For Cai Wenqing, it was a moment to be forever treasured. He survived a roller coaster final table where he lost three shoves, doubled up five times, and even railed a friend to clinch his first ever Main Event title at the 2024 CPG Championship.
“It feels very exciting! This is my first championship.”
For his victory, Cai shipped a career high payout of CNY 2.8 Million (~US$ 394,800). For those that want to see Cai in action, he will be bringing that winning vibe to Poker Dream Jeju at the end of the month.
The 2024 CPG Championship Finals (Main Event), hosted by premier brand China Poker Games, ran from August 24 to 30, 2024 at the Howard Johnson Resort Sanya in Hainan, China. The annual event drew another immense field of 3,787 entries (2,685 unique) to just miss the guarantee for a pot of CNY 30,000,000 (~$4,230,000) after taxes.
At Day 2, the bubble burst signaling the ITM round for the remaining 405 players. Two days later, the final 9 was formed with Zhang Chuan in the lead and the lone international player Feng Zhao ranked fourth. While many watched and cheered on from afar, Feng was first out on a cooler with 
running into Wang Song’s 
.
Before the next bust, Cai won two flips. The first was against Ren Haifeng with 
dodging 
on a low board then 
surviving against Song’s 
. Ren made up the lost chips by cleaning out short stacked Pang Wei Ping in 8th place.
Shortly after, Jiang Zhou joined the railbirds in 7th place with 
running into his buddy Cai’s 
. Another cooler trimmed the field further with Pang Wei Ping’s pocket Jacks falling in 6th place to Hu Ruida’s pocket Queens.
Down to five players, Song doubled up through Cai with 
pairing both cards to get past 
. In turn, Cai chipped up by railing Ren in 5th place. Song doubled up again with taking a big chunk out of chip leader Zhang Chuan who up until this time was very quiet. This gave Song a massive lead which he celebrated with his rail.
The ailing Zhang couldn’t keep up and eventually took 4th place while short stacked Hu enjoyed a triple up with 
straight over Song’s 
and Cai’s 
on a board 
. Despite the boost, Hu finished 3rd with 
falling to Cai’s .
Heads up lasted 1.5 hours. Cai carried in the chip lead with 48 bb to Song’s 27 bb. That quickly switched with Song’s aggression earning him multiple pots. Cai regained the advantage on a double up with 
over on a board 
then went on to close it out. The final hand was dominating on a board 
. Upon reflecting, Cai said,
“Yes, I had to play every hand against him very cautiously.”
Congratulations to Cai Wenqing the newest CPG Championship Main Event champion!
Stay tuned for our next post on the upcoming CPG Zhuhai Satellite Event!
Links:
2024 CPG Championship – News
2024 CPG Championship – Photo Gallery
2024 CPG Championship – Player Guide
Somuchpoker – Facebook
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