Sheng Ye wins the Main Event of the Word Poker Tour Prime Gold Coast

Sheng Ye – Photo credit: WPT

Sheng Ye emerged victorious in WPT First Gold Coast Main Event on March 6 at the Star Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. He took home the first value prize U.S. dollar $253,843 in prize money along with the WPT First trophy. He also received a prize package to play in the season finale WPT World Championship at the Wynn Las Vegas in December.

The resident of Sydney, Australia now holds U.S. dollar $380,789 in career winnings, and this was his second tournament win along with the one at the World Series of Poker circuit International event in November 2022 which also took place at The Star Gold Coast.

The $2,000 AUD buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament had a prize pool of value U.S. dollar $1,493,899 from three initial flights that attracted a total of 1,224 entries. The top 156 players all cashed at least U.S. dollar $1,164 in prize money.

There were only 151 who returned for the second day of the tournament, and the field dwindled to 16 before the final day of the contest on Monday. It took just over three hours of play to reach the final table when play resumed.

The final table took seven hours to play and crown a winner. The action started slow with only three players dropped during the first three hours of play, but the next hour saw the pace of eliminations accelerate as three more players dropped before the dinner break.

Ye was only 25,000 behind chip leader Ben Richardson and his 15.25 million stack during the dinner break, but was leading into heads-up play with 18,875,000 giving him the edge over Richardson’s 17.9 million.

You won a huge pot just minutes into the final game, further increasing his lead to 25,675,000, and then it was only a matter of time before the inevitable conclusion. Richardson managed to double up three times trying to survive on a short stack, but the fourth time he moved all in he wasn’t so lucky.

In the final hand, Ye moved all in preflop to open the action with Q2 pocketed, and Richardson had called all-in for his last 7 million holding A5. The final board was dealt by J65Q8, and Ye won the pot and the tournament. Richardson took home $161,788 over his long tournament career, and the Australian player’s career winnings now stand at $749,420.

Some other notables who cashed in the event included Angel Guillen (12th), Jack Hardcastle (15th), Mark Fester (44th), Anthony Hachem (76th), Daniel Hachem (84th), John Doringer ( 134th) and Joe Hachem (156th).

Here is a look at the winnings awarded at the final table:

The next WPT First The event will take place in Cambodia from March 16-20 for a $1,100 main event hosted by Phnom Penh’s Nagaworld Integrated Resort. The full tournament series will run March 9-21, and you can find the schedule for that tournament series right here.