Fourteen days of spectacular poker action swept through Taipei City, Taiwan as players converged for the biggest World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime series in the region. Running from August 8 to 21, 2023 at the Asia Poker Arena, the festival closed with nearly $3.9 Million paid out and the Main Event setting new heights for the brand.
Among the player highlights, Seonguk Huh was the envy of all for his victory at the Main Event, Park Yu ‘Sparrow’ Cheung clinched the Player of the Festival title, and Pradeep Sharma ‘lionroar’ Nudurumati emerged as the only player to win two events. We’ve got those stories down below.
You can view the complete festival results, schedule, and Main Event live updates via the links provided below.
WPT Prime Taiwan – Festival Results
WPT Prime Taiwan – Festival Schedule
WPT Prime Taiwan – Main Event Live Updates
WPT Prime Taiwan – Photos
Festival review
Festival prize pool: TWD 123,788,800 (~USD 3,876,990)
Trophy Events: 45
Trophy Event entries: 5,765
Satellite entries: 2,485
Record entries: Main Event – 1,359 entries
Record prize pool: Main Event – TWD 39,546,900 (~USD 1,236,845)
Record uniques: Main Event – Day 1C – 477 unique players
Biggest earner: Main Event champion – Seonguk Huh – TWD 6,652,200 (~USD 208,340)
Multiple wins: Pradeep Sharma Nudurumati – Accumulator, Closer Megastack
Player of the Festival: Park Yu ‘Sparrow’ Cheung – 1,225 points
Trophy by Flag: Taiwan (20), Hong Kong (9), Philippines (3), Singapore (2), India (2), Korea (2), Australia (2), USA (2), France (1), Japan (1), Vietnam (1)
Record-breaking WPT Prime Taiwan Main Event
Shaking up the poker world from the outset of the year, WPT Prime has been an unstoppable force. Back in February, the series made its triumphant return to Gold Coast, Australia, setting an ambitious Main Event target of 1,224 entries. The months that followed witnessed Cambodia and Vietnam tumble their own records but Australia still remained the benchmark. The breakthrough came in August as WPT Prime once again graced Taiwan, smashing all previous records with an astonishing 1,359 entries for a Prime record prize pool of TWD 39,546,900 (~USD 1,236,845).
Seonguk Huh wins career first title at the Main Event
Milestone victory for Korean player Seonguk Huh who outlasted the record breaking 1,359 entry field of the Main Event. Huh’s rise to the top began at the final table with six players remaining. Huh flopped a flush, massive chip leader Jacky Wang flopped the set, the double up sent Huh catapulting to the top from which he was never dethroned. The final hand was 
dominating Yannick Leonard‘s 
on a board 
. Read up on the blow by blow action and full results via the link provided.
WPT Prime Taiwan – Main Event Live Updates
With Huh’s Hendon Mob stats only beginning this year, this may well have been his first ever live title. He pocketed a career high live tournament payout of TWD 6,652,200 (~USD 208,340), the largest ever WPT Prime Main Event first prize. The amount is inclusive of a ticket to the WPT World Championship worth USD 10,400.
Park Yu ‘Sparrow’ Cheung wins thrilling Player of the Festival race
It was a tight race for the Player of the Festival title with four players very close in points. On the penultimate day, Hong Kong’s Park Yu ‘Sparrow’ Cheung reclaimed the lead from Yu Chung ‘Nevan’ Chang after finishing 3rd in the Hyper Turbo.
By the final day, Cheung was ahead by a very small margin, Yen Han ‘Pete’ Chen championed the Superstack Classic but the pad up still had him behind by 20 points, and with Hsuan Chao Chen min-cashing at the 10/10/10/10 finale, it wasn’t enough points to surpass the leader Cheung. For his achievement, Cheung was awarded a $5,000 WPT Passport to any Main tour in Season XXI.
WPT Live Event Specialist, Danny McDonagh, teased on his facebook page,
“Does this mean Sparrow will demonstrate he was never in retirement by cashing in his USD5K WPT Passport at WPT Australia and Team Hong Kong venturing down under Sep 14 to 27? I heard a rumor from Hon Cheong ‘Ivan’ Lee we might see Hong Kong making an impact! Sparrow?”
Cheung earned points in six events:
- Event 4: Mini High Roller Warm Up – 4th place
- Event 13: Hyper Turbo High Roller – 3rd place
- Event 14: Deepstack – 14th place
- Event 19: 8 Max Championship – 3rd place
- Event 32: WPT Prime Taiwan Super High Roller – 4th place
- Event 43: Hyper Turbo – 3rd place
Pradeep Sharma takes down two events
India was represented by a small contingent however they still got on the board courtesy of Pradeep Sharma “lionroar” Nudurumati who championed not one but two events! Sharma was the only player to achieve this difficult feat.
“It was my first trip to Taiwan. I flew in for the second part of the series on August 15th and to start on a winning note at the Megastack Accumulator was so sweet. Focus was on the Main Event, was playing well and in the zone to take it deep but unfortunately fell in the wrong end of variance. Nevertheless, it was icing on the cake to take down the Closer Event for a memorable trip.”
Sharma outlasted the 299 entry field of the Accumulator then five days later, he topped the 179 entry field of the Closer Megastack to walk away with two trophies and combined winnings of TWD 1,237,200 (~USD 38,750).
Upcoming WPT Events in Asia
That concludes the last WPT Prime festival in Asia for 2023. The brand has already announced its return to Taiwan next year so make sure to block off the dates, August 6 to 19, 2024. More exciting details to be announced.
Another big news dropped at the festival was the WPT Vietnam Passport to the World Championship event taking place at the Crown Poker Club in Hanoi, Vietnam from October 6 to 16, 2023. Ten WPT World Championship packages are up for grabs which includes a World Championship ticket and accommodation.
The WPT World Championship is the most thrilling and lucrative year-end festival running from November 29 to December 23 at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Last year, the $10,400 World Championship event stunned the poker community with a monstrous USD 29 Million prize pool, nearly doubling up its guarantee. Other popular events are the WPT Ladies Championship, WPT Prime Championship, and the return of the Big One For One Drop.
Before WPT Vietnam, the brand heads to the land down under for WPT Australia which takes place at The Star Gold Coast from September 14 to 27, 2023. The much awaited festival features 16 trophy events including the A$ 8,000 Main Event that will crown the next WPT champion and add their name to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. Last year, the lucky player to have earned that moment was David Tang after he outlasted a field of 710 entries. The inaugural event was an immense success with 4,165 entries and a festival prize pool of A$ 8.6 Million (~US$ 5.7M). Coming this September, the WPT is confident it will surge past A$ 10M in prizes.
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