The 14th edition of the highly anticipated Taiwan Millions Tournament Main Event was a sight to behold this year. Proudly sponsored by Natural8 this game was expected to be an impressive spectacle of skill and fun, but many were not expecting just how big it turned out to be. The tournament drew over 3,485 participants in five days of non-stop action. Such a huge turnout broke records and shattered the initial NTD 10M guarantee and bringing the prize pool to a massive NTD 22,987,100 ($733,700).
After several days of intense gameplay, only 408 players remained and advanced to the second round of the competition. These players will receive a cut of the prize pool, but only one will be able to bag the grand prize of NTD 3,600,000 ($114,900). Top players are already starting to emerge as everyone competes for a seat at the final table during the last round of the tournament.
Taiwan Millions Main Event Update
Of the hundreds of players, only 9 will advance to Day 2 of the Taiwan Millions tournament. This raised the stakes of the game and ensure that competition was going to be fierce throughout the day. After hours of exciting gameplay, the table was 64 players by 6:45 PM. Here are some of the highlights of the Taiwan Millions Main Event.
One of the first players to eliminate someone by that point was Bing Yi Chen who raises 100,000 and finds three challengers. He has an Ace of Diamonds and the Queen and 7 of Spades, overpowering Chung Wei Huang and eliminating him.
Bing follows up and does after Kenny Hsiung who tries to fight back with his Ace of Hearts and Queen of Spades, but this is no match for Bing’s pair of Queens and is soon eliminated.
Shortly after this elimination, only 51 players remain in the Taiwan Millions Main Event. One player who performed exceptionally well in this round was Chia Yun Wu eliminated multiple players at the start and raised his stack to over 4,300,000 after draining one player’s stack by 1,000,000.
One of the biggest bets during the Taiwan Millions Main Event was made by Ming Zheng Cai bet 250,000 then raised it to over 1,650,000 when his opponent raised it to 650,000. These were huge risks to take, but Mings 9 and 10 of Diamonds was too strong and he managed to win all of that money.
Bing Yi later tries to repeat his success with Fate Wang by betting 450,000, but Fate senses a bluff and calls him on it. This was a smart move as Wang revealed a stronger hand with a Queen of Spades and the 9 of Clubs. Though it didn’t eliminate Bing, it secured Fate’s position and allowed her to keep advancing.
Shortly after, Yu Yung Lin is not as lucky and was struggling against Beng Cheng Lin with a much larger stack and a strong hand of the King and Ace of Clubs. Even with the King and Jack of Hearts, Yu was unable to win and gets eliminated in 12th place. This helps secures Beng’s position as the head of the pack in the Taiwan Million Main Event
Close to the cutoff, Kai Hung Hu raises 600,000 for Bing Yi Chen. Unlike Bing from earlier, this was not a bluff and Bing is unable to compete, letting Kai take the lead with almost twice his stack.
Kuan Chieh Liu came close to the final table but fell short. He hoped to use his Ace of Hearts and 8 of Diamonds to carry him all the way and went all in. Unfortunately, his opponent Ming Zheng Cai had a pair of 7s and had to settle for 10th place and a prize of NTD 258,100 ($8,240).
These were just a few intense moments that happened throughout the Taiwan Millions Tournament. Aside from displaying their incredible skill, these moments helped cement the leaders and secure their position at the final table.
Taiwan has played a huge part in hosting major poker events recently with the Taiwan Millions just being the latest of a string of other events.
Before this was the equally record-breaking APT Taipei event which you can read about in our APT Taipei Event Update post.