Poker’s continued rise in popularity across southeast Asia shows little sign of slowing down, with the WPT Prime stop in Taipei breaking more records for the region.
By the time the TWD 35K (approx. USD $1,100) Main Event concluded earlier today it had entered the books as the largest ever live poker event in Taiwan with a buy-in of over USD $1K, as well as the best-attended Prime Championship event outside the World Championship in Las Vegas. The record-breaking tournament was held as a co-operation with Taipei's Chinese Texas Hold'em Poker Association - the fourth time such a partnership has taken place.
1,666 entrants created a prize pool of over USD $1.5M, of which the lion’s share went to event winner Jereld Sam. Singapore’s Sam banks a career-best score of TWD 8,065,000 - approximately USD $250K - as well as a free seat into the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas late this year.
Jereld Sam overcomes 10-1 deficit to take the title
Sam earned it the hard way, coming back from a short stack of just 11 big blinds, and outstacked 10-to-1, to eventually overcome heads-up opponent Kosei Oguri of Japan. Oguri, who is relatively new to the game, having started under two years ago, also recorded a career-best result of TWD 5,390,000 (approx. USD $167K) for his runner-up finish.
Sam has recorded tournament results dating back to 2014, with the majority of his $208K in tournament winnings accumulated prior to WPT Prime Taipei coming in the past three years. His six-figure score dwarfs his previous results, and shoots him into the top 20 on the Singapore all-time money list.
There’s no let-up in the WPT Prime calendar, with the next Championship Event kicking off later this week in Cyprus. Four Day 1s for the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship Cyprus start on Thursday, August 22, including a turbo Day 1 on the evening of August 24.
Images courtesy of WPT. Tournament results courtesy of The Hendon Mob.
