Super High Roller (14,500,000 KRW)

After three days of play, 29 levels and beating a field of 123 including some of the best poker players in the world who all paid KR₩14,500,000 (~USD 9,998) to take part in this event with a total prize pool of KR₩ 1,626,195,300 (~USD1,134,545), Martin Zamani emerged as the winner.

"I feel good and this is a good start for me. It's a small event compared to the upcoming events, so let's see how it goes."

Putting his opponents in tough spots with plenty of opening all-ins he came back from an early 6BB short stack after losing a massive preflop all-in as chip leader with Q♠ Q♦ against Mao Renji's A♠ K♠ , who was 3rd in chips at the time, when the board fell 3♥ A♥ 8♥ 7♦ 2♠ .

"I just got lucky, you know. It's just poker, you go all-in and some hands you win, some hands you lose, that's all that happened. I'm the all in guy, everyone knows it."

One of the crucial spots on his way to victory was hand #101, being back up the leader board already with a 34BB stack and Mao Renji in 2nd with 33BB, when he opened-jammed 3♠ 4♣ in the small blind and short stack Wang Yilong woke up with A♥ Q♣ calling for his last 14BB. The flop came 2♣ 3♣ K♦ K♥ 9♥ , knocking out Wang in 4th place.

"Yeah that was a good one, I'm just hoping he folds that time, but i hit the 3 and got lucky."

He went on to eliminate Aram Oganyan in 3rd with A♠ Q♠ against Oganyan's Q♣ J♠ pre, hitting an ace and then finished off WSOP bracelet winner Mao Renji after opening 4,5BB with K♠ T♥ , Mao Renji jammed 23BB with 7♣ 6♣ and Martin Zamani found the call. Both missed the board 8♥ A♥ 2♥ 2♣ A♣ making him the new Poker Dream 16 Super High Roller Champion.

Thanks to everyone for this exciting final table!

After surrendering a hand to Martin Zamani on the turn it is go time for Mao Renji in the big blind , jamming 24,000,000 into Zamani's 3,500,000 open. Zamani calls with K♥ T♥ and watches Mao Renji flip over 7♣ 6♣ . The dealer makes everyone miss on 8♥ A♥ 2♥ 2♣ A♣ , granting Martin Zamani the pot and the tournament win, leaving Mao Renji with a decent six-figure consolation prize for a great show.

Opening 2,900,000 from the small blind with Q♠ 9♦ , Aram Oganyan takes big blind Martin Zamani to the flop T♠ 9♠ 9♥ that gets checked to the turn 3♥ where Oganyan's last 600,000 go in the middle and Zamani calls with T♠ 4♠ . No flush for the underdog and Aram Oganyan banks a much needed double up.

Hot on the heels of his massive double up that catapulted him into a small lead, Mao Renji opens Q♦ 2♦ from the button for 1,800,000 and Martin Zamani defends his big with 7♣ 6♥ . The flop Q♣ 7♥ 9♦ has Mao continue for 1,500,000 and Zamani check-calls to the turn 8♣ that gets checked to complete the board K♠ where two more checks reveal Mao Renji as the winner.

After Martin Zamani picked up the blinds four times, including a walk, with Aram Oganyan defending and winning a hand on the turn in between, Zamani limps his button with T♦ 5♦, Mao Renji fills up his small blind holding 5♥ 4♦ and Aram Oganyan puts down the hammer with a 3,600,000 squeeze to pick up another pot with K♦ 4♠ .

Back with a big stack, Martin Zamani opens 2,000,000 from under the gun and takes Wang Yilong from the button and Aram Oganyan in the big blind to the flop K♦ 3♥ 2♠ . Checked to short stack Wang, 600,000 all-in is announced and both opponents pay up to see the turn A♦ that gets checked to the river 4♣ with two more checks revealing Wang as the winner with K♠ T♣ scooping up a much needed pot.

