By Sean Chaffin
Masato Yokosawa (pictured) is trying to spread some love to his home country Japan – the love of poker and gambling. The WPT Champions Club member has been playing poker professionally for six years and uses his YouTube channel to help grow the game in the land of the rising sun.
So far, so good. After launching the project only 14 months ago, “Worldwide Yokosawa” now has more than 300,000 subscribers. That included adding 200,000 in just the last two months.
“The poker market is really small in Japan,” says Yokosawa, who was among the players on Day 2 at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic. “But we are contributing to develop it, for sure. Almost all poker players in Japan know my channel. It’s about gambling – casinos, poker, and stuff like that. Poker’s a growing market in Japan.”
The country doesn’t have any casinos yet, but legalized the opening of up to three casino resorts in 2018 in an effort to boost tourism. The WPT has done its own work in growing the game in the country, holding a special tournament in 2019, which attracted 541 players and awarded WPT Passports to winners.
Yokosawa earned his tour title in Season XII by winning WPT Korea for $100,000 and became the first-ever WPT Champion from Japan. He now travels the world playing poker and documenting it all on YouTube. The 27-year-old from Tokyo has lived and played poker in Macau and Las Vegas, and plans to play some high roller events on the Triton series as well.
“My goal is to be the 2020 prize money king in Japan,” Yokosawa says. “I declared this on my channel.”
Yokosawa is already on his way to being one of the best from his home country. He’s in ninth place in cash winnings from Japan, according to the Hendon Mob, with more than $800,000 in winnings. This video-producing poker player is fresh off a fifth-place finish in a $25,000 Aussie Millions event for $167,947.
While he didn’t survive Day 2 at the Commerce, his quest to spread the poker fun in Japan continues.
Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.