Nick Wong

Hong Kong’s Nick Wong treats poker as a hobby rather than a profession. Though judging by his results, it is easy to think otherwise. He has accumulated more than $4,500,000 in live tournament earnings since he first appeared on the Asian poker scene back in 2009.

In just over a year since his first live tournament cash, Wong earned himself an APPT title at the HK$ 100,000 NLH High Roller event in Macau and took home a six-figure score. To claim first, he triumphed over a table that included Russian tournament veteran and WSOP bracelet winner Konstantin Puchkov.

Perhaps his most impressive victory in terms of strength of competition was in 2013. The setting was again in Macau, this time at the HK$250,000 NLH Warm Up event at the City of Dreams casino. Of the five players that finished in the money, three were iconic names in poker – Isaac Haxton, Philipp Gruissem and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier. Amazingly, each of these players respectively exited behind Wong, securing the Hong Kong native $553,633 and another trophy. Since Nick does not play cards for an income, he has been known to be extremely generous with his winnings and donated all of his earnings from this tournament to charity.

In terms of biggest score, Wong’s finest hour came back in 2012 at the HK$ 2,000,000 NLH Super High Roller event. Given the huge buy-in with an expectation for some recreational players to be in the mix, a number of pros entered the tournament including Phil Ivey, Sam Trickett, John Juanda and Philipp Gruissem. Not put off by credentials of his opponents, Nick outlasted all of the above and finished in third for a $3,291,513 payday.

Since then, he has gone to pick up another APPT title and still regularly appears on the live poker circuit – particularly in Macau.