Gods of Poker Taipei II Main Event Reaches 520 Entries; 73 Players to Battle for the Title

It was a mountain to climb - perhaps even the Olympus itself – to reach the NT$ 17 Million guarantee in the flagship Gods of Poker Taipei II Main Event as only 145 entries has been recorded prior to the final day of flights. Nearly 600 were needed for the NT$ 33,000 buy-in to cover the ambitious goal and it turned out to be too tall of a task despite very respectable numbers in the final two flights at the Asia Poker Arena in Taipei City.

Flight D became the largest of all five with a staggering 208 entries of which 29 players made it through, whereas the turbo Flight 1E added another 167 entries to the equation. In the end, the field was set with an attendance of 520 entries to provide more extra value to all participants at Taiwan's number one venue for live poker events.

A new overall chip leader was crowned today as Singapore's Ravn Teo ran hot during the bubble period in Flight D to amass a staggering 2,735,000 in chips. The local king of trash talk Chia Hsiang Ko (2,044,000) had about as many chips as well but lost a late all-in to drop to second place, just ahead of Thailand's Chanyoot Ruangsakul (1,974,000) and Tsai Yu You Ci (1,900,000).

Notable players in the top ten for this flight are Vinay B (1,308,000) and Ori Kossonogi (919,000).

Top 10 Chip Counts Flight D:

The last player to depart empty-handed was Japan's Kazuki Fukuda, who three-bet jammed ace-jack into the ace-king of Teo. Both players paired their kicker and Teo remained best to cement his overall lead.

Throughout the entire flight, the always talkative Ko was involved in countless all-in showdowns. He went near the top of the leaderboard after the end of registration only to drop to a severe short stack, then go on a rampage and knock out more than half a dozen players. The most memorable one was perhaps the double knockout of Yu Kai Lo and Kuan Lun Chen when he cracked two sets with a straight.

Notable casualties included Dorel Cohen, Daniel Leung, King Lun Alan Lau, Shi Rong Wang, Ka Fai Lam, David Erquiaga, Kojima Takamasa, Anton Lu, Carlos Chang, and Chen-An Lin to name all but a few of the familiar faces of the Asian live poker circuit.

Many used the last chance turbo Flight E with 20-minute levels after the end of the registration period to make it through to the money stages and Lau certainly did so with a very decent stack. The Hong Kong based poker pro carried over the second-largest tally of 1,953,000 and was only beaten by Taiwan's Chyan Pu (2,117,000) on the leaderboard.

Top 10 Chip Counts Flight E:

King Lun Alan Lau

The clock struck 3.38 a.m. local time when the bubble eventually burst and the 23 survivors of the turbo heat will have only a short sleep before returning to their seats at the Asia Poker Arena for Day 2 at 12.30 p.m. local time. With blinds having climbed all the way to 40,000-80,000/80,000, the average was as little as 12 big blinds to make it a very tense affair.

Chun Bin Yang was the last player to leave without a cash prize when his button shove with ace-eight was called by Pin Hao Huang with a suited jack. The flop delivered a jack and that eventually wrapped up the late night card action.

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Across the five starting flights, a total of 73 players qualified for Day 2 and locked up a min-cash of at least NT§ 63,800. They benefit from a roll-back of the blinds to 8,000-16,000/16,000 and the levels increase to 60 minutes each.

The penultimate tournament day is slated to play down all the way to the nine-handed final table with cards-up coverage and commentary available on the Gods of Poker YouTube channel. We will be back then also to provide as many of the key hands from the tables en route to crowning the winner of the stunning GOP gauntlet trophy.

Perhaps, there may even be a back-to-back champion as reigning GOP Manila 2026 winner

Dakota Anderson reached the final table of the NT$ 11,000 Titan Stack Boosted and used the NT$ 33,000 Main Event ticket to enter Flight D. His 620,000 in chips put the American into the middle of the pack.

Earlier in the day, he finished in ninth place for NT$ 62,100 as a warm-up before jumping late into the earlier Main Event flight, which he then ended with a solid stack for Day 2. The top four finishers were all hailing from Taiwan and Jian Hong Chen earned the biggest slice worth NT$ 259,900.

Japan's Masahiko Nasu won the Big O Event for NT$ 41,300 whereas Harry Halim went on the score board in a NT$ 38,500 High Roller after defeating Fendy Kosasih heads-up.

Hang Su and Jiro Yamamoto closed out the evening with victories in Hyper Turbo Events amid the ongoing Main Event flights.

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With two days left in the festival here in Taiwan, there is now already a decent indication who will be competing for the top three spots. Shi Rong Wang leads the way with five cashes and two trophies for 16,871 points, while there is already a big gap to Kai Cheng Hsu in second place (11,067 points) and aforementioned Kosasih in third (10,144 points).

Dong Yan has a stack in the Main Event as does Wang, and the same applies for Seongjin Kim as well. However, the latter only has one cash so far and would need another result beyond the Main Event to qualify for leaderboard prizes which require at least three cashes.

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The Schedule for Day 9

At half past noon, the 73 survivors out of 520 entries return for Day 2 of the Main Event with a 60-minute clock and the goal for today is simple - make it to the nine-handed final table.

If not, there are several other tournaments to jump into such as the NT$ 16,500 Mini Main Event, which features four starting flights today and a NT$ 2 Million guarantee.

For the early shift, a NT$ 7,700 PLO Bounty Event awaits along with a NT$ 55,000 Single Day High Roller for those with deeper pockets. One Turbo and two Hyper Turbo Side Events close out the day with the GOP trophies up for grabs to display in the cabinet at home.

The full tournament schedule and all relevant information can be found on The Trial of Wisdom page.