Welcome to the 2019 Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event

Greeting poker fans, and welcome to the PokerNews coverage of the 2019 Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event.

The five-day, ten-event series, running August 16-20, is taking place at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association in Taipei, Taiwan, though the PokerNews live coverage will only be available for the Main Event. You can check out the full schedule and all the structures for the tournaments on the Poker King Club website.

With the TWD 27,500 (~US$875) Poker King Cup Main Event boasting a TWD 5 million (~US$160,000) guarantee, a sizable showing is expected for the Poker King tournament series' Taiwan debut.

This will be the first Poker King Cup Main Event hosted in Taiwan, and the organizers are pulling out all the stops to ensure it's a poker tournament to remember.

Running since 2016, the first showing of the successful Poker King tournament series took place in Manila, Philippines, drawing 279 entrants, with Hong Kong poker professional Jason Lo emerging victorious for a ₱3,800,000 ($82,549) payday.

Numbers have continued to increase, and the 2017 Poker King Cup saw the series make its Macau debut at Venetian Macau, with the Main Event drawing a total of 490 entries and China's Longyun Li claiming the HK$1,225,500 ($157,438) top prize.

The last installment, the 2018 Poker King Cup, again took place at Venetian Macau with the Main Event drawing 518 entries and China's Weiran Pu taking down the HK$1,464,000 ($187,363) first-place prize.

Poker King Cup Events

Event	Venue	Entries	Prize Pool	Winner	Country	Prize
Poker King Cup 2018	Venetian Macau	518	HK$7,536,900/$964,576	Weiran Pu	China	HK$1,464,000/$187,363
Poker King Cup 2017	Venetian Macau	490	HK$7,129,500/$915,918	Longyun Li	China	HK$1,225,500/$157,438
Poker King Cup National Philippines 2016	Poker King Club, Manila	279	₱3,800,000/$82,549	Jason Lo	Hong Kong	₱857,100/$18,619

Boasting three separate starting flights, Day 1A of the Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event takes place at 1:00 p.m. local time on Aug. 16 with Day 1B and Day 1C both scheduled for Aug. 17—Day 1B kicking off at 1:00 p.m. and Day 1C with a slightly later start time of 6:00 p.m. The 1:00 p.m. start time is also reserved for the start of Day 2 and the final day’s play on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20 respectively.

Registration remains open until the start of level 10 on all starting flights, which should be around 8:30 p.m. local time on the days where it kicks off at 1:00 p.m.

The tournament will utilize the Big Blind Ante format that is fast becoming commonplace, where the player in the big blind posts the ante for the whole table, and the format also offers multiple re-entry over the three starting flights so players unable to get through to Day 2 on Day 1A can fire multiple bullets over the three starting flights. Even those who make it through can re-enter, with the format offering best stack forward, meaning the player's largest stack will be taken through to Day 2, with any other stacks removed from play.

Players begin with a 30,000-chip starting stack, with level length for two of the three starting flights, Day 1A and Day 1B, coming in at 40-minutes, increasing to 60-minutes from Day 2 onwards. The third and final starting flight, Day 1C, boasts a turbo format with slightly shorter 30-minute levels, though all three starting flights will see players compete over 12 levels with breaks scheduled every three levels on the opening flights, and every two levels from Day 2 onward.

Main Event Day 1A Structure

Level	Duration	Small Blind	Big Blind	Ante
1	40	50	100	0
2	40	75	150	0
3	40	75	150	150
		15-minute break
4	40	100	200	200
5	40	200	300	300
6	40	200	400	400
		10-minute break
7	40	300	500	500
8	40	300	600	600
9	40	400	800	800
		40-minute break
10	40	500	1,000	1,000
11	40	600	1,200	1,200
12	40	800	1,600	1,600

The PokerNews live coverage will begin as soon as cards are in the air for Day 1A at 1:00 p.m. sharp so stick around as we see who turns up and who makes Day 2 after the twelve 40-minute levels are done and dusted.