Danny Tang is the latest high-stakes tournament champion to be crowned at the 2022 Super High Roller Series Europe. The 29-year-old poker pro from Hong Kong defeated a field of 32 entries in the $50,000 buy-in short deck event at the Merit Royal Hotel Casino & Spa in North Cyprus to earn $640,000 and his 10th live tournament title.
This was the fourth-largest score of Tang’s career. The World Series of Poker bracelet winner now has lifetime tournament earnings of more than $10.4 million.
Tang has made three final tables so far in 2022, all in the past five days. He finished third in the $75,000 short deck event at the Triton Poker Cyprus series for $447,000. Just two days later, he made it down to heads-up play in the SHRS Europe $25,000 no-limit hold’em event, finishing second for another $320,000. This hat trick of high-roller scores was enough to move Tang into 59th place in the Card Player Player of the Year standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker. He now has 1,168 points and $1,407,000 in year-to-date POY earnings.
Tang earned 384 PokerGO Tour points as the champion of this event, which was enough to see him climb to 14th place in that high-stakes points race.
It took just over 90 minutes for Tang to convert his healthy start-of-day chip lead into the title on day 2 of this event. Day 1 concluded with the elimination of Cary Katz on the money bubble, securing a six-figure payday for the remaining five contenders.
Paul Phua was the first to fall on day 2, with his A-J suited running into the pocket queens of Lun Loon just minutes after cards got back in the air. Phua flopped a jack and turned an ace to take the lead. The river brought a queen to give Loon a set and the pot, though, eliminating Phua in fifth place ($112,000). Phua increased his career total to nearly $22 million in the process.
Seth Davies got the last of his short stack all-in with Q-J facing the A-9 suited of Tang. The board gave Tang a nine-high straight to narrow the field to three. Davies took home $176,000 as the fourth-place finisher. The World Poker Tour champion now has nearly $12.7 million in lifetime earnings to his name.
Bracelet winner and three-time Triton champion Jason Koon was the next to hit the rail. Koon check-raised all-in on a QJ7 flop with 77 and Tang called with AA to build the pot of the tournament. The turn brought the 8 to give Tang a flush draw, but he ultimately won the pot with trips thanks to the A on the river. Koon was awarded $256,000 for his fifth final-table finish of the month. He has now cashed for more than $1.4 million so far in April, increasing his all-time earnings to more than $36.6 million. He remains in eighth place on poker’s all-time money list, and is now a strong contender in both the Card Player (29th place) and PGT (12th place) points races.
Tang took more than 7 million chips into heads-up play with Loon, who sat with nearly 2.6 million. The pair went on to battle for nearly an hour. In the final hand, tang shoved with QJ and Loon called holding AK. The board came down K97106 to give Tang a queen-high straight to secure the pot and the title. Loon was awarded $416,000 as the runner-up, the largest score of his live tournament career.
Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final:
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points | PGT Points |
| 1 | Danny Tang | $640,000 | 408 | 384 |
| 2 | Lun Loon | $416,000 | 340 | 250 |
| 3 | Jason Koon | $256,000 | 272 | 154 |
| 4 | Seth Davies | $176,000 | 204 | 106 |
| 5 | Paul Phua | $112,000 | 170 | 67 |
Photo credit: Merit Poker.
