Pete Yanhan Chen Wins First-Ever World Poker Tour Main Event In China

In addition to its 1.3 billion residents, China is now home to a World Poker Tour main event. The 2017 WPT Beijing was the first ever main event held by the tour on Chinese soil. The WPT’s first foray into China was a WPT National event held in the island destination of Sanya back in 2012. Now the tour has found it’s way to the country’s capital city of Beijing, the world’s third-most populous city.

The 2017 WPT Beijing main event attracted a field of 400 entries, creating a prize pool of CNY 9,600,000 ($1,393,324 USD). In the end, the lion’s share of that money was awarded to Pete Yanhan Chen, who emerged victorious with the top prize of CNY 2,063,454 ($299,485 USD) and the first title of the WPT’s 16th season.

Chen, a longtime poker pro based out of Macau, came into the final table with a monstrous chip lead. Chen held more than half of the chips in play and roughly four times as many chips as his nearest competitor coming into the six-handed final table. Chen was able to take his sizable stack and apply plenty of pressure. He knocked out Zhang Wenbin and Lu Yingqi in fourth and third place, respectively, to set up a final heads-up showdown with Chen Ke.

Starting with a chip advantage of roughly 5:1, Chen was still in a dominant position and able to keep up the aggression. By the time the final hand arose he had more than a 10:1 lead. With blinds of 60,000 – 120,000 and an ante of 20,000 Ke moved all-in from the button for 1,035,000 with the Q3. Chen called with the K4 and the board ran out A101079 to secure the pot and the title for Chen. Ke was sent to the rail in second place, earning CNY 1,373,026 ($199,278 USD).

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at this final table:

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