Roy Thung poker fans and mixed-games regulars are mourning the loss of the 82-year-old specialist, who died in Las Vegas shortly after cashing in his final World Series of Poker event. Thung’s death was reported by PokerNews, though a cause of death has not been publicly disclosed. His passing closes the book on a nearly three-decade tournament career built almost entirely around the game’s toughest mixed formats.
A Respected Figure in Mixed Games
Within the community of players who favor rotating games like H.O.R.S.E., Seven Card Stud, and Pot-Limit Omaha over standard No-Limit Hold’em, Thung was a familiar and well-liked presence. He rarely chased the biggest fields or the flashiest events. Instead, he gravitated toward the smaller, more technical tournaments that reward decades of card sense, a style that earned him quiet respect among peers who value substance over spectacle.
Roy Thung Poker Journey Began at 1997 WSOP
Thung’s competitive poker record traces back to the 1997 WSOP, where he made a deep run in a Pot-Limit Omaha event and finished fifth for 21,150 dollars. That result, achieved during an era when the WSOP still fit inside a single Las Vegas casino, marked the start of a tournament resume that would stretch across three decades. Anyone curious about the structure of the modern series, and how it grew from those smaller fields into today’s sprawling summer schedule, can find background in Poker Pro Academy’s WSOP Guide.
According to The Hendon Mob database, Thung’s lifetime tournament earnings reached approximately 900,000 dollars. That figure was compiled almost entirely from selective appearances rather than a grinder’s full schedule, a reflection of a player who treated poker as a serious sideline rather than a full-time pursuit.
Two Cashes in His Final Weeks
Thung’s final months at the table were productive ones. In the summer of 2026 he finished 13th in the 50,000 dollar Poker Players Championship, one of the most prestigious mixed-games events on the calendar, for a payout of 109,459 dollars. The tournament’s six-figure buy-in places it among the most expensive events the WSOP offers each year, drawing a small, highly skilled field of specialists rather than a mass audience. A 13th place finish against that caliber of competition stood as one of the stronger results of his later career.
Not long afterward, Thung cashed again, placing 72nd in a 5,000 dollar six-handed No-Limit Hold’em event for 12,390 dollars. That result came less than two weeks before his death, meaning he was still competing at a high level and still collecting cashes right up to the final stretch of his life.
From Indonesia to American Business Success
Poker was only one chapter of Thung’s story. Born in Indonesia, he immigrated to the United States in 1969 and went on to build a substantial career in business, far removed from the poker felt. He served for many years as CEO of Independence Holding Company, an insurance business, steering it through decades of change in that industry.
He also founded and built other ventures, including Nasco International, a company that generated more than 200 million dollars in revenue over 35 years of operation. That business record suggests a career defined by patience and long-term thinking, qualities that likely served him just as well at a mixed-games table as they did in a boardroom.
What His Passing Means for the Mixed-Games Community
Mixed-games poker tends to attract a smaller, tighter-knit group of players than mainstream No-Limit Hold’em, many of whom have known each other for years through repeated appearances at the same handful of events. Thung’s death is being felt strongly within that circle, where his steady presence at tables like the Poker Players Championship had become a familiar sight each summer.
Players newer to the discipline who want to understand why games like Stud and Omaha demand such different skills than Hold’em should start with the basics in Poker Pro Academy’s guide on how to play poker. From there they can work up to the rotating formats that defined Thung’s career.
A Career That Closed on His Own Terms
What stands out most about Thung’s final months is that he was still competing, and still cashing, almost until the end. A 13th place finish in one of poker’s most demanding mixed events, followed by another cash less than two weeks before his passing, is not the record of someone fading from the game. It is the record of a player who kept showing up.
Thung leaves behind a tournament legacy built on selective, well-chosen appearances rather than sheer volume, a business career spanning insurance and beyond, and a personal story that began with immigration from Indonesia and ended in the game he clearly loved. The mixed-games community, and the wider poker world that PokerNews covers daily, will remember him as a steady hand at tables that reward exactly that.
