Aaron Zang

Zang got into poker through a friend after he went to university. He regularly deposited money into the partypoker online poker room which he repeatedly gambled away. In 2006, his uncle gave him ¥1,000 which he used to build a bankroll of ¥400,000. In 2007, Zang began playing professionally in Macau.^[2]

In 2019, Zang won the £1,050,000 No Limit Hold'em Triton Million defeating Bryn Kenney heads up. The tournament had the largest scheduled single payout in poker tournament history, with first place receiving £19,000,000 ($23,100,000). However, due to a prize splitting deal agreed with Kenney, Zang ended up receiving £13,779,491 ($16,775,820) for first place while Kenney received the larger prize of £16,890,509 ($20,563,324) for finishing runner-up. The deal was made when the tournament entered heads up with Kenney holding an over 5:1 chip lead against Zang. Zang made a comeback and eventually won the tournament.^[3][4] For his victory in the 2019 Triton Million event, Zang received the third largest single payout in poker tournament history behind Kenney's runner-up place prize in the same tournament and Antonio Esfandiari's victory prize at 2012 Big One for One Drop for $18,346,673.^[5]

As of August 2020, Zang has won over US$17,600,000 in live poker tournaments, overtaking Elton Tsang as the most successful Chinese poker player in live tournaments. His latest victory coming from Triton Poker Vietnam where he won $1,00,000 in the Short Deck Main Event. ^[6]

Zang played Magic: The Gathering during high school and won a Chinese championship in the card game. He graduated from university in 2005. In 2013, he founded a company specializing in Bitcoin in Shenzhen.^[2]

With total tournament earnings of nearly $22 million, Aaron Zang is the most successful Chinese poker player on the All-Time Money List^[7] as of March 15, 2023.

Total tournament earnings by Aaron Zang since 2007: