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The Jin Bei Cup Short Deck Main Event stands out as Asia’s most ambitious event this year, boasting a staggering US$ 5 Million prize pool. As the first of its kind, many wondered how such an enormous guarantee would be met especially with its hefty US$ 53,000 buy-in. Those questions were finally answered as Day 1 of the inaugural event came and went attracting an impressive 95 entries.
This is just five entries shy of reaching the guarantee, and with registration plus add-ons open until the start of Day 2, the record prize pool is on track to exceed expectations, setting the bar very high for a single poker event in Asia.
Read up on the action via the Live Updates – Short Deck Main Event
Jin Bei Cup – Day 1 Recap
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Kicking off on May 8, 2024, the highly anticipated Jin Bei Cup opened at the Jin Bei Palace with WSOP bracelet winner Martin Nielsen among the early sluggers. As the 30-minute levels progressed, the American celebrities made their appearance Tom Dwan followed by Dan Cates, as a large rail built to watch the action.
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The rest of the field was made up of nearly 100% Chinese players, among them were decorated pro Quan Zhou, Ivan Lirui Zhang, Esti Wang, and Xiao Yao, the first side event winner of the series,
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As expected, it was action packed from the start with shoves in rapid fire. This resulted in multiple bullets exhausted. By the end of day, Cates had re-entered three times, buying the maximum at the end and was still unable to find a bag. Nielsen re-entered during the last level and was decimated in just two hands. For Dwan, he stayed conservative, opting not to re-enter after losing the initial load. For Xiao Yao, his Day 1 race was unsuccessful, and was seen re-entering multiple times.
Many of the fallen players will likely be back with registration still open until the start of Day 2 and add-ons allowed.
Rise of the Chip Leader
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On the opposite end of the totem pole, Zhou turned his re-entry into one of the largest stacks of the day of 2,180,000 (90 bb). Another major force was player Kobe who parked himself at table 3 and held court knocking out player after player to amass a fortress by the last hands called.
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However, Kobe’s bid for the top spot was stolen by Sun Da Seng who went on a heater. Sun knocked out Liu Cheng on an intense showdown then went head to head against Kobe to win a massive pot that earned him the chip lead of 3,903,000 (162 bb). Kobe bagged up 3,175,000 (132 bb).
Read up on the action via the Live Updates – Short Deck Main Event
Day 1 survivors – 23 players
Player | Stack | Table |
Seat
|
Quan Zhou | 2,180,000 | 3 | 1 |
Bao Zong | 970,000 | 3 | 2 |
Gavin | 2,083,000 | 3 | 3 |
Yan Ming | 714,000 | 3 | 4 |
Joy | 750,000 | 3 | 5 |
Xu Ke | 1,435,000 | 4 | 1 |
Aori | 1,021,000 | 4 | 2 |
Xiao Hu | 861,000 | 4 | 3 |
Xu Fei | 821,000 | 4 | 4 |
Chen | 740,000 | 4 | 5 |
Feng | 329,000 | 5 | 1 |
Liu Ming Zhong | 850,000 | 5 | 2 |
Sun Da Seng | 3,900,000 | 5 | 3 |
Ivan Lirui Zhang | 774,000 | 5 | 4 |
Ye Hong | 429,000 | 5 | 5 |
Kobe | 3,175,000 | 6 | 2 |
Yang | 880,000 | 6 | 3 |
Hua Ge | 1,098,000 | 6 | 4 |
Luo Guang Hui | 379,000 | 6 | 5 |
S.T. | 1,206,000 | 7 | 2 |
Duan | 1,474,000 | 7 | 3 |
Tao Zong | 1,541,000 | 7 | 4 |
Hu Chao | 276,000 | 7 | 5 |
Link:
Jin Bei Cup $5M guaranteed Short Deck Main Event takes center stage