Main Event (1,600,000 KRW)

After four days, 31 levels, conquering a field of 1,394 players and absolutely dominating the final table, Li Dong emerges as the new Poker Dream 16 Main Event Champion here at the Jeju Shinhwa World in South Korea. The event surpassed the guarantee hitting a total prize pool of a whopping KR₩ 2,580,588,000 (~USD 1,790,086) after 11 opening flights.

"I’m happy, but not that happy, to be honest, because it reminds me of the WPT Main Event at the Jeju Poker Festival in November last year. I made a mistake on the final table and finished in third place in that event. If it weren’t for that mistake, my first main event trophy would have come to me sooner."

Getting the chip lead late on Day 2 he never looked back, retaining the top spot throughout the rest of the tournament and single handedly knocked out six out of his eight opponents on the final table. An absolute masterclass!

"Generally speaking, as the chip leader, I had prepared myself with a strategy of acting according to the circumstances. If the opponent presented a strong hand, I would consider giving up the pot, because my deep stack allowed me to do so, but if the opponent showed weakness, I would try to take advantage of that."

One of the pivotal moments that took him to victory was hand #79 with five players left, when he opened 2BB from the button with T♠ 6♦ and big blind Jason Zhang - 2nd in chips with 35BB at the time - called for a flop T♥ 7♥ K♥ where Li continued for 1.9BB, Zhang check-called, the turn came 4♦ and Zhang switched to a lead for 2.5BB. Li raised to 11.2BB, got called by Zhang who then jammed for almost 20BB on the river 3♠ . After using three time banks Li called, eliminating Zhang who had A♥ 8♦ that left him with 138BB while 2nd and 3rd in chips had 28BB.

"Before the final day, I played against Jason and found that he often led without strong made hands in his range. Instead, facing aggressive players like me, he was highly likely to check-raise if he had strong made hands in his range. So, when he led, I would think he only had draws or weak made hands. Back to this hand, I knew he didn’t hit a flush on the flop. So, when he jammed in the river, it was a “flush or bluff” situation in his hand. I admit I was feeling a lot of pressure because if that all-in was not a bluff and I called, I would loose a large amount of chips and Jason would become the chip leader. That’s why I used up all my three time bank cards and made the decision to call in the last second. That hand was very difficult to me and definitely one of the key moments in my tournament life."

Shortly after that he knocked out 2nd in chips Ma Yi and 4th Lin Zhaoyi, who both had ace-king, hitting a straight with jack-ten and ended the tournament the very next hand with Q♠ Q♥ against Song Ying's K♠ 6♣ .

Well done to everyone and congratulations to the very worthy winner!

Opening 400,000 from the button with 9♠ 8♥ , Lin Zhaoyi takes big blind Ma Yi to the flop 5♠ T♠ 6♣ . Two barrels of 300,000 and 750,000 get check-called by Ma to complete the board J♦ and 2♦ . After consuming a time bank, Lin Zhaoyi fires another 1,000,000 with nine-high and Ma Yi folds his missed flush-draw K♠ 3♠ .

With two successful three-bets preflop each, Lin Zhaoyi and Li Dong are the biggest winners of the last few hands.

After Li Dong and Song Ying picked up some more blinds, the Top 5 chip counts are:

Zhao Hongjun gets the ball rolling with a 240,000 raise from the hijack holding K♦ Q♣ , button Li Dong three-bets 650,000 with Q♥ 7♠ , but Lin Zhaoyi scoops the pot after cold four-betting 1,600,000 with J♦ J♣ from the big blind.

After picking up the blinds, Li Dong looks at 9♠ 9♦ and raises to 250,000 to take big blind Lin Zhaoyi to the flop 7♦ 3♠ K♥ where a 150,000 c-bet and a call is all the action we see until the board completes A♥ and 6♥ with Li Dong's nines taking it down.

Poker Dream 16 Main Event is headed into Day 4 at the Jeju Shinhwa World in South Korea. The event surpassed the guarantee hitting a total prize pool of KR₩ 2,580,588,000 (~USD 1,790,086) after 11 opening flights and 1,394 combined entries. A total of 151 players started Day 2, and on Day 3 they played down from 27 to the Final 9 who will gather later at 1pm local on February 21 to crown the winner.

Everyone still in the running are from China ensuring a back-to-back PD Jeju champion from the mainland. They are all guaranteed KRW 27,970,000 ($19,420) in the bank and will have their sights set on the top prize of KRW 376,000,000 ($261,045) and bragging rights.

Li Dong will start the day first in chips with a towering 12,790,000 (160BB), more than 38% of all chips in play! Zhao Hongjun will start second in chips though very far behind the leader with 4,430,000 (55BB), and ranked third is Lin Zhaoyi with 3,900,000 (49BB).

The Final 9 will resume play on level 27 (40,000/80,000/80,000) and the live updates will cover the entire action.

After a rather short day with less than six hours of play we reached the Final 9, down from 27 players who started the day. Li Dong put on another masterclass of aggressive table control with the largest stack throughout the day, bagging 12,790,000 (160BB), more than 38% of all chips in play.

Zhao Hongjun will start the final table 2nd in chips, banking 4,430,000 (55BB) largely due to a hero call where he opened 2.2BB from the button with 7♦ 7♥ , called a 15BB three-bet from Bai Junpeng in the big blind, who had around double his stack, the flop fell 8♥ 2♠ Q♥ where Bai put him all-in for 13BB with A♦ J♦ and his sevens held. He will have his work cut out for him with the chip leader just two seats behind him.

Finishing the day in 3rd with 3,900,000 (49BB), Lin Zhaoyi was chip leader on the second table and played a solid game, before having his aces cracked by jacks pre, just to reclaim most of them a few hands after with aces against kings, knocking out Ya Na in 14th place.

The Final 9 will resume play on level 27 (40,000/80,000/80,000) on February 21 at 1pm local with the live updates covering the entire action.

Final Table Draw:

With 11 players left and the ICM pressure increasing, Li Dong and Lin Zhaoyi are still in the best positions to bully their opponents.

Under the gun +1 kicks us off with a raise to 100,000, Lin Zhaoyi makes it 225,000 from the hijack and Song Ying cold four-bet-jams her 795,000 stack with J♠ J♣ from the button. The initial raiser throws it away before Lin Zhaoyi snaps with A♠ A♥ . Song Ying has a big smile on her face when the window card is the J♥ and the board completes 6♥ 4♥ 5♠ Q♣ to cause a rapid unscheduled disassembly of Lin's rockets.

Looking at J♥ 8♥ in +1, Zhang Yang decides its go-time and declares all-in for 325,000 that quickly gets called by table leader Lin Zhaoyi with A♠ J♦ to dominate. The dealer keeps it interesting till the end on 5♥ 4♠ 6♠ 3♠ K♠ but ultimately sends Zhang Yang to the rail.

Li Dong and Lin Zhaoyi in a great position to dominate their tables playing down to the Final 9.

Bai Yunpeng was just catapulted into 2nd place after winning a massive pot against a disgusted Ma Yi with 2♥ 4♠ on 7♣ 8♣ 4♥ 2♠ 4♣ .

Lin Zhaoyi kicks off the action with a raise to 60,000 from the hijack, cutoff Li Dong ups it to 160,000 and Lin calls to see the flop 9♠ Q♥ 2♦ . A 75,000 c-bet from Li forces Lin to check-fold.

Wang Yang opens the button for 25,000, Lin Zhaoyi pumps it to 100,000 from the big blind, but lets it go after Wang declares all-in for 366,000.