Yang Zhang Wins 2014 Beijing Cup

While the professional poker world seems to have quietened down to take a short break over the Christmas holidays for the most part, this is not the case everywhere. In fact, China recently played a host to one of its premier events, the 2014 Beijing Cup, which took place in the country’s capital last week.

The Cup – which had a buy-in of around US$1,500 - was able to attract a field of 346 entrants, which was mostly made up of domestic players. That wasn’t purely the case, though, as players from other nations like South Korea and Mongolia also took part in the event, as did players from outside of the continent.

At the end of it all, however, it was a Chinese player who ended up winning the event. That player was Yang Zhang, who outlasted the rest of the field to take out the tournament and its ¥623,125 (around US$99,700) cash prize.

It was the latest feat in what has been a big year for Zhang – he also came in second place in the more popular Beijing Millions event in July, where he took home a similar amount of money to which he won at the Cup.

While there was a good number of poker players in the event from outside of China, one may not have thought so purely by looking at the event’s final table. With the exception of one player – South Korea’s Joon-han Lee – every other player at the event’s final table of 10 was from China (8th placed Ka Cheong Wong was from Hong Kong).

The 2014 Beijing Cup win is the second largest for Zhang, after the aforementioned Beijing Millions finish. According to Hendon Mob, he also made it in the money three other times in Macau this year alone, which shows Zhang may have emerged as a top poker pro in Asia.