Seat 3: Masato Yokosawa, 31, Japan (1,085,000)
Masato Yokosawa has over $1.6 million on his live tournament resume, which puts him in ninth place on the Japanese all-time money list. That’s an impressive pedigree, but Yokosawa’s mark on poker has been far bigger than that.
With more than 930,000 subscribers to his “World Wide” channel, the 31-year-old is the most followed poker streamer in the world. He won the People’s Choice Award for Poker Personality in 2021, voted by fans.
Yokosawa’s audience follows his stories from the best venues and events around the world, including the European Poker Tour and cash game rooms in Las Vegas. Yokosawa hopes to pioneer the legalization of live poker tournaments in his home country.
A crowned WPT champion (winning $100,000 in South Korea back in 2013), Yokosawa is now on the brink of eclipsing his best result. That came last year when he finished 45th in the WSOP Main Event for $188,400. If he fades the first elimination of the final day, he will be celebrating a new career high.
Career Record:
Career earnings: $1,652,454
Best cash: $188,400, 45th, 2023 WSOP Main Event
Tournament Progression:
Day 1: 142,000 (2/50, 1c)
Day 2: 845,000 (1/77)
Day 3: 1,225,000 (9/18)
Day 4: 1,085,000 (6/6)
Event Highlights:
Yokosawa ended Day 1c second in chips and was the chip leader after Day 2, but he had fallen to a short stack by Day 4. He then turned a set of sixes and jammed the river for 905,000 as Matthew Wantman called him down with just ace-high as Yokosawa doubled up.
Yokosawa fell all the way down to 240,000 on the final table bubble and was all in against Nick Marchington. Yokosawa flopped a pair of aces, but Marchington picked up a flush draw on the turn. Yokosawa dodged the river and doubled up yet again to secure his spot at the final table.