Well, we kind of knew this was going to happen going into the final table of the first event of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Season XVI, but Pete Yanhan Chen made it official Wednesday, winning WPT Beijing. Chen entered the six-handed final table with a prohibitive chip lead, holding more chips than his five opponents combined.
Chen’s lead was never really in doubt the entire final table. He wielded his chip stack like Reinhardt’s hammer in Overwatch, keeping everyone at bay while he chipped up.
The one time it looked like maybe, possibly, Chen could be at risk of coming back to the pack was with four players remaining. According to WPT.com, he raised all-in pre-flop under the gun and Zhang Wenbin called all-in for around a million chips. Zhang had Chen dominated with K-J against K-7 and it held up, allowing him to double-up to 2.2 million. Chen still had 7.4 million, so it wasn’t a big deal.
The very next hand, the 79th of the final table, Zhang raised to 195,000 pre-flop and Chen again shoved, putting Zhang all-in. Zhang called with pocket Queens, way ahead of Chen’s K-J. If Zhang doubled-up on this hand, he would be well within striking distance of Chen. That didn’t happen, though, as Chen flopped a King to give him a better pair and then rivered another King for good measure. Zhang was out of the tournament in fourth place and Chen got his chips back from the previous hand, growing his stack to 9.715 million.
Shortly thereafter, Lu Yingqi was knocked out in third place, setting up the heads-up match between Chen Yanhan and Chen Ke. Yanhan (we’re switching naming conventions now since they are both Chens), of course, had a huge lead, 9.99 million to 2.01 million. Ke held on as long as he could, but it was no contest.
Finally, on Hand #111 of the final table, Ke moved all-in for just over a million chips and Yanhan made the easy call, holding K-4 of spades. Ke was behind with Q-3, but at least had two live cards, which is about all you can ask for in that situation. None of the community cards helped either player, meaning Yanhan won the hand, the pot, and the tournament.
With a first prize worth about USD $300,000, Pete Yanhan Chen has now won over $1 million in his live tournament career. He has dozens of small cashes dating back to 2011, the vast majority of which are from tournaments in Asia. His largest cash before this won came back in 2014, when he finished fifth place in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event for $74,170.
2017 World Poker Tour Beijing Main Event – Final Table Results
1. Pete Yanhan Chen – CNY 2,063,454 (USD $299,485)
2. Chen Ke – CNY 1,373,026 (USD $199,278)
3. Lu Yingqi – CNY 882,619 (USD $128,101)
4. Zhang Wenben – CNY 585,468 (USD $84,974)
5. Tan Yancheng – CNY 450,616 (USD $65,401)
6. Bryan Huang – CNY 373,218 (USD $54,168)
