On his first visit to Las Vegas, a Hong Kong poker player won his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournament, earning a prize of $144,338.
Chan Lok, 22, participated in the three-day event from June 16 to June 18 where he competed against 281 players for his first gold WSOP bracelet. The 2022 WSOP series consisted of seven different tournaments, including No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw Lowball and the No-Limit Five Card Draw High. Chan participated in the fifth event of the 2022 WSOP series.
On day three of the tournament, Chan worked his way up from fourth place to first, replacing Canadian poker player Drew Scott as the lead player. He won a total of 684 “Card Player” Player of the Year points and now stands just outside the top 350 players in the 2022 Player of the Year race. Scott came in second place, earning $89,206, while two-time bracelet winner Rami Boukai came in third, earning $61,675.
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Chan’s WSOP win marks his 30th major tournament victory, raising his total live earnings to $481,517. Following his match, Chan told Poker News that he has been playing in live tournaments in Taiwan since he was “17 or 18.”
Despite winning the fifth event of the WSOP tournament, Chan plans on participating in the upcoming No-Limit Hold’em event, also known as Main Event, to win a second gold WSOP bracelet. The Main Event tournament is expecting around 7,000 players who will buy in for $10,000.
“I am definitely playing the Main Event because that’s what I came here for,” Chan was quoted as saying. “I may take a one-day break and have a rest with my friends and my wife. We are going out and I will rest up for the rest of the series.”
The 2022 WSOP tournament had six players from Hong Kong in comparison to pre-pandemic numbers where more than 20 Hong Kong poker players would travel to tournaments in Las Vegas.
Feature image via Amol Tyagi
