-week event kicked off at the newly opened Asia Poker Arena in Taipei City. Catering to a spectrum of bankrolls, four trophy events were on the agenda. Here are the highlights and results of Day 1.

Event 1: Main Event Warm Up – Day 1A results

Setting the tone was the festival opener, the Main Event Warm Up featuring a TWD 3,000,000 (~USD 94,300) guarantee. Day 1A drew a healthy 162 entries with 21 players reaching ITM to advance to the next stage.

Among the rare players seen in the Taiwan crowd were USA’s Quoc Bao Diep and Tunisia’s Selim Souissi, however both missed the mark. Making the cut were recently crowned Taiwan Millions Tournament Main Event champion Chia Yun Wu, and WSOP Mystery Bounty $1M bounty prize lucky draw winner Patrick Liang. Topping the counts was Hong Kong’s Alan Cho Fung Wong with 57 bb, trailed closely by Taiwan’s Luke Kuang Hung Lee with 54 bb. Interested players still have one final chance to jump in with Day 1B yet to play out.

Buy in: TWD 10,000 (~USD 314)
Guarantee: TWD 3,000,000 (~USD 94,300)
Day 1A: 162 entries / 21 advanced (ITM)
Day 1B: Wednesday, August 9, 1pm

End of Day 1A – 21 players

Player	Flag	Stack
Alan Cho Fung Wong	Hong Kong	574,000
Kuang Hung Lee	Taiwan	554,000
Herry Lian	Germany	509,000
Chia Wei Chang	Taiwan	429,000
Chia Yun Wu	Taiwan	289,000
Ming Song Huang	Taiwan	271,000
Ka Shun Tsang	Hong Kong	270,000
Yu Sheng Chien	Taiwan	265,000
Jackie Wu	China	228,000
Chia Hsiang Ko	Taiwan	226,000
You Da Tsai	Taiwan	161,000
Chen Wei Tseng	Taiwan	160,000
Patrick Liang	Taiwan	152,000
Chen Yun Chien	Taiwan	148,000
Kai Yang	USA	147,000
Wai Kin Lam	Hong Kong	115,000
Shao Hong Yu	Taiwan	103,000
Hung Kai Hsu	Taiwan	102,000
Lo Chang Ming	Taiwan	60,000
Yu Chi Liu	Taiwan	52,000
Kun Tai Lu	Taiwan	28,000

Event 2: PLO Warm Up – Day 1 results

Pot Limit Omaha lovers also had their fun on the felt with the PLO Warm Up on the day’s lineup. 46 entered for a prize pool of TWD 1,307,000 (~USD 41,085). The night closed with the bubble bursting, leaving six players to bag up led by Taiwan’s Li-Ta Hsu. 

When the survivors return on Wednesday, August 9 at 1pm, each one is guaranteed TWD 18,700 (~USD 590), however all eyes will be on the TWD 121,900 (~USD 3,830) first prize and event trophy.

Buy in: TWD 8,000 (~USD 250)
Entries: 46
Prize pool: TWD 1,307,000 (~USD 41,085)
ITM: 6 places

Chips in play: 1,380,000
Average stack: 230,000

End of Day 1 – 6 players remaining

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack
1	Li-Ta Hsu	Taiwan	465,000
2	Moo Jae	USA	399,000
3	Aaron Chuang	Taiwan	177,000
4	Minho Cho	South Korea	140,000
5	Bo Jia Su	Taiwan	85,000
6	Yan Chen Jiang	Taiwan	41,000

Chingchun Wu wins first side event trophy at the Turbo 30 Sec Clock

Taiwan’s Chingchun Wu emerged victorious at Event 3: Turbo 30 Sec Clock to claim his first ever international side event trophy. Wu topped a field of 60 hopefuls for a career high payout of TWD 106,900 (~USD 3,360). Notables also in the money were Singapore’s Dhanesh Chainani in 4th place and lone female at the final table, Chien Chih Weng in 5th place.

Date: August 8, 2023
Buy in: TWD 6,000 (~USD 190)
Entries: 60
Prize pool: TWD 296,900 (~USD 9,335)
ITM: 8 places

Place	Player	Flag	Payout
1	Chingchun Wu	Taiwan	106,900
2	Chia Yu Shr	Taiwan	62,800
3	Chao Min Fan	Taiwan	39,300
4	Dhanesh Chainani	Singapore	26,700
5	Chien Chih Weng	Taiwan	20,800
6	Chunhao Tsai	Taiwan	16,300
7	Shen Syu Ho	Taiwan	13,400
8	Hsiao Tsung Hsien	Taiwan	10,700

Event 4: Mini High Roller Warm Up – Day 1 results

Heavy hitters had their hands full at the Mini High Roller Warm Up with 22 ponying up the TWD 66,000 (~USD 2,075) buy in. Only 12 players survived the heat led by 2022 WPT Prime Cambodia Main Event champion David Erquiaga with a stack of 45 bb. Other notables making the cut were famous South Korean Yohwan “BoxeR” Lim, I-Chun Chiu aka Charlie Chiu who ran deep into 133rd place at the WSOP Main Event last month, and Chao Ting Cheng who won his first major title early this year.

Players can still sign up to this event with 40 minutes of late registration remaining at the start of Day 2.

End of Day 1 chip counts

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack
1	David Erquiaga	Philippines	456,000
2	Chung Ching Cheung	Hong Kong	432,000
3	Jules Blondel	France	357,500
4	Yohwan Lim	South Korea	341,000
5	Kai Cheng Hsu	Taiwan	287,000
6	Fun Chih Wei	Taiwan	245,000
7	Charlie Chiu	Taiwan	220,500
8	Hung Wei Yeh	Taiwan	218,500
9	Sparrow Cheung	Hong Kong	212,000
10	Yu Chung Chang	Taiwan	210,000
11	Thibaut Blondel	France	198,500
12	Chao Ting Cheng	Taiwan	53,500

WPT Prime Taiwan Season XXI Key Highlights

Day 1 is in the books with plenty of action still ahead. WPT Prime Taiwan boasts the richest and most extensive lineup ever announced by the global brand in Asia. A total of 46 trophy events are scheduled highlighted by the Main Event. Make sure to check the schedule link provided for all the details and structure.

WPT Prime Taiwan – Full Schedule

The WPT Prime Main Event gets underway on August 17 and runs until August 21. For a buy in of TWD 33,000 (~USD 1,075), players have a shot at the mighty USD 1,000,000 guarantee. This is the largest tournament prize pool advertised by the WPT for Taiwan. To further display the worth of this event, the champion will receive a 2023 WPT World Championship seat worth USD 10,400. The WPT value-adds airfare and accommodation.

Other big events are the Mystery Bounty TWD 5,000,000 (~USD 162,245) guaranteed from August 11 to 13 and 8 Max Championship TWD 2,000,000 (~USD 65,150) guaranteed from August 14 to 15.

For high rollers,  the CTP High Stakes Challenge is the most expensive with buy in of TWD 300,000 (~USD 9,475). The WPT Prime Super High Roller and WPT Prime High Roller 3K are also big wig favorites and are certain to attract the creme de la creme of the region.

WPT Global

Did you know that WPT brand launched WPT Global? WPT Global is one of the fastest growing rooms, has a soft field, and offers action in every limit.

Read our WPT Global review or register here:

https://somuchpoker.com/wpt-global/

 

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