The WPT Korea has been has been filled with action at Paradise City Incheon, but all events have now wrapped up. The Main Event saw Valeriy Pak take victory, carrying home the KRW63,620,000 (US $57,058) 1st prize, but he is far from being the biggest winner. A total of 4 High Roller events took place during the festival, with 3 of them unscheduled.
As reported previously, the first High Roller, a KRW15.5M buy-in (approx. $14,000) was won on Friday by Ivan Leow. But, the action didn’t stop after that.
Super High Roller 2
The next big event had the same buy-in of KRW 15.5M (US$14,000). Ivan Leow was once again on a very hot streak, building a massive chip lead as the tournament went on. He had the tournament almost won during heads-up as well but lost a crucial pot with A9 vs Simon Burns A8, all-in preflop. Leow had his opponent covered in the chip counts, but Burns was fortunate enough to come from behind in the hand, and subsequently the match to win the event.
Here are the payouts:
1st – Simon Burns – KRW174,783,000 (US$156,336)
2nd – Ivan Leow – KRW106,575,000 (US$95,327)
3rd – Sam Panzica – KRW63,945,000 (US$57,196)
4th – Danny Tang – KRW46,893,000 (US$41,943)
5th – Chin Wei Lim – KRW34,104,000 (US$30,505)
High Roller
The first High Roller was the only event with this buy-in that was scheduled. 89 players paid KRW4,000,000 (US$3,578) to enter, creating a prize pool of KRW317,694,400 (US$284,165).
Team China, who were crowned champions of the Global Teams Event a few days ago, again demonstrated their talent as two team members made the final table. Yang Zang took 9th place, but his captain Dong Guo came even closer to victory. He arrived at heads up play with the chip-lead but ended up being defeated by Daniel Lee. Simon Burns pocketed a second big score of this festival with a 4th place finish worth KRW31,769,000 (US$28,416).
Here are the payouts:
1st Daniel Lee – KRW96,897,000 (US$86,670)
2nd Dong Guo – KRW63,539,000 (US$56,833)
3rd Oerjan Skommo – KRW41,300,000 (US$36,941)
4th Simon Burns – KRW31,769,000 (US$28,416)
5th Kazuki Ikeuchi – KRW22,239,000 (US$19,892)
6th Takumi Samejima – KRW19,062,000 (US$17,050)
7th Geoffrey You: KRW 15,885,000 (US$14,208)
8th Shiga Mitsuhiro – KRW14,296,000 (US$12,787)
9th Yang Zhang – KRW12,707,400 (US$11,366)
High Roller 2
The final unscheduled High Roller event took off in the last few hours of the festival due to high demand from players. The format was set to turbo and the buy-in set at KRW10,000,000.
Pete Chen and Thomas Ward took part in the event but without making it to the money. Danny Tang managed to take 3rd place, which was his third cash in these High Roller events, making this trip very profitable for him. Michael Soyza could have collected an additional trophy to add to his impressive 2018 collection, but Shigia Mitsuhiro got the best of him heads-up.
The final payouts are as follows:
1st Shiga Mitsuhiro – KRW58,800,000 (US$52,594)
2nd Michael Soyza – KRW35,280,000 (US$31,556)
3rd Danny Tang – KRW23,520,000 (US$21,038)
The WPT Korea closes with style
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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