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!

The first and last hand of the heads-up starts with Li Dong min-raising 400,000, Song Ying asks for the all-in triangle and before it gets to her, Li Dong already called and flipped over Q♠ Q♥ , dominating Song Ying's K♠ 6♣ . The dealer speeds up the inevitable by flipping over 9♦ 6♥ 7♠ 9♥ A♥ , ending Song Ying's stellar run and leaving Li Dong as last man standing.

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

Song Ying and Li Dong are cementing their leads, picking up a few blinds and small pots before Ma Yi finds A♥ K♠ in the big blind to jam into Li Dong's open to win his first pot in a while.

After taking down a pot pre-flop against Li Dong with a three-bet, Song Ying picks up J♥ J♦ in the hijack and jams into Yang Haibo's 1,500,000 open from under the gun who fills up for a total of 1,700,000 with A♠ Q♥ and the spotlight is on the dealer.

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.

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♣ .

Zhao Hongjun opens 80,000 from +1 and takes three players to the flop Q♥ 2♦ 8♦ where the action gets checked to Li Dong on the button, making it 100,000. Big blind folds, Zhao calls and Song Ying check raises from the hijack to 305,000 that takes us to the turn 8♣ three-way where Li Dong takes it down with a 405,000 bet.

Huang Weiwei makes it 65,000 from the cutoff and takes two players to the flop 8♣ T♣ 3♠ where Huang lays out a 65,000 c-bet, raised to 150,000 by Song Ying on the button that shuts down the action.

Song Ying kicks us off with an open to 50,000 from the button and both blinds defend to see the flop Q♦ J♠ 7♠ that gets checked to the turn 6♠ that gets rejected again for the board to complete 7♣ . 2nd in chips Yang Haibo lays out 125,000 from the big blind, Song folds and Sean Ooi calls to throw his hand in the muck after seeing trips K♥ 7♥ from Yang.

Under the gun +1 Song Ying kicks off the action with a raise to 32,000, Sean Ooi makes it 80,000 from +2, but surrenders the pot when Song Ying four-bets to 180,000.

Under the gun +1 Yang Haibo opens 25,000 and Song Ying calls from the button to lay eyes on the flop K♥ Q♣ K♠ . Yang barrels three times for 22,000, 76,000 and 120,000 with Song calling all the way through the turn 8♣ and river 3♥ to see Yang table A♦ A♠ and throws her hand in the muck.

Defending champ Kong Qingtao and fan favorite John Juanda unfortunately had their runs cut short in 102nd and 149th place.

Cao Tingjia raises 12,000 from the cutoff and takes button Zhu Jingxuan and big blind Song Ying to the flop 6♣ 5♣ 6♥ . Cao's 16,000 c-bet gets raised to 44,000 by Zhu and everyone fills up to see the turn A♥ that gets checked around to the river 6♦ . Three more checks have Song Ying table the winner A♣ 4♣ with her opponents mucking.

Under the gun +1 Liu Yifan opens 12,000, Song Ying three-bets 35,000 from the hijack and Liu fills up to see the flop A♣ 8♥ T♠ where Song c-bets 30,000, Liu check calls and we see the flop 7♠ that gets checked around for the board to complete 4♠ . Liu Yifan pulls the trigger with a 157,000 jam holding 4♣ 5♣ , but Song Ying calls with A♦ Q♠ to win a hefty pot that catapults her to the upper ranks of the leaderboard.