Metasit Pratipsangkom Tops 33 Survivors on Day 1b and Takes Overall Lead in the 2022 WPT Prime Taiwan Main Event

Metasit Pratipsangkom

The 2022 WPT Prime Taiwan TWD 33,000 ($1,100) Main Event is eying one of the biggest fields in the history of the island after a strong turnout on the second starting day in Taipei City. Once again, poker enthusiasts from near and far took a seat at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association and even the mayor of the city visited the venue known as the CTP Club during the second level of the day.

By then, more than 100 entries were recorded for the flagship tournament of the series and the field continued to grow. Ultimately, 263 entries boosted the overall attendance to 452 entries with one more starting day to come and the initial guarantee has already been surpassed. Unlike the first heat, it took more than 15 full levels to burst the money bubble and 33 players punched their ticket for Day 2.

Metasit Pratipsangkom stormed to a seven-figure stack after he dominated the late stages. He first scored a big double through Samuel Wilkinson with aces versus jacks, then scored another knockout shortly after. The Thai player then also dispatched the Day 1a bubble boy Joseph Phua, who narrowly missed out a Day 2 berth once more when ace-ten ended up second-best to pocket jacks.

Last but not least, Pratipsangkom was also responsible for bursting the bubble when he knocked out Shawn Wu with pocket queens versus pocket jacks. The very last pot of the night propelled Pratipsangkom to an incredible 1,007,000 as he takes the overall lead.

Yun Hsiang Fan was another player to make the headlines late on as his surge peaked with a double elimination. The queen-ten of Fan rivered two pair to crack pocket aces while the eight-four suited of Jae Hoon Lee with the South Korean bricking a straight and flush draw.

Other notables advancing from the second of three starting days are Nobuaki Sasaki (420,000), WPTDeepStacks and WSOP bracelet winner Kosei Ichinose (399,000), Bradley Ritschel (374,000), , Jung Soo Hyun (350,000), Minjoo Cho (Chi Jen Chen (149,000), and Park Yu “Sparrow” Cheung (71,000).

South Korea has had several dozen participants in contention including a group of Hotstone Venture players. Among those, only Jun Hwan Kim (370,000) made it through while Won Wook Jung, Jae Hoon Lee, Seung Jun Lee, Kil Hyun Jo, and Dong Woo An all came up short. Jo was among the players to run into the pocket aces of Louis Bilodeau (280,000), who admitted to have picket up the rockets five times and kings another four times.

The list of high-profile players who came and left without anything to show for includes very well known names of the Asia-Pacific live poker scene such as Phachara Wongwichit, Victor Chong, Michael Soyza, Kitty Kuo, Natalie Teh, Ken Okada, Justin Chu, Zong Chi He, Jack Wu, Yu Chung Chang and Hua Wei Lin, Punnat Punsri, WPTDeepStacks champion Brian Tougias, WSOP bracelet winner Motoyoshi Okamura, and Tetsuya Enoki.

Chu’s girlfriend Serena Liu suffered two nasty blows to see her hopes of reaching Day 2 vanish. First her pocket aces were cracked by pocket kings and then she flopped two pair with jack-ten only to see pocket aces counterfeit her hand when the board paired on turn and river. 

They all have one more opportunity to run up a stack as the third and final starting day is scheduled for Saturday, November 19, 2022, as of 1pm local time. Late registration and re-entries will be available until approximately 5.30 pm local time and the largest starting day is expected by the tournament staff.

Day 1a: 24 / 189 entries advanced
Day 1b: 33 / 263 entries advanced
Day 1c: Saturday, November 19, 2022 @ 1pm local time

The final starting day is expected to be very busy and the secondary overflow area with another eight tables may have to be used to handle all the traffic at CTP Club. Stay tuned for more live poker action right here on WPT.com as the live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor to capture all the excitement in Taiwan.