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One of the richest short deck live poker tournaments has crowned a champion at the lavish five-star Jin Bei Palace Hotel in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. After two days of fireworks at the tables in the inaugural 2024 Jin Bei Cup $50,000 Short Deck Main Event, Kobe topped a 105-entry field to claim the biggest slice of the $5,250,000 prize pool.
Kobe entered the final day as the chip leader and stayed near the top of the leaderboard for almost the entire duration before a topsy-turvy heads-up duel with Aori ended in his favor. Kobe earned the top prize of $1,656,000 while runner-up Aori can console himself with a payday of $1,022,000.
The Jin Bei Group hosted the first international live poker tournament in Cambodia since 2016 and made a statement with the large $5,000,000 guarantee, which was surpassed. Three tournaments were part of the three-day series in Sihanoukville and the Short Deck Main Event took the centre stage.
All but two players in the money hail from China, with the second exception being Dan "Jungleman" Cates. The two-time WSOP bracelet winner bubbled the unofficial final table and bowed out in eighth place for $181,000 after re-entering prior to the start of play.
$50,000 Short Deck Main EventFinal Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kobe | United Kingdom | $1,656,000 |
| 2 | Aori | China | $1,022,000 |
| 3 | Ming Zhong Liu | China | $670,000 |
| 4 | Fei Xu | China | $461,000 |
| 5 | Joy | China | $327,000 |
| 6 | Zong Tao | China | $240,000 |
Day 2 Action
The final day brought back 23 survivors from Day 1, with two new players entering the fray in Cates and Singapore's Kenneth Kee, while further add-ons pushed the prize pool above the ambitious guarantee. It didn't take long for the field to reach the final three tables with notables such as Yang Yang and Ivan Zhang coming up short.
Kee bowed out three spots away from the money before the tournament entered a very cagey and tense stage, in which no further elimination took place for two hours. Duan then lost a duel of short stacks with Quan Zhou and the stone-cold bubble was reached. However, it was Zhou who then bowed out on the bubble after his flopped set of jacks could not improve against the straight of Cates.
The first casualties in the money came at a rapid pace and Kobe was the dominating chip leader, while Aori surged to second place after two double-ups and the elimination of Esti Wang. Back from dinner, it only took five minutes to reach the unofficial final table.
Gavin was knocked out by Kobe, who then also sent Cates to the payout desk as well. Having previously left the American short with applying maximum pressure, Kobe finished the job with queen-ten versus jack-ten.
Final Table
Within fifteen minutes, the final seven were reduced to just three in frantic fashion. Da Seng Sun was ousted by Kobe while Aori took care of Zong Tao. The next short stack to bust was Joy, who lost a flip with king-eight suited against the pocket sevens of Kobe. Fei Xu secured three pay jumps despite entering the unofficial final table with just four antes and took fourth place.
Ming Zhong Liu never got close to the other two big stacks and had to settle for third place, which set up the heads-up duel between Kobe and Aori. The former had a two-to-one lead and increased the gap further with sheer aggression. However, the tides suddenly changed with two double-ups for Aori.
Kobe regained the comfortable lead with quads and then finished the job soon after when his queen-jack got there against ace-jack suited.
That concludes the PokerNews coverage of the inaugural Jin Bei Cup in Sihanoukville, which produced one of the most exciting short deck high-stakes poker tournaments of the year.
