Kerching For Chung as He Becomes a WPT Prime Champion
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The WPT Prime tour was at Dusk Till Dawn, the home of British poker, and was a club regular who captured the £1,100 WPT Prime UK Championship title, £57,660 in prize money, and a £10,000 package to the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
Timothy Chung has history with Dusk Till Dawn. Back in August 2012, Chung won his first live event, the DTD £150 Deepstack for £15,373. Five years later, he banked £78,700 for his victory in the DTD 1000 before helping himself to a £97,065 prize for a third-place finish in the £1,100 WSOP Circuit UK Main Event.
Chung now has another big score and a shiny trophy from his exploits at the Nottingham-based poker club: £57,660 and the shiny WPT Prime trophy. Chung topped a field of 274 entrants and raked in the largest slice of the £263,040 prize pool.
£1,100 WPT Prime UK Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Timothy Chung | £57,660* |
| 2 | Vincent Meli | £35,000 |
| 3 | Francois Tosques | £26,000 |
| 4 | Arron Pointon | £19,500 |
| 5 | Mingrui Cen | £14,700 |
| 6 | Jason Riley | £11,200 |
| 7 | Christopher Johnson | £8,600 |
| 8 | Chase Wilson | £6,700 |
| 9 | Iulin-Petrut Petrache | £5,300 |
*plus a £10,000 package to the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas
Chung went into the final table with one hand on the trophy, thanks to his stack containing an incredible 225 big blinds. Jason Riley was in second place with 107 big blinds, highlighting Chung dominant position. Anyone who has locked horns with Chung knows he is an aggressive player, so an active grinder with a colossal stack makes for a formidable opponent.
It took only nine hands for the first finalists to bow out. Iulian-Petrut Petrache jammed his last 17 big blinds into the middle from the cutoff with pocket fives, which fell foul to the pocket eights of Chase Wilson.
Wilson was the next to fall despite helping himself to Petrache's stack. In a cooler of a hand, Francois Tosques min-raised under the gun with king-queen, and Wilson defended his big blind with king-nine. Wilson check called a bet on the king-king-five flop before checking again on the queen turn. Tosques bet small and called when Wilson check-raised. The river was a nine, giving Wilson a second-best full house. He bet 200,000 and called off his last 215,000 when Tosques set him all in.
Two-time GUKPT Main Event champion Christopher Johnson busted in seventh to leave the table short-handed. Johnson was left with crumbs when he ran his pocket nines into the aces of Mingrui Cen. He doubled on the next hand but then Vincent Meli rivered a seven with his king-seven to best Johnson's ace-six.
The first five-figure sum of the tournament belongs to Jason Riley, who recently finished third in the EAPT UK Main Event for £33,500 at Dusk Till Dawn. Riley was down to his last eight big blinds, and he committed them with queen-jack on the button. Unfortunately for Riley, Arron Pointon woke up in the small blind with the dominating ace-jack of diamonds, and his ace-kicker played on a king-high board.
Cen only started playing live poker at the start of 2024, but you would never have guessed from this performance. Cen bowed out when his 13 big blind shove with king-ten was snapped off by Pointon holding pocket queens. Pointon turned a set to leave Cen drawing dead. Cen banked a career-best £14,700, narrowly trumping the £14,370 he won for a seventh-place finish in the GUKPT London Main Event at the start of the year.
Pointon was the shortest stack at the start of play but had managed not only to ladder a few payout places but also put himself in contention to become the tournament's champion. After folding ace-king to Chung's three-bet jam, Pointon made a stand with ace-four in the big blind after Vincent Meli open-shoved on him from the small blind. Meli flipped over ace-nine, turned a nine, and Pointon's comeback was cut short.
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Tosques' first recorded score since the 2021 World Series of Poker will go down as a third-place finish in this event, worth £26,000. The 2018 Little One for One Drop runner-up saw his stack fluctuate when play was three-handed. His participation ended when he shoved just shy of 15 big blinds from the button with ace-deuce, and Meli instantly called out of the big blind with ace-jack. Neither player improved but Meli didn't need to, and heads-up was reached.
Chung held a 6,050,000 to 4,725,000 lead over Meli, with blinds at 50,000/100,000/100,000a. Chung was relentless from the moment the one-on-one battle started, and he claimed the title in 16 hands.
The final hand saw Chung limp with pocket threes, and Meli check his jack-deuce. An ace-jack-deuce flop looked was perfect for Meli, and he check-raised Chng's 125,000 stab to 325,000. Chung called, and a three appeared on the turn. Meli led for 725,000, which Chung called. Meli moved all-in for 2,325,000 on the eight river, and Chung snap-called with his set, sending Meli home in second place with £35,000.
What Next for WPT Prime?
Chung's 12th recorded live victory takes his live tournament earnings soaring past the $1.5 million mark. We will most likely see Chung try taking his momentum through to the GUKPT Luton festival between now and September 24, while the WPT Prime gears up for two stops with French flavors.
WPT Prime Playground runs in Montreal from October 20-25, carrying a CAD$800,000 guaranteed prize pool before WPT Prime Paris takes place at the Club Circus Paris from October 23-28. As always, you can win your way into these WPT Prime Main Events online at WPT Global if the site is available in your country.
