Grant Wang sits near the top of the chip counts at the World Poker Tour Gardens Main Event as players return from the dinner break. Readers may recognize Wang from his appearances on Hustler Casino Live last summer where he played under the moniker "Greedy Grant".
Wang's passion for poker began during his time in college at Penn, playing low stakes home games with friends. Quickly, the stakes grew and the passion multiplied, "In college it felt like the academics were getting in the way of the poker." After graduation, Wang moved west to California and devoted his time to playing in cash games around Los Angeles.
Eventually, Wang realized that the politics involved in the cash game scene in LA was not for him, saying, "I became disenchanted with cash...I quit for a few months." Now, Wang finds himself enjoying tournament play much more, "Nothing beats the rush of a final table."
Wang gets paid with aces
Speaking with Wang during the break, he told PokerOrg about a massive pot he played to propel himself into the upper echelon of the chip counts.
Facing an early position raise, Wang three-bet with the number one, pocket aces. The action folded back around to the original raiser, who called quickly. The A♠J♦️4♣ flop smashed Wang in the face, in a good way. Following a check from his opponent, Wang bet one-third pot with his top set and got another call out of his opponent.
The turn 6♣ brought in a backdoor flush draw and, with the action checked to him, Wang bet again, this time for two-thirds of the pot. Again, his opponent called. The river 7❤️ looked safe enough and Wang moved all-in, an over-bet of about 75,000 into 55,000. It turns out that the river card was a good one for Wang as it gave his opponent two pair, just enough to call the all-in.
Since then, Wang has been in a holding pattern, simply maintaining his stack and navigating his way through the remaining levels.
Brad Owen enters the field fashionably late
It was somewhat of a late start for Brad Owen as he took his seat mid-way through level five of the first starting flight at the World Poker Tour Gardens Main Event. Owen wasted no time in dragging his first pot, however, to bring his stack above starting level.
The WPT Ambassador looks to continue his recent hot streak of cashes in WPT events. At WPT Prime Cambodia, Owen ran deep in both the $1,100 Main Event and the $2,200 Mini High Roller.
The Cambodia runs, coupled with an impressive 35th place finish in the WPT World Championship back in December of 2022, prove that Owen's skills are in no way limited to the cash game streets.
Images Courtesy of World Poker Tour
