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The $1,100 buy-in, $5,000,000 GTD WPT Prime Championship will take place from Dec. 8-14 at the Wynn Las Vegas as a part of the WPT World Championship Festival (Dec. 3-23). Last year, Calvin Anderson topped a field of 10,512 entrants – nearly double that of 2022 – to win the 2023 WPT Prime Championship for $1,386,280.
The WPT Prime proved so successful that it won the Global Poker Award for Best Mid-Major Tour/Circuit. While the ClubWPT Gold $5M Invitational and WPT World Championship have garnered their share of excitement, the WPT Prime World Championship remains one of the standout events on this year’s thrilling schedule and PokerNewsis preparing for it by catching up with some the 2024 Prime Season.
A Deep Dive into the WPT Prime World Championship and the 2024 Prime Season
Back in August, the TWD 35,000 buy-in (~$1,100) WPT Prime Taiwan Championship attracted 1,666 runners and offered up a TWD 51,389,500 (~$1,597,435) prize pool. It became the largest field size for a live poker event in Taiwan with a $1,000 or higher buy-in. It also set the attendance record for the Prime Championship Event outside of the Las Vegas-based WPT World Championship.
Coming out on top for TWD 8,065,000 (~$250,231) and a $10,400 seat into the WPT World Championship was 30-year-old Jereld Sam, who was born and raised in Singapore. It’ll mark Sam’s first trip to Las Vegas.
Sam, who has a younger brother and sister, completed his requirement to serve in National Service and then went to the United Kingdom for his studies.
“When I got back to Singapore I worked at a bank for a while before deciding that I wanted to put more time and effort into poker,” he recently told PokerNews. “You can almost always catch me in a hoodie and pants like a very typical poker player minus the shades because I get sleepy when it's dark. My favorite poker phrase that I say when people ask about poker is that when they say it’s all about luck but isn’t it the same in life? it’s about choices you make, on and off the table.”
He continued: “I started playing poker when I was 20 years old. Back then I was still studying and it was during Chinese New Year that one of my friends invited me to a home game. One of the guys was crushing the table full of fish, me included. I guess the competitive side of me got me intrigued into poker and I started to play more, bought books to read, and any useful materials I could find online.”
Nowadays, Sam mostly plays live and online tournaments. While he prefers tournaments because he wants both the cash and a trophy, he mostly grinds mid-to-high stakes online.
The WPT Prime victory awarded Sam his current career-high score, but it wasn’t his only victory. In June 2023, he won the Poker Dream Waiwain Mystery Bounty for $24,407, and then in December took down the Asia Poker Tour Hanoi Billions Mystery Bounty Hunter by Natural8 for 52,435. More recently, back on November 8, he won the HKPPA Premier League Main Event for $35,028.
“After playing poker for about 10 years it’s been a hell of a roller coaster ride and for such milestone achievements this year I am definitely grateful.”
Winning the WPT Prime also proved a special moment for Sam as his mother, who really wasn’t supportive of him playing poker, was watching.
“It made me want to win the WPT Prime title so much more for her. The first phone call was to her when I shipped it. Her big smile when I returned home with the trophy, it was all worth it.”
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (TWD) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jereld Sam | Singapore | TWD 8,065,000* | ~$250,231* |
| 2 | Kosei Oguri | Japan | TWD 5,390,000 | ~$167,547 |
| 3 | Ka Shun Tsang | Hong Kong | TWD 3,995,000 | ~$124,184 |
| 4 | Jun Li | United Kingdom | TWD 2,990,000 | ~$92,944 |
| 5 | Yuya Arito | Japan | TWD 2,260,000 | ~$70,252 |
| 6 | Junya Yamaguchi | Japan | TWD 1,720,000 | ~$53,466 |
| 7 | Tomoyuki Yoshimiya | Japan | TWD 1,325,000 | ~$41,187 |
| 8 | Wei Chun Cheng | Taiwan | TWD 1,029,500 | ~$32,002 |
| 9 | Paul Hong | New Zealand | TWD 810,000 | ~$25,179 |
*includes a $10,400 seat into the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
PokerNewswill be at the 2024 WPT Prime Championship offering even more great content, and of course we'll be sure to keep an eye on how Jereld Sam does at the festival.
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