A Chinese Real Estate Mogul, Poker Games, & Powerful Connections
Most poker players have never heard of Hui Ka Yan, but if we had seen his games, they’d make the largest Hustler Casino Live games look tiny.
But we’d never be able to watch. Hui’s games probably had bodyguards at the door, in lavish hotel rooms, with millions of dollars changing hands, and not a camera in sight.
Hui Ka Yan: The Backstory
Hui Ka Yan (许家印) has a real rags-to-riches story. He was born in 1958 in one of the poorest and most highly populated places in China, called Henan.
He was born in a small farming village inside Gaoxian Township, and his family had practically nothing.
Before his first birthday, he’d lost his mother to sepsis. His father, a World War II veteran who had fought the Japanese, supported the family through manual labor. Hui followed suit before higher education, then started a small business selling calcium hydroxide.
After graduating from university, he worked at a steel mill until quitting in 1992 and founding Evergrande.
Forbes says that in 2017, Hui Ka Yan was the richest man in all of Asia, with a net worth of $45.3 billion.
The "Big Two Club" Poker Game
It’s said that Hui joined the "Big Two Club" sometime in 2008, probably through high-level connections. The private game was already well established, and he was the newcomer. Its members were some of the richest men in Hong Kong and China.
The card game played is called “Big Two," where players race to get rid of all their cards. The 2 is the highest-ranked card.
This style of climbing/shedding game is quite popular in Asia, but not as much in the West.
It's almost impossible to find Big Two for real money online, and it's a much slower game than Texas Hold'em or Omaha. One round could take several minutes. Compared to online fast-fold poker, a hand of Big Two takes a century.
If you want fast-paced soft action, we know exactly where you should be. Hop into sites like CoinPoker, Stake Poker, or Phenom Poker. You can collect bonuses to supersize your first deposit, and even varying amounts of rakeback from your games.
Deliberately Losing Millions & Buying Friends
Imagine if Alan Keating showed up to Hustler Casino and lost millions on a regular basis. That’s a bit like what Hui Ka Yan was doing in his private games. He had a very good reason.
Hui lost up to HK$20 million per game (about USD $2.5 million). But these weren’t normal losses. This was all an investment.
The players at this table were extremely powerful and, more importantly, extremely wealthy. Their influence extended far beyond the card game, into the business world where Hui’s ambitions lay.
And so, he lost large amounts, probably becoming more and more liked with every dollar that changed hands. It must have had a two-fold effect. How much more would you invest in a friend’s growing real estate company if he’d already lost many millions to you?
We aren't sure if Hui played online, but if he did, it probably would have been on CoinPoker or Phenom at the highest stakes available.
The Back and Forth Payoffs
Hui’s plan paid off, and he secured funding from several members of the Big Two card game. This funding went back and forth, and over time, Hui's Evergrande became intertwined with his friends' enterprises.
Eventually, there was an Evergrande water company, four soccer teams under its ownership, thousands of ongoing property projects, and even over a dozen theme parks.
The scale became mind-boggling, and it all came about because of the support of Hui's fellow poker players.
Here are just a few connections:
- Evergrande’s 2009 IPO: Getting listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange raised nearly a billion dollars for the brand. Two players also invested $50 million each in the IPO. As a show of thanks, Hui gave hundreds of millions in Evergrande shares to his poker friends.
- 2015 Land Deals: Hui also extended a helping hand when his friends needed it, paying $10 billion for swathes of land owned by other players.
- The Chinese Estates Connection: Of all the billions that flowed between Hui and his poker partners, the most came from Chinese Estates. Its founder was one of Hui’s closest friends, and towards the end, 41% of Chinese Estates' assets were tied up in Evergrande.
It would be difficult to tally up all of the back-and-forth investments between the players, almost impossible. We’ll never know how many backdoor deals were made and how much cash changed hands.
A rough estimate finds the players committed somewhere between $2.5 billion and $4 billion to Hui and Evergrande over the years.
But it was Hui who appears to have enriched his friends much more handsomely.
It’s estimated that Hui flowed anywhere from $8 billion to $10 billion to the club’s players and their companies over the years.
Meet the Players of The Big Two Club
It’s tough to imagine a more powerful group of players to sit down with.
Sure, we’ve seen DoorDash founder Stanley Tang play poker, but the Big Two game would have several equally wealthy people there at the same time.
Cheng Yu-tung: The Club's Founder
Cheng built one of Hong Kong's greatest fortunes through Chow Tai Fook jewelry and New World Development property.
His help was crucial to Evergrande's rise. He died in 2016.
Henry Cheng: Son of the Founder
The chairman of New World Development, his father’s company, and the wealthiest active club member with a fortune of $23.5 billion.
He inherited his seat at the poker table and kept up his father’s entangled relationship with Evergrande.
Joseph Lau: Hui’s Closest Friend
This player was an ally of Hui and the controlling shareholder of Chinese Estates Holdings, the company most involved with Evergrande.
Their weekly card games solidified a 12-year financial partnership that never seemed to slow down.
Lau became a convicted fugitive from a Macau bribery case in 2014, but he never served his sentence, and lives freely in Hong Kong.
Cheung Chung Kiu: Fellow Real Estate Tycoon
Began his career buying electronics for resale, then got into real estate.
He invested extensively in Evergrande's offshore bonds and held shares in companies with Hui.
Today, his company owns billions in UK real estate.
Albert Yeung: Member of Inner Circle
Albert created the Emperor Group, spanning entertainment, jewelry, and property from one operation.
His connection with Hui and Evergrande was less extensively documented in public filings than other players.
Raymond Or: Member of Inner Circle
Chairman of Hong Kong-listed China Strategic Holdings, Raymond was confirmed as a member of the inner poker circle.
But apparently, his financial ties to Evergrande were not very extensive.
The End of the Game, & the End of Evergrande
Avid YouTube watchers might already know this story.
Evergrande expanded too quickly, almost in a Ponzi scheme style. They relied on selling apartments before they were built, but when they couldn’t secure funding to complete the projects, the company was completely crippled. Its debt grew so that it could acquire land and projects, but the influx of profit was too slow.
In poker terms, they were playing in games way above their bankroll size, with a high risk of ruin.
ColdFusion has an amazing video that clearly sums up Evergrande's issues and its fall into bankruptcy, all within 21 minutes.
This failure directly affected many of The Big Two Games’ players. Many of them started offloading Evergrande shares, most notably Joseph Lau’s family, who had the biggest exposure.
Hui Ka Yan was arrested as Chinese law enforcement took “mandatory measures in accordance with the law due to suspicion of illegal crimes.” The regulators said Evergrande inflated its profit in 2019 and 2020 by almost $80 billion, more than just an accounting error.
A fine of about $6.45 million was issued to Hui personally. He recently pleaded guilty to several charges, including embezzlement of corporate assets and corporate bribery. But as we write these words, he’s not in jail yet.
This is a man who once had a $42 billion net worth. One of the richest men in Asia, now disgraced and facing a potential jail sentence that might last until death.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of Hui Ka Yan and The Big Two Game.
