Taiwanese player Mingchang Hsiao took his seat yesterday after satelliting into the Main Event. He bought in through a Step 0 satellite (with a buy-in of TWD 2,800, ~USD 90) with hopes of reaching the Main Event for just a fraction of the buyin.

Mingchang Hsiao

Hsiao successfully progressed to Step 1, but narrowly missed out on advancing to Step 2 in one attempt. However, after just one rebuy – for TWD 11,000 (~USD 350) – he made it through Step 2 and all the way to Day 2 of the Main Event.

He took a seat this morning with a stack of 106,900 and was seen steadily chipping away at his table throughout the afternoon and didn’t shy away from aggression, building up an above-average stack. He also eliminated his opponent Dhanesh Chainani, in a battle of the kicker, and currently sits on 200,000.

Hsiao is also a fan of mixed games, recently placing 5th in the Limit Quadruple Stud (Stud, Stud Hi-Lo, Razz, Razzdugi) for TWD 27,500 (~USD 895), here at the APTC 2025 series.

He adds this result to his previous lifetime earnings of USD 8,235, all scored in Taipei, bringing him close to the USD 10,000 mark. If he manages to cash in the Main Event, he could nearly double his recorded career total, making this one of the biggest milestones in his poker journey.

From small buy ins to big dreams—satellites make the main event anyone’s game!