The World Poker Tour continues its global expansion. The new Asia Swing represents the latest venture for the WPT. Not only is the WPT creating new events, but it’s also bringing more locations to the global stage.
The World Poker Tour introduced the Asia Swing with casino partners in Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam. The Asia Swing started in Japan on September 15 and attracted 322 Main Event entrants to Tokyo in partnership with the Japan Poker Union Corporation.
Following Japan, a brand-new event was introduced by the WPT at WPT Korea. The innovation provided by WPT Live Events specialist Danny McDonagh resulted in the inaugural WPT Global Teams Event.
14 teams of four competed for the exclusive title in a series of events including No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha and Heads Up. Teams from all corners of the globe congregated at the Paradise Hotel & Resort in South Korea hailing from Australia to the United States with every region in between accounted for.
The complete list of teams included Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Taiwan, United Kingdom, and United States.
Notable players who competed included Champions Club members Sam Panzica and Dylan Wilkerson on Team USA, and Pete Chen on Team Taiwan. Representing Team India was Adda52 team pro Nikita Luther.
The final results were Team China winning gold, only a few points ahead of Team Hong Kong with Team Singapore taking third.
Chinese players are a growing force in the poker world and it was no surprise to see them prove themselves against global competition. Team China used a win in the Pot Limit Omaha event, combined with second place results in No Limit Hold’em and Six Max tournaments, to capture the title.
The World Poker Tour continues to expand across the globe and media coverage of the win reached Chinese news. Sina, one of the largest media outlets in all of China, broke news of the Team China win on their website.
Team members Dong Guo and Guoliang Wei expanded their poker résumés to the World Poker Tour. Wei won a bracelet this summer at the World Series of Poker and Guo is one of the godfathers of Chinese poker with more than $1 million in career tournament winnings.
Guo took to the Chinese social medium Weibo to celebrate the triumph.
Another proud representative of Team China’s success is Ourgame, the parent company of the World Poker Tour. Ourgame is a pioneer of poker in China, and provides players the best stage to align versus international competition.
On the heels of a successful WPT Korea, Asia Swing completes this week at WPT Vietnam. The WPT Main Event starts on September 28 at the Pro Poker Club in Trương Định and completes the WPT’s latest trip through Asia.
Coming up in November, the World Poker Tour returns overseas to the Deltin Royale Casino in India from November 16-19.
Follow along on WPT.com for all updates on the remainder of the WPT Asia Swing and more events across the globe.