Yu Lei and Wang Yilong picked up some blinds to bolster their short stacks and Mao Renji took some from Aram Oganyan leaving us with this table dynamic:

Mao Renji opens another hand from under the gun, making it 1,200,000 with T♦ 6♦ this time. Yu Lei flicks in his last 500,000 from the button and big blind Wang Yilong tags along to the flop 3♥ 2♥ 9♥ that gets checked to the turn K♣ . Checked to Mao again, he puts out a delayed 1,200,000 c-bet, Wang calls with Q♠ 9♣ and the board completes 3♠ . Mao Renji jams, Wang goes in the tank, but decides to preserve his last 2,900,000, losing a time bank in the process. Mao picks up the side pot with ten-high, but has to surrender the main pot to Yu Lei's K♠ 5♥ .

After three betting Martin Zamani's open the hand before to take down the pot, Mao Renji opens 1,200,000 from the cutoff and faces Zamani again, who fills up his big blind to see the flop J♦ 9♠ 9♣ . A single 800,000 continuation has Mao pick up the chips once more.

After just limping his small ace from the button last orbit, Martin Zamani opts for a raise to 1,500,000 with A♥ 2♠ and Mao Renji defends big with Q♦ T♦ . The flop 5♦ 4♠ 6♣ gets rejected by both players to reveal the turn 6♦ . Having picked up a flush draw, Mao slides out a big 3,000,000 that ends the hand right there.

After a few pots were decided preflop we see Mao Renji open 1,000,000 with Q♦ J♦ from under the gun to take big blind Wang Yilong to the flop 8♦ 5♠ 9♣ where Mao puts his opponent all-in and scoops the pot.

After collecting the blinds, Martin Zamani open-limps his button with A♠ 4♣ and chip leader Mao Renji waves his option holding 5♠ 2♦ for the flop K♣ 5♣ Q♣ to hit. Zamani leads 850,000 and scoops the pot.

After a few hands of Yu Lei, Martin Zamani and Mao Renji picking up the blinds, Mao min-opens 1,000,000 once more, but faces opposition from button Aram Oganyan pumping it to 2,000,000 with A♦ J♣ . Mao decides to fold T♣ 8♦ against Aram's first play in almost two orbits.

Looking at J♦ 6♦ , Martin Zamani opts for a thin GTO open of 1,000,000 from the button which takes big blind Xue Song along for the ride holding J♠ 9♥ . The flop 8♠ 3♣ 5♦ has enough backdoor potential for Zamani to fork out another 625,000 which gets the job done.

With Martin Zamani picking up the blinds twice, but surrendering some immediately after, it is Mao Renji who min-opens A♠ K♠ from under the gun, Zamani ups it to 2,100,000 with Q♠ Q♦ and a jam and a call puts Mao at risk with 9,300,000. The dealer flips over 3♥ A♥ 8♥ 7♦ 2♠ , granting Mao Renji the biggest pot of the tournament and leaves former chip leader martin Zamani crippled with 2,400,000.

After Xue Song has grown his short stack back to 25BB and the chip leaders all bleeding some, to leave the most active player and chip leader Martin Zamani with 40BB it is everyone's game to win.

Under the gun +1 Xue Song opens 300,000 with A♣ K♣ , cutoff Yu Lei ups it to 1,400,000 holding A♥ 6♥ and Xue forks out a 2,400,000 four-bet that has Yu in the tank for one time bank but finally calls to see the flop 9♦ J♦ J♠ . Xue jams his remaining 1,800,000 which ends the hand.

Checked to the small blind Yu Lei we see a limp with A♦ 3♣ and a check from Martin Zamani holding Q♣ 9♥ . The flop K♣ K♦ 3♦ has Yu lead 300,000 which gets called for the turn 5♦ , where Yu elects to check, but calls Zamani's 300,000 bet for the board to complete 8♠ . No action there reveals Yu Lei's bottom pair as the winner.

After a few hands of the shorter stacks picking up some small pots against the leaders we see Martin Zamani open 9♦ 4♣ for 700,000 from the hijack that takes shortest stack Xue Song from the big blind to see the flop 7♠ 4♦ Q♣ . Xue Song jams 1,900,000 with his mystery hand which is enough to get Zamani off bottom pair and scoop a much needed pot.

