Victory for China was inevitable at the WPT Cambodia Championship, as the final three players all hailed from the country. In a pivotal moment, all three collided in a single massive hand, leading to Sha Cheng Chun claiming 95% of the chips. Soon after, Sha earned his first-ever WPT title and a substantial payout of $175,542. He was also awarded a package to the WPT World Championship valued at $12,230. In a post-win interview with the champion, Sha was ecstatic,

“I feel so good. It’s a pity was there was no live stream for my friends and family to watch. I was very lucky. I also didn’t think think I could keep up with the players because they were much younger with plenty of energy. I was getting very tired and sleepy. I feel good I won.”

The newly minted Sha was indeed very lucky. After more than two hours of three-handed play, a cooler was tabled with Sha’s pocket Jacks improving to a set to crack then chip leader Xiaosheng Zheng‘s pocket Aces and eliminate Zhang Cheng.

You can read up on the Day 3 action via the Daily Live Updates.
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Event Recap

In partnership with Connaissance Management Limited, the WPT Cambodia Championship ran a course of five days from July 18 to 23, 2024 at NagaWorld Integrated Resorts in Phnom Penh. Large contingents hailed from Viet Nam, India, and China, many of whom were attending their first WPT event outside of home turf.

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At the end of the three Day 1 flights, the Championship drew a combined 913 entries, and with buy in at $1,300, the prize pool soared to $1,040,592. The cash flowed starting at 115 players, the biggest cuts were determined on the final day where 17 players returned led by Zhang Cheng.

Cheng’s momentum carried early on until Xiaosheng Zheng began to dominate. Zheng claimed most of Xin Yuan’s stack, then eliminated Van Dan Nguyen in 11th place and Joshua Tan in 10th place to enter the final table with a commanding lead. In second rank was Sha Cheng Chun who Zheng would later meet at heads up.

The first final table casualty was well known Vietnamese pro Trung Ha Nguyen in 9th place. Trung Ha lost a majority of his stack in a hand against Anh Tuan Ho and couldn’t recover. The last woman standing, Thi Bao An Nguyen, saw her stack swing all day until a flip against Pham Bao just about determined her fate in 8th place.

The lone player from Japan, Kazuo Yamamoto, had a tough day trying to get out of the short stack zone to finish in 7th place. The fearless Pham Bao joined the railbirds in 6th place after losing two shoves.

At five-handed Zhang Cheng began to ascend. He first eliminated Adrien Berger then won a flip against Anh Tuan Ho to amass nearly half of the chips in play by three-handed.

However, Zhang’s momentum tapered off with both Sha and Zheng successfully tugging at the chip lead. After the three-way cooler was tabled, Sha held a commanding lead and closed it out with outdrawing on a board . For runner up and 3rd place, their cash payouts also came with a seat worth $1,100 to the WPT World Prime Championship.