Ilja Neuenschwander Wins First Official Live Poker Tournament in Thailand
The inaugural 2025 WPT Prime Thailand Exhibition kicked off on July 31, 2025 on the sixth floor of the Emsphere Mall at UOB LIVE and the first event to get things started was THE OPENER which was held as a Freeroll with a THB 3 Million in Travel Funds sponsored by PokerTalk Thailand. They are hosting the government-approved live series in cooperation with WPTGlobal and provide social media content as well as live stream action in this first live poker event in the Kingdom of Thailand.
After the waiting lines had been solved on the opening day, the tournament attracted a total of 677 entries and it took another two tournament days to crown a champion. While many of the contenders were hailing from countries of the Asia-Pacific region, it was Swiss player Ilja Neuenschwander who overcame a large chip deficit in heads-up play against China's Junhao Jiang to become the first winner in a live poker tournament on Thai soil.
Neuenschwander received 550,000 Thai Baht in Travel Funds while Jiang had to settle for 360,000 THB. Other notables running deep in this event included Nikhil Kedia, Avi Cohen, Pratik Modi, Burin Shinawatra, Weijue Cai, and Vincent Chauve. The final table result can be found below.
Final Table Result THE OPENER
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize in Travel Funds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ilja Neuenschwander | Switzerland | THB 550,000 |
| 2 | Junhao Jiang | China | THB 360,000 |
| 3 | Zhang Shaofeng | China | THB 268,000 |
| 4 | Nikhil Kedia | India | THB 200,000 |
| 5 | Bin Wu | China | THB 150,000 |
| 6 | Mikhail Potemkin | Russia | THB 115,000 |
| 7 | Charles Marques | United Kingdom | THB 88,000 |
| 8 | Avi Cohen | Israel | THB 68,000 |
| 9 | Pratik Modi | India | THB 54,000 |
| 10 | Bufan Meng | China | THB 54,000 |