Sheng Ye Wins The Word Poker Tour Prime Gold Coast Main Event

Sheng Ye – Photo Credit: WPT

Sheng Ye emerged victorious in the WPT Prime Gold Coast main event on Mar. 6 at The Star Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. He took home the top prize worth USD $253,843 in prize money along with the WPT Prime trophy. He also received a prize package to play in the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December.

The resident of Sydney, Australia now holds USD $380,789 in career earnings, and this was his second tournament victory to go along with his win at the World Series of Poker Circuit International event back in November of 2022 that also took place at The Star Gold Coast.

The $2,000 AUD buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament had a prize pool worth USD $1,493,899 thanks to three starting flights that attracted a total of 1,224 entries. The top 156 players all cashed for at least USD $1,164 in prize money.

There were just 151 that returned for the second day of the tournament, and the field played down to 16 before the final day of the contest on Monday. It took a little more than three hours of play to reach the final table when play resumed.

The final table took seven hours to play out and crown a winner. Action began slow with just three players falling during the first three hours of play, but the next hour of play saw the speed of eliminations accelerate as three more players fell before the dinner break.

Ye was just 25,000 behind the chip leader Ben Richardson and his stack of 15.25 million at the dinner break, but by the time heads-up play begin he was on top with 18,875,000 to give him the advantage over Richardson’s 17.9 million.

Ye won a big pot just minutes into the final match to increase his lead further to 25,675,000, and then it was just a matter of time before the inevitable conclusion. Richardson did manage to double up three times while trying to survive with a short stack, but the fourth time he moved all in he was not so lucky.

On the final hand, Ye moved all in preflop to open the action with Q2 in the hole, and Richardson had called all in for his final 7 million holding A5. The final board was dealt J65Q8, and Ye won the pot and the tournament. Richardson took home $161,788 thanks to his deep run in the tournament, and the Australian player’s career earnings now stand at $749,420.

A few other notables that 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 payouts awarded at the final table:

The next WPT Prime event will take place take the tour to Cambodia from Mar. 16-20 for a $1,100 buy-in main event hosted by the Nagaworld Integrated Resort in Phnom Penh. The full tournament series will run from Mar. 9-21, and you can find the schedule for that run of tournaments right here.