THB 37,000 Championship Day 1a | 2025 WPT Prime Thailand Exhibition

08-02-2025 00:05 UTC+7

Assorted End-of-Night Counts (full)

Christian Zetzsche

Level 15 : Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Yanpeng Song	679,000 1,000	1,000
Wei Jen Wang	448,000
Chenxiang Miao	418,000 67,000	67,000
Benjamin Mages	415,000 155,000	155,000
Chuan-Chen Tsang	381,000 381,000	381,000
Nicolas Ragot	360,000
Howard Appledorf	350,000 25,000	25,000
Shaoji Wang	346,000 94,000	94,000
Hao Zhang	338,000 338,000	338,000
Frederik De Linde Farrington	334,000 64,000	64,000
Jie Wang	333,000 333,000	333,000
Chi-Hsien Lu	330,000 20,000	20,000
Khiem Nguyen Quang	330,000
Defeng Liu	328,000 328,000	328,000
Fen Mai	320,000
Dongchen He	316,000 96,000	96,000

Liang Chen	300,000 300,000	300,000
Shicheng Gu	300,000 225,000	225,000
Yi Zen Tan	295,000 295,000	295,000
Xiaoyang Qian	276,000 276,000	276,000
Hideo Sawai	274,000 169,000	169,000
Elad Amar	271,000 271,000	271,000
Amit Ashkenazi	269,000 269,000	269,000
Qinxi Yang	267,000 267,000	267,000
Lili Tang	261,000 261,000	261,000

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08-02-2025 01:05 UTC+7

Song Runs Best So Far as Inaugural WPT Prime Thailand Exhibition Soars to Big Turnout in Opening Flight

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Christian Zetzsche

Level 15 : Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

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.

Tags: Andrew Leathem Benjamin Mages Chenxiang Miao Chenxu Zhang Frederik De Linde Farrington Konstantin Lichagin Kush Kataria Lili Tang Raja Puttamsetty Wei Jen Wang Yanpeng Song

08-02-2025 18:04 UTC+7

Cards In the Air for Today

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Christian Zetzsche

Level 15 : Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante

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.

Level: 16

Blinds: 4,000/8,000

Ante: 8,000

08-02-2025 18:07 UTC+7

Chen Eliminated by Khanchandani

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Christian Zetzsche

Level 16 : Blinds 4,000/8,000, 8,000 ante

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.

Player	Chips	Progress
Rahul Khanchandani	200,000 74,000	74,000
Taiwei Chen	Busted

Tags: Rahul Khanchandani Taiwei Chen

08-02-2025 18:18 UTC+7

Khaimzon Eliminated by Liu

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Christian Zetzsche

Level 16 : Blinds 4,000/8,000, 8,000 ante

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.

Player	Chips	Progress
Gang Liu	185,000 80,000	80,000
Yuval Khaimzon	Busted

Tags: Gang Liu Yuval Khaimzon

Level: 17

Blinds: 5,000/10,000

Ante: 10,000

08-02-2025 18:30 UTC+7

Start Using PokerNews Emojis Today! 😍

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Christian Zetzsche

Level 17 : 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante

PokerNews has been bringing you live reporting from the biggest poker tournaments for almost 20 years, and it's time for our latest addition to the live update product with the launch of PokerNews emojis.

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08-02-2025 18:33 UTC+7

Early Casualties After the Restart

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Christian Zetzsche

Level 17 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante

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.

Player	Chips	Progress
Christopher Ryan	Busted
Chaojie Chen	Busted
Chun Hsiang Yang	Busted
Cheng-En Tsai	Busted
Yabo Wan	Busted
Xiao Zhe	Busted
Rong Xia	Busted
Yauxin Chu	Busted
Edward Teo	Busted
Zheren Chen	Busted
Anton Widjaya	Busted
Viacheslau Baranouski	Busted
Andrew Leathem	Busted

Tags: Anton Widjaya Andrew Leathem

08-02-2025 18:36 UTC+7

Phua Still in the Mix

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Christian Zetzsche

Level 17 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante

Isaac Phua was all-in for fumes with the J♠7♣ from under the gun and called by Zan Huang in the big blind, who had the 7♥7♠. The one over card struck on the [Jd8s5c8dTh board and Phua earned an urgently needed double.

Player	Chips	Progress
Zan Huang	350,000 266,000	266,000
Isaac Chern Chze Phua	60,000 34,000	34,000

Tags: Isaac Phua Zan Huang