Fresh from delivering a knock-out two hands earlier, Chris Park is at it again, opening 600,000 with K♦ Q♠ from hijack and big blind Yu Lei tags along for the river K♣ 3♥ 3♣ . A single 800,000 c-bet takes it down for Park

After winning three of the last five hands preflop, Martin Zamani fills up his button to match Yu Lei's 600,000 min open from the cutoff. The flop 8♥ 6♦ 9♥ has Zamani lead 450,000 against a missed c-bet from Yu, which gets called for the turn 9♠ . A check around completes the board A♣ , Yu Lei leads 650,000 with A♥ 8♠ , but Martin Zamani calls with A♠ J♥ to scoop the pot with the better kicker.

Yu Lei starts off with a min-raise to 500,000 and big blind Gao Sheng finally picks up a hand with 9♥ 9♦ to jam his 2,600,000 short stack. Yu calls for a flip with K♣ Q♣ and we have our first player at risk. The dealer has Gao's hopes go up by flipping over 5♦ 6♠ 4♥ 2♠ before delivering the final blow K♥ .

With the three previous hands going to Martin Zamani preflop the last of which was a three-bet against Oganyan Aram, Aram mounts another attack with a 500,000 raise under the gun. Yu Lei fills up from +3 to go to the flop 6♦ 4♣ A♥ heads-up. Checked around to the turn J♣ Aram lays out a delayed c-bet of 1,800,000 with K♦ Q♣ which gets called by Yu's A♠ J♠ for the board to complete 2♠ . Checked to him, Yu takes down the pot with a 1,800,000 bet of his own.

Surrendering to two three-bets pre this orbit, Martin Zamani fills up his big blind with K♠ Q♥ after a 500,000 open from Wang Yilong with A♦ J♣ . The flop Q♣ K♥ 9♥ has Wang continue for 675,000, but lets his gutter go when Zamani protects top two with a raise to 2,000,000.

Wang Yilong limps 9♠ Q♣ from the cutoff and big blind Xue Song opts to check with J♠ 5♥ for the flop 8♣ K♣ J♥ to hit the felt. Wang leads 300,000 which gets check-called by Xue to reveal the 4♣ turn where Wang forks out 850,000 to scoop the pot.

Under the gun +1 Mao Renji min-raises to 400,000 with A♦ K♦ and takes big blind Wang Yilong's 9♠ 7♠ to the flop 5♦ A♣ 7♣ . One 400,000 c-bet gets called by Yu for the turn 8♥ that gets checked around to the river 3♦ where a 1,100,000 bet from Mao goes unanswered.

Christopher Park kicks off todays action with a raise to 400,000 from +2 and takes big blind Yu Lei to the flop 9♠ 3♦ 2♥ where a 275,000 c-bet gets called by Yu before checking to the river 9♦ and A♥ having Yu Lei table the winner 5♠ 2♠ against Park's Q♠ J♣ .

The Final 9 resume play on level 23 (100k/200k/200k) with 12min on the clock. Shuffle up and deal!

After a total of 123 entries ponied up the KR₩14,500,000 (~USD 9,998) buy-in we got to a total prize pool of KR₩ 1,626,195,300 (~USD1,134,545) with KR₩409,200,000 (~USD285,496) up top and everyone taking a seat later will have KR₩40,700,000 (~USD28,398) guaranteed for 9th place already.

Wang Yilong was the only one breaching the eight-figures bagging 10,075,000 who came back from 2,200,000 just a few minutes before the end last night, starting with a triple up that eliminated Yong Wei Keong in 11th and then bursting the final table bubble, knocking out Xu Qiang in 10th.

Martin Zamani had been chip leader for most of the ITM play, but lost a few in the end, still bringing 9,800,000 to the table in 2nd.

The Final 9 will resume play on level 23 (100k/200k/200k) very even in chips with an average of 34BB at 1pm local on the 22nd of February.

Live updates begin at 1pm local time on February 22, 2025.