With players like Anson Tsang hailing from the island nation, the country of Hong Kong generally has an outsized showing in World Series of Poker (WSOP) action. This year, however, it took until July 3, more than a month into the series, for Hong Kong to bag its first bracelet of the 2024 summer party.
The owner of the nation’s first bracelet this year was Wing Liu, and triple-bracelet winner Tsang was among the players on the rail to watch his countryman take down the Event #77: $2,500 Big Bet Mix. Liu took the final-day chip lead all the way to the win, holding onto the lead for most of the final day of play.
The win was Liu’s second WSOP bracelet with his first coming in the $5k PLO game last year in Rozvadov, and he commented after the win how much more exciting it is in Vegas. “While it was exciting in Europe, in Vegas it is really special. The field is bigger and this is my first mixed game final table.”
Final Table Results for Event #77: $2,500 Big Bet Mix
| Place | Player | Home | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wing Liu | Hong Kong | $209,942 |
| 2 | Hye Park | United States | $136,574 |
| 3 | Xixiang Luo | China | $90,920 |
| 4 | Kane Kalas | United States | $61,977 |
| 5 | Andres Korn | Argentina | $43,283 |
| 6 | Alex Foxen | United States | $30,988 |
| 7 | Allan Le | United States | $22,758 |
“I am not very familiar with the other games”
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Liu’s second bracelet was that he was a novice in many of the games on offer in the Mixed Big Bet game. The mix of games for the tournament was Big O; No-Limit Hold’em, No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, No-Limit 5-Card Draw High, Pot-Limit Omaha, Pot-Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw and Liu admitted after the win that he was really only familiar with NLH and PLO going into the game.
That didn’t seem to slow him down as he was able to adapt his general strategy to success in all the game formats he encountered. “I just use my own way to think about the games. More exploitative and less theory-based strategies.”
Just 19 players from the starting field of 468 returned to the final day of action, all of them already guaranteed a payday of at least $8,660. Liu was leading to start the final day and held the lead through most of it.
Final day action started off quickly with a double elimination to bring the field to 17 and it took about 6 hours to play down from the original 19 returners to the unofficial final table of 7 players. Along the way, a few big names like Chris Klodnicki (15th, $10,575), Andy Black (14th $10,575), and Denis Strebkov (10th, $13,285) fell before the final confrontation.
That left six players remaining for FT-leader Liu to get through but it wasn’t a list of nobodies. Sitting with him at that final table were bracelet winners Alex Foxen, Allen Le, and Xixiang Luo as well as bracelet hopefuls like Hye Park and Kane Kalas.
One by one, the field dwindled with Liu opening the FT carnage by sending Le home in 7th place and stacking up more than 5.5 million chips. Next Liu set his sites on Foxen, sending the American to the rail in 6th and getting himself up to nearly 7 million. In the final confrontation with Foxen, he was dealt a pat #12 in NL Deuce only to see Liu draw out to #2 after drawing one to seventy-six perfect.
Andres Korn was the next to fall victim to the wrecking-ball of Liu at the FT in a triple-draw deuce hand. Liu drew two to Korn’s one on first, and both players exchanged a single card on second. Liu was pat for third while Korn still needed to change one. It turned out his final draw was useless however, as Liu had patted seventy-six, leaving Korn’s eighty-five draw dead but the queen on his final draw wouldn’t have helped him anyway.
Liu just kept on rolling over the table, sending Kalas home shortly after in another triple-draw hand where Liu once again found seventy-six for the win. The game moved on to Big O, but that didn’t slow Liu down, as he sent bracelet winner Xixiang Luo home in 3rd with just a pair of threes and an eighty-five low to scoop Luo out of the game.
That left Liu battling Hye Park for the big prize with Liu holding about a 2:1 lead to start heads-up play. It took about half an hour to finally decide it with the final confrontation between the two coming in a PLO hand that was huge.
Liu raised and got the call to see a paired flop of ten-ten-eight. Park check-called to a third ten on the turn with check-call action repeating. The river three was a brick, but things still went wild when Park checked and Liu shoved for just shy of 2 million effective.
Park counted out his chips and, in a testament to the quality of play, took some time to make the call with his full boat holding ace-queen-jack-jack with clubs. Unfortunately for Park, the red-hot Liu was holding the case ten for quads and the win, taking down his second bracelet in one of only two games in this seven-game mix he claimed to be familiar with.
The $209k win was enough to push his lifetime earnings on Hendon Mob over $1.1 million but only represents his third-biggest lifetime score.
