The tournament area with 70 tables is testing the overall capacity as Day 1b has already attracted nearly 400 entries. In the meanwhile, Day 1a has seen the field plummet to only 100 hopefuls in the first half an hour of play and among those to depart were Andrew Leathem and Anton Widjaya.
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Yuval Khaimzon was in fumes when he had gotten it in ahead with A♥J♦ to get called by Gang Liu with the K♥J♥. The inferior hand made trips on the K♣9♣4♥Q♦K♣ board and that was the reason for the upset.
Taiwei Chen was all-in with the 8♠9♠, which was middle pair and an open-ended straight draw on the 10♦9♣7♣ flop. Rahul Khanchandani had him dominated with the 7♠7♥ for bottom set, which held on the 2♦ turn and 5♦ river.
Three different tournaments take place and all of them have just kicked off at 6 p.m. local time. The first one was the Freeroll Qualifier for all Thai players with 20 seats guaranteed for Day 1c of the Championship Event.
In the second flight of the flagship tournament, more than 300 players are already registered and there is still a queue at the registration desk which points to an even bigger field than the opening flight.
Last but not least, Day 1a has resumed with 119 players out of the original 525 entries remaining and the action will conclude once the bubble has burst with 66 players set to advance. The WPT Action Clock is in play with time bank extensions granted to each players and they have 20 seconds to act preflop. With an average of 22 big blinds, it may not take very long to reach the bubble after all.
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.
Tournament Registration
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.
Some 119 players out of 525 entries have finished the end of level 15 and will be bagging up their chips as soon as the final hands are completed. They have also been informed already to return at 6 p.m. local time the following day to finish in the money which means 66 players going through. The very same then also applies for Day 1b, which is slated to commence at the very same time as well.
Assorted chip counts and a recap of today's action is to follow.
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