Song Runs Best So Far as Inaugural WPT Prime Thailand Exhibition Soars to Big Turnout in Opening Flight
Whenever a major live poker operator heads to a brand new destination, all eyes are set on the new adventure and the first of four starting days for the inaugural World Poker Tour Prime Thailand Exhibition Championship Event brought with it a staggering turnout. Day 1a attracted a total of 525 entries at UOB LIVE on the fifth floor of the Emsphere Mall in the heart of Bangkok and the action stopped for the night with 119 players remaining.
According to local restrictions in Thailand, which officially recognised poker as a sport only a few days prior to the start of the festival, it is only allowed to play six hours daily from Monday to Saturday, and hence the Championship Event was adjusted to a 20-minute clock to comply with the Thai guidelines. It was not possible to reach the top 12.5% of the field just yet and all 119 survivors will return to their exact same tables and seats at 6 p.m. local time on Saturday, August 2, 2025.
Recommencing blinds will then be 4,000-8,000 with a big blind ante of 8,000 and as many 20-minute levels will be played to reach the money for the opening flight, which in this case means the top 66 finishers. China's Yanpeng Song is best-positioned so far with 679,000, well ahead of his nearest followers Wei Jen Wang (448,000), Chenxiang Miao (418,000), and Benjamin Mages (415,000).
Notables to bag up healthy stacks after 15 levels on Day 1a were Frederik De Linde Farrington (334,000), Lili Tang (261,000), Raja Puttamsetty (204,000), Kush Kataria (185,000), Chenxu Zhang (176,000, and Konstantin Lichagin (181,000). The Hendon Mob flag hunter Andrew Leathem has his work cut out with 56,000 to try and capture the Thai cash in the first possible occassion.
The turbo structure may not take very long to lose nearly half of the remaining Day 1a field and they may very well jump right back into the action thereafter for Day 1b, which is set to kick off simultaneously at 6 p.m. local time. The second starting day will follow the same key principles with likely 15 levels of 20 minutes each and late registration for the first nine levels and following break.
All PokerNews updates will focus on the race towards the money bubble before picking up the action for Day 1b. On Sunday, August 3, 2025, the final two starting days await at noon and 4 p.m. local time respectively and both will play down to the top 12.5% of their field before bagging up for the night.
The Day 1 survivors then return in the money with a travel package guaranteed on the following day to try and reach the final table on August 5, 2025.