Career-Best Score for Gaoyang Yang in the 888poker LIVE Glasgow Mini Main
Table Of Contents
The £250 Mini Main of the 888poker LIVE Glasgow festival has crowned its worthy winner, and Gaoyang Yang is that champion. Yang topped a 457-strong field and received £16,745 of the £95,510 prize pool after a four-handed deal.
Yang's first recorded cash came in this very event 12 months ago. He finished 21st for £570. Since then, Yang has cashed in the £1,250 GUKPT Goliath, the £440 GUKPT Goliath Mystery Bounty, and the £1,000 PartyPoker Tour Glasgow High Roller. Yang earned £9,790 for that quartet of results; this victory was worth almost double that sum.
The top 56 finishers received a slice of the prize pool. A min-cash weighed in at £540; a final-table appearance increased the payout to £1,520, with the eventual champion slated to take home £21,000.
Ming Ko went into the final table with the narrowest of chip leads over Chris Welch. Yang found himself seventh from nine in chips, while Sam Davidson brought up the rear.
£250 888poker Glasgow Mini Main Final Table Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ming Ko | 1,570,000 |
| 2 | Chris Welch | 1,565,000 |
| 3 | Bryan Taylor | 1,270,000 |
| 4 | Richard Kellett | 1,155,000 |
| 5 | Alex Tong | 1,000,000 |
| 6 | Dean Hutchison | 845,000 |
| 7 | Gaoyang Yang | 690,000 |
| 8 | Barrie Greenan | 620,000 |
| 9 | Sam Davidson | 385,000 |
Sam Davidson and Chris Welch had already busted out by the time the Grosvenor Poker YouTube stream commenced, which left only seven players at the final table.
Ming Ko lost all but 3.5 big blinds after a clash with Barry Greenan didn't go to plan. Greenan opened on the button with ace-king, Ko three-bet from the small blind with king-queen, and Greenan moved all-in for around 30 big blinds. Ko paused for a moment before calling. An ace on the flop proved enough to decimate Ko's stack.
A few hands later, Ko doubled with pocket nines against Yang's ace-ten, but he ran his ace-jack into Bryan Taylor's pocket kings to fall in seventh place.
The dangerous Dean Hutchison, the 2023 WSOP Main Event sixth-place finisher, crashed out of this tournament in sixth before Ko's seat had gone cold. Richard Kellett opened with pocket aces, Hutchison three-bet with pocket queens, and called when Kellett set him all in. Kellett's aces held on a ten-high board, and Hutchison was gone.
Fresh from busting, Hutchison entered the £1,650 High Roller and bagged up the second-largest stack of the 18 Day 1 survivors. You can follow all the action from the £1,650 High Roller via PokerNews' live reporting pages.
Alex Tong busted in fifth for a career-high £4,220. Tong's final action in the tournament was to move all-in for 7.5 big blinds from the cutoff with queen-ten. Unfortunately for Tong, Greenan woke up with pocket kings on the button. Greenan called, the blinds folded, and the kings held on an ace-high board.
The final table was down to only four players less than 40 minutes into proceedings. Greenan led the way with 57 big blinds from Yang with 51, Kellett with a 43 big blind stack, and Taylor occupying fourth place with 31 big blinds.
A few hands after four-handed play began, a deal was struck that saw all four players lock in £11,745, leaving another £5,000 for the eventual champion.
Kellett was eliminated by Yang in fourth-place as the clock approached the 90-minute mark. Kellett had flopped two pair with his jack-five, but Yang and his nine-eight hit running nines. Yang set the short-stacked Kellett all-in on the river, and Kellett couldn't find a fold.
Third place was decided 20 minutes later. Taylor completed the small blind with jack-ten and called when Greenan raised from the big blind with queen-seven. Taylor check-called a continuation bet on the king-four-three flop, leading to a queen on the turn. Both players checked, and the dealer placed a seven on the river. Taylor overbet and shoved on the river with a stone-cold bluff, which Greenan snapped off with his two pair.
That hand gave Greenan a 90 big blind stack, which dwarfed the 24 big blinds in Yang's stack. While it looked like Greenan would become the 888poker LIVE Glasgow Mini Main champion, Yang had other ideas.
Almost immediately after heads-up began, Yang doubled with king-five against pocket sixes courtesy of a king on the river. Yang that got lucky when his nine-four flopped a nine to beat Greenan's jack-eight; Yang was now an overwhelming 96 to 18 big blind leader.
The next hand saw Greenan all-in with king-six of clubs, and Yang's eight-four of diamonds needed some help. That help arrived in the shape of a four on the flop, which sent Greenan home in second place and left Yang to be crowned the tournament's champion.
£250 888poker Glasgow Mini Main Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gaoyang Yang | £16,745* |
| 2 | Barrie Greenan | £11,745* |
| 3 | Bryan Taylor | £11,745* |
| 4 | Richard Kellett | £11,745* |
| 5 | Alex Tong | £4,220 |
| 6 | Dean Hutchison | £3,030 |
| 7 | Ming Ko | £2,330 |
| 8 | Chris Welch | £1,870 |
| 9 | Sam Davidson | £1,520 |
*reflects a four-handed deal
Remaining 888poker LIVE Glasgow Events
The action continues coming thick and fast at the 888poker LIVE Glasgow festival. At 12:00 p.m. GMT on March 19, Day 2 of the £1,650 High Roller shuffles up and deals. 888poker ambassadors Lucia Navarro, Ian Simpson, and Vivian Saliba are among the final 18. Late registration remains open until the start of the day. Follow PokerNews' live updates from this event.
An hour later, the £888 buy-in, £250,000 guaranteed Main Event begins. Again, PokerNews is on hand to bring you coverage of this tournament.
