Another Poker King Cup National side event trophy was awarded to a Korean with the Head Hunter event claimed by John Kim. Impressively, Kim battled from a crippled stack of four big blinds to rightfully earn the first place purse of PHP89,500 ($1938)
There were a total of 47 entries for the Head Hunter event with a buy-in of P7,700 ($166) each. The total prize pool amounted to PHP319,000 ($6908) with the bounty of PHP1,500 per head included in the pot.
The Koreans clearly dominated the late stages of the Head Hunter event. On the bubble stage, Alan Honyin eliminated Filipino player Armand Bermundo while fellow countryman Byungil Park booted Peter Tan, the last Filipino left at the table, in 5th place. With an all-Korean final four, the battle for each scalp was fierce. As they say, there are no friends at the poker table. First among them on the chopping block was Honyin whose ace-four off-suit was not good enough against Dong Kyun Nam’s ace-king suited. Despite his bust in 4th place, Honyin claimed an additional wad for his six bounties.
At three-handed, the chips swung around the table with Park, Nam, and Kim each claiming the chip lead. Unfortunately for Nam, his quest for the title ended at the hands of Park when his jack-ten top pair was defeated by Park’s ace-ten backdoor straight. The heads up match between Park and Kim went quick with Park’s open-ended straight draw failing to improve against Kim’s mid-pair. Kim collected two bounties throughout the day and a third for keeping his head intact.
Head Hunter Payouts
1st – John Kim – Korea – PhP89,500
2nd – Byungil Park – Korea – PhP62,100
3rd – Dong Kyun Nam – Korea – PhP39,800
4th – Alan Honyin – Korea – PhP32,300
5th – Peter Tan – Philippines – PhP24,900