Elton Tsang Ka-wai (born November 3, 1980) is a Chinese-Canadian entrepreneur, investor, and high-stakes poker player based in Hong Kong. Tsang has built a career that spans investing, poker, philanthropy, and technology.
In poker, Tsang is credited with organizing the first live tournament in Macau â a venture that helped establish the region as a global destination for the game â and later won the 2016 â¬1,000,000 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza for â¬11,111,111, one of the largest single prizes in the history of the sport. Primarily a cash game player, he spent years competing in the private high-stakes games that defined Macau's poker scene before transitioning to the international tournament circuit, where he has accumulated over $15 million in cashes on the Triton Super High Roller Series alone.
Tsang was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, to a family with roots in Hong Kong. He attended the University of British Columbia, where he first encountered poker in 2001 through low-stakes online games. What began as a university pastime developed into a lifelong discipline.
After completing his studies, Tsang returned to Hong Kong and identified what he saw as a significant gap in the market: Macau, then rapidly emerging as Asia's premier gaming hub, had no poker offering of any kind. Through a family connection to the Grand Waldo Casino, he secured a meeting, pitched the concept of a live Texas hold 'em tournament, and invested approximately HK$1 million (US$130,000) of his own capital to bring it to life. Working with tournament director Matt Savage and with PokerStars as sponsor, the event became the inaugural stop of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) â a landmark development that helped open the Asian market to international poker.
Rather than follow the tournament circuit, Tsang remained in Macau and committed to cash games â starting at the lowest available stakes of HK$25/$50 (approximately US$3/$6) and building his way up over several years. He has spoken about a formative rivalry with American player John Hoang, known as "Vietnamese John," who repeatedly pushed him back to lower stakes before Tsang eventually prevailed â a period he describes as a turning point in his development.
When Pot-limit Omaha was introduced in Macau, Tsang leveraged his online experience in the format to accelerate his progress, eventually reaching the HK$10,000/$20,000 and HK$20,000/$40,000 private games.
By the mid-2010s, Tsang had established himself as a regular in what was known as "The Big Game" â the ultra-high-stakes private cash games in Macau that attracted some of the most prominent names in poker, including Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, and Johnny Chan.
In one widely recounted session, Tsang lost HK$60 million (approximately US$7.6 million) over 24 hours of play. At what he described as his stop-limit, he chose to buy in for a final HK$20 million â knowing that losing it would mean returning to lower stakes. He recovered the entire deficit and won an additional HK$60 million on top. "It was the most important game of my life," he later said.
In October 2016, Tsang entered the â¬1,000,000 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza, held during the World Series of Poker Europe. Coached by Mustapha Kanit, he navigated a 28-player field that included Rick Salomon, Cary Katz, and Anatoly Gurtovoy, claiming the â¬11,111,111 first prize â at the time the third-largest single payout in poker tournament history.
Tsang later described the victory as a personal milestone, recalling that his daughter FaceTimed him afterward to tell him how proud she was â the first time, he said, that his family truly understood what he had built.
Since 2018, Tsang has been one of the most prominent competitors on the Triton Super High Roller Series, accumulating over $15.4 million in cashes across more than 22 events.
After 71 entries and 11 final table appearances, he secured his first Triton title in March 2024 â the $150,000 NLH 8-Handed event in Jeju, South Korea, for $4,210,000. His second title followed in September 2025, winning the $100,000 Short Deck event for $1,697,000.
At Triton Jeju S5 in March 2026, Tsang delivered consecutive third-place finishes in the $100,000 Main Event ($1,787,000, won by Ben Tollerene) and the $150,000 10th Anniversary Special ($1,482,000, won by Paul Phua), earning over $3.2 million across two days.
Tsang has appeared in 84 streamed cash game episodes totaling over 180 hours, and has been involved in some of the largest pots in televised poker history, including a â¬2 million pot against Jason Koon at the 2018 Triton Series in Montenegro.
In 2017, Tsang became involved in one of the poker world's most widely discussed disputes when he publicly accused Leon Tsoukernik, the Czech billionaire owner of King's Casino, of refusing to honour approximately â¬3,365,000 in debts from a private cash game at Casino Barcelona. According to Tsang, Tsoukernik paid only â¬1,200,000 of his total losses and then characterized the game as "strange," alleging collusion and foul play.
The accusation drew significant attention, in part because it followed a similar high-profile case in which Australian player Matt Kirk had sued Tsoukernik over a separate US$2,000,000 unpaid debt from a game at the Aria in Las Vegas. However, unlike Kirk's case â which occurred in Nevada, where gambling debts are legally enforceable â Tsang's game took place in Europe, where such debts carry no legal standing, leaving him with no path to recovery.
Several of the game's most respected figures came to Tsang's defence. Daniel Negreanu publicly stated: "Elton is an honorable guy and is not lying." Tony G reportedly stepped in as a mediator between the two parties, and players including Winfred Yu and Philipp Gruissem also voiced their support. The dispute remains one of the most notable unresolved controversies in high-stakes poker.
Tsang is actively involved in charitable work across Hong Kong and mainland China. His 2016 One Drop victory contributed to raising over â¬3.1 million for the One Drop Foundation, which supports clean water access in developing countries, with â¬111,111 from each of the 28 buy-ins going directly to the foundation's global projects.
In Hong Kong, Tsang has donated to Mother's Choice, the Po Leung Kuk orphanage, and the Lord Grace Home for the Aged. He credits Sheen Hok Charitable Foundation founder Alice Chiu as an inspiration, saying: "My passion for charitable work originates from Alice Chiu ... I was deeply touched by her efforts to help the needy in the society. Earlier, I visited children with amblyopia in Handan, China. The experience taught me to be grateful for all I have, and do my best to help those in need."
Tsang is based in Hong Kong and maintains ties to Vancouver, Canada. He is a father and has spoken about the role of family in shaping his values and perspective. Outside of poker, Tsang identifies primarily as an entrepreneur and investor, with a focus on investing, technology, and philanthropy.