Qing Liu Will Take Commanding Lead to WPT Prime Championship Final Table.
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Qing Liu, a WPT Champions Club member, will have a commanding chip lead when the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Championship at Wynn Las Vegas kicks off on Dec. 20.
World Poker Tour fans may recall that name from 2021 when Liu pulled off when of the most legendary runs in WPT history. He first won the WPT Venetian in March of that year for $752,880 before finishing sixth in the WPT Gardens Poker Championship for $111,795 the following day.
Both final tables took place in Las Vegas, and the poker pro from California will be back in Sin City next Saturday looking to get his hands on the $1,177,880 first-place brize. But he'll have five other players trying to keep him out of the winners circle.
Can Liu Close it Out?
Liu, who won a side event at Wynn for $51,000 a few weeks after his WPT final table run, will return to action next weekend with 126,600,000 chips, good for 63 big blinds. No other player has more than 42 big blinds, with Fernando Martin Del Campo in second place with 85,500,000 chips. Aaron Johnson, who held a chip lead throughout a significant portion of the Day 3 session, sits in third place with 65,900,000.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chip Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qing Liu | 126,600,000 |
| 2 | Fernando Martin Del Campo | 85,500,000 |
| 3 | Aaron Johnson | 65,900,000 |
| 4 | Tim Burden | 49,500,000 |
| 5 | Uri Foox | 48,900,000 |
| 6 | Safiya Umerova | 18,800,000 |
There are two players who will come back with just under 25 big blinds — Tim Burden and Uri Foox — while Safiya Umerova, the only woman at the final table, has a tiny stack of just nine big blinds.
All six remaining players are guaranteed to go home with at least $250,000, but the pay jumps will be massive right off the bat, as fifth place is to receive $325,000.
Will Givens bubbled the final table on Friday, but still earned $191,000 in a no-limit hold'em tournament that attracted 9,876 entrants. Stephen Song, who won the inaugural WPT Prime Championship in 2022, was among the chip leaders deep in this year's event. But he eventually bowed out in 18th place for $53,000.
Liu is the only past WPT champion to reach the final table. He entered the tournament with just a few bucks under $5 million in live tournament cashes, according to The Hendon Mob.
The final table from Wynn will be televised, and will start with 2:58 left in Level 40 (1,000,000/2,000,000 with a 2,000,000 big blind ante).
*Image courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
