Quan Zhou Among the Contenders in the Single Day $5,000 NLH Event
The action in the early stages has certainly been frantic and the field ballooned to 66 entries already of which some 52 players remain at the end of level six when the first break was reached. Perhaps the most notable contender in the field for international poker enthusiasts is China's Quan Zhou, who currently sits in fifth place on the all-time money list of the country according to The Hendon Mob.
Zhou had a stellar year 2023 in which he earned a big portion of his live poker scores, now nearing almost $8.8 million. That included a fifth place in the Triton Super High Roller Series Monte Carlo Main Event for $ 1,165,000, which is his biggest cash in a reported live poker event so far. He also won The Big Wrap Wrap Diamond 10K PLO High Roller for €500,000 in September 2023 and finished as the runner-up of the WPT Alpha8 One Drop Korea for KRW 717,960,000 ($558,354) in between those large paydays.
As far as the World Series of Poker is concerned, Zhou cashed in fourteen events this past summer in Las Vegas and his closest shot at the coveted WSOP gold bracelet came in Event #57: $ 25,000 Pot Limit Omaha - High Roller - 8-Handed. Back then, he had to settle for sixth place and $370,498 for the efforts. Hong Kong born Spanish poker pro Ka Kwan Lau won his maiden WSOP gold bracelet in this event for a career-best score of $2,294,756 in a Spanish heads-up duel with Sergio Martinez Gonzalez.
Zhou is sporting two patches on his jacket today, the "TLPT Team Boss" and AA Poker. The former refers to The Lord Poker Tournament while AA Poker is an Asian app-based mobile poker platform which has several high-profile brand ambassadors. Zhou is among them, as well as Dan "Jungleman" Cates and Wesley Fei. The app's chief product officer (CPO) Lirui "Ivan" Zhang is also in this competition as well.
Other big names who have been wearing the AA Poker patch during live poker events include Bryn Kenney, Alex Trevallion, Chris Moneymaker, Didier Guerin, Andy Lee, Martin. Kozlov, and Shan Huang to name all but a few.
The app features some unusual features such as their characteristic ripper gameplay and bomb pots geared towards a more exciting playing environment. It is available on iOS and Android devices.