Lina Niu Wins WPT® World Championship Women’s Event for $105,136
The Canadian winner is more of a PLO cash game player than a tournament hold’em player, but that didn’t stop the Edmonton businesswoman from bagging a huge title.
Fans watching the Women’s Event at the WPT® World Championship might be forgiven for thinking Lina Niu came out of nowhere to take down the Ladies title this weekend. Prior to December of this year, Niu had three cashes on her Hendon Mob page totalling around $3,000, all from 2018 or earlier. Now, after two huge results nearly 2,500 km apart, Niu’s earnings have skyrocketed to more than $120k (USD).
Niu won’t be a familiar face to most watchers of poker, but she is no stranger to the game. While she runs a business off the felt for her main source of income, she is a regular at the PLO cash game tables in her adopted home city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Originally from Surrey, BC, this was Niu’s second big result in December after her final-table performance in a recent series in her Alberta home. The Women’s Event was one of the highlights from a huge series for the inaugural WPT® World Championship. The series ran from Dec 1 to 19 with the $15 million guaranteed $10,400 Main Event running from Dec 12 – 18. The WPT® Ladies Championship ran on Dec 16 with a buy-in of $1,100 and $200k guaranteed. Niu took down the top prize from a bloated field that saw the prize pool almost triple the guarantee.
Not Beginner’s Luck for NIU
With her limited live tournament results, casual observers could write off Niu’s huge win as beginner’s luck, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. As mentioned above, she is a seasoned PLO cash game player, but it’s possible she has another ace up her sleeve.
Niu’s partner in life is recent WSOP Bracelet winner Jaspal “Paul” Brar, a man who was considerably feared in the local poker scene long before he picked up some jewelry for his wrist. Brar is a regular feature at big NLHE final tables in Alberta and elsewhere with well over $1 million in live earnings, and no doubt gave Niu some pointers to help with her two-card tournament strategy.
In fact, Niu and Brar recently faced off against each other in the final nine of the Pure Poker Tour Tournament of Champions Main Event at Pure Casino Yellowhead early in December. Niu actually led the way with the biggest chip stack for much of Day 2 but lost some chips late in the day to hit the final table in the middle of the pack.
She managed 5th place in that game, while Brar went on to bag second, but it was clear early on Day 2 that she was there on skill, not on luck. This latest win just cements that truth.
Niu was characteristically humble after the win. “Today’s been a roller coaster for sure. I started off with chip lead, lost a lot early on and played super tight,” an excited Niu said. “I got really lucky in some all-in spots. Just got super lucky on the last hand too.”
Luck is a requirement in the short-term in poker – the way the cards run in any given hand is all down, literally, to the “luck of the draw.” The winner of any poker tournament rarely gets there on skill alone, with more than one spot where they “got super lucky”, but at the same time, the winner rarely gets there on luck alone either.
With two deep runs in major events this month, Niu has shown that while she may technically be an amateur at poker, she’ll be a force to be reckoned with in big events down the road.
Huge Results for First Event WPT® World Championship
Niu led the way in a massive field in the Ladies Championship. With a $200k guarantee, organizers were clearly expecting around 200 entries for the game. When the registration desk closed, 578 entries swelled the prize pool to $560,660, which was more than 180% above the guarantee.
That wasn’t the only event that crushed the expectations though. Going into the series, there were a lot of questions about whether the $15 million guarantee on the WPT® World Championship Main Event would be met, but in the end, there wasn’t even a sweat. A total of 2,960 entries descended on the Wynn Las Vegas for the big game, for a record-breaking prize pool that almost doubled the initial promise. The $29,008,000 made it the largest WPT® prize pool ever collected on the tour, and outside of World Series of Poker events, it was the largest prize pool ever in Las Vegas.
The Championship game is down to the final table of six players now, led by British crusher Benny Glaser. Glaser has a virtual stranglehold on the final six at press time with 133 million chips while his closest competitor is sitting with less than 30 million.
The other big game was the $1,100 WPT® Prime Championship where more than 5,400 entries were recorded. That made a total prize pool more than double its $2 million guarantee and Stephen Song added $712,650 to his more than $4 million in lifetime live wins.
While the final prizes are yet to be awarded, the WPT® World Championship smashed all the pre-series expectations and will likely make the careers of some players. Ladies Champion Lina Niu may well be one of those players – given her recent results, I’d expect to see a lot more of her in 2023.
