$20,000 NLH SuperStar Challenge (30,000,000 KRW)

After two days, 26 levels and outlasting all of his opponents in this 81 entry star studded field that reached a total prize pool of KRW2,262,330,000 (~$1,585,263), Christopher Park wins his first career trophy against some of the best players in the world and more than doubles his current live earnings.

"Well it was my first time ever winning a big tournament, so it feels pretty great and I'd like to win some more."

The final table alone included several WSOP bracelet and ring winners and had combined live earnings of over $135M. Park emerged as commanding chip leader entering the final 9 after winning a massive pot against then chip leader Ding Biao with A♣ A♥ against Q♥ 9♥ and knocking out Joseph Cheong - also a bracelet and three-time ring winner - on the final table bubble with 8♠ 8♦ against A♥ Q♥ . Asked about adjusting his game going into the final table he said:

"Honestly this the first time that I've gone deep in this kind of tournament so I was definitely confused in certain scenarios, I really don't know what I'm going to do."

With a big stack, a bright smile and love for the game he started getting to work by knocking out Tony Lin - current GPI leader - in 9th place, Yeu Wei Hsiang, that had just finished 3rd in the $15,000 Superstar Challenge three days earlier, in 8th, Stephen Chidwick - two time bracelet winner and #3 on the all time money list - with a gutsy call from the big blind with A♥ 4♠ when Chidwick was trying to steal the blinds with 7♥ 5♥ for 17BB in 7th.

Michael Jozoff - a young gun with two rings to his name finished 4th and Ding Biao - #3 on China's all time money list and 4th place finisher of the $15,000 Superstar Challenge three days earlier - where he made another gutsy call with A♠ 8♥ against Ding's 8♠ 8♦ , binking an ace on the flop.

"I was watching the stream during break time and I saw that he was raising me a lot with trash hands so I knew he didn't have a really good hand. I wasn't sure whether he had a hand worse than mine or a little better, he definitely tricked me but in the end I got lucky."

Further talking about Ding when asked who he felt his toughest opponents were:

"They were all tough, they are really really good players, but it was Ding Biao that stood out because he's so tough. He was really aggressive, he got it in with the best hand against me but i got lucky."

That leaves us with the heads-up against young Malaysian poker phenom Sean Ooi who is only on the scene for about two years and has already racked up a bunch of big results adding up to now over $1.6M in live earnings. It was a very lopsided 3 to 1 in favor of Christopher Park, going back and forth for a while until a flip with 9♠ 9♦ against Sean Ooi's A♥ J♦ made Park the champion.

Well done everyone! It was a feast for every poker fan and a very worthy conclusion to the Poker Dream 16 Festival here at the Jeju Shinhwa World in South Korea.

The flop comes K♥ 8♦ Q♣ , giving Ooi four more outs, the turn 8♠ is none of them and the river 7♦ seals the deal, granting Ooi his 2nd biggest win of his still short career.

After a few hands with nothing changing in the counts it is Sean Ooi again who opens 1,200,000 with 5♣ 4♥ and Chris Park defends with 8♠ 7♣ for a flop 6♥ 3♦ 9♣ where Ooi's 2,200,000 c-bet gets called. The turn 9♥ gets checked to the river 3♣ and we see Chris Park bluff 4,500,000 with the best hand, making Ooi fold.

Sean Ooi opens 1,000,000 with 5♠ 4♥ and Chris Park defends J♠ 7♥ to see the flop 5♦ K♣ 6♣ that gets checked to the turn 9♣ where Park tests the waters with a 1,200,000 bet that gets called by Ooi for the river 2♥ . Park fires another 1,700,000 with jack-high before Sean Ooi puts his cape on for the hero call, taking down a nice pot.

After starting the heads up with 6,400,000 in chips, Sean Ooi clawed his way back to over 10M in the last 4 hands without seeing a flop. This time around he opens 1,000,000 and Chris Park defends to see the flop 3♥ 6♦ 6♠ where Ooi's 600,000 c-bet gets answered for the turn Q♥ to be revealed and no more action takes us to the river 2♠ with Park's K♦ 9♣ coming out on top of Ooi's T♦ 9♥ .

With the A♣ in the window it is looking grim for Ding, being left with one out. The rest of the board runs J♦ 7♣ 3♠ J♥ and the #3 on China's all time money list is out in 3rd. Another great result after finishing 4th in the $15,000 Superstar Challenge on the weekend.

Chris Park kicks off the action with a button limp and calls Ding Biao's 1,800,000 raise from the big blind. The flop 6♦ 5♥ J♣ gets checked to the turn 5♦ that gets checked again to the river 4♥ . Ding has had enough of the checking, forks out 3,200,000 with top pair J♦ 8♦ and Chris Parks wants to see it and calls with king-high K♥ Q♦ , handing the lead back to Ding.

After banking a small pot against Ding Biao the hand before, Chris Park defends his big blind with J♠ 6♥ against Sean Ooi's 800,000 open from the button. The flop Q♦ J♣ 7♥ fails to connect with Sean Ooi's A♠ 9♣ but he continues for 575,000 and Park calls. The turn 7♠ gets checked to the river 3♣ and Park's 750,000 bet takes it down.

Eight hands with no flop and four walks have Sean Ooi chip up the most.

After Ding Biao picked up the blinds we see Chris Park open-limp his small blind with 9♦ 8♦ and Sean Ooi elects to check with J♦ 6♣ to see the flop 7♦ 2♦ 8♥ . Park's 500,000 get called for the turn 2♥ to be revealed where Park switches to a check. Ooi forks out 1,400,000 and a call from Park completes the board 8♠ . Having made a boat, Chris Park opts to lead for 2,800,000, Sean Ooi raises to 6,500,000 and Park just calls.

Chris Park makes it 800,000 from the button and Ding Biao defends big. The flop A♠ T♣ K♦ gets checked to the turn 5♣ and Park's 800,000 delayed c-bet gets the job done.

Shortest stack Ding Biao opens 800,000 from the button and takes his opponents to the flop 6♦ Q♥ 9♦ where his 1,500,000 continuation doesn't find any customers.

The action folds to Michael Jozoff in the small blind, jamming 5,000,000 with T♥ 9♣ and Chris Park calls with Q♣ J♥ . Nobody improves on 5♠ 8♦ 8♠ 2♠ 6♥ , leaving the WSOP Ring holder in the dust.

Ding Biao kicks of the action with a 600,000 open from under the gun and takes both blinds to the flop Q♠ A♥ Q♥ where he c-bets 400,000. Chris Park folds the small blind but Sean Ooi sticks around for the turn 4♠ that gets rejected and the board completes J♥ . Ooi lays out a 1,500,000 value bet with Q♥ J♠ and after handing a time bank to the dealer, Ding hero calls with K♣ 9♣ before finding out he is behind.

Raising to 550,000 from the button with A♦ J♦ , Chris Park takes big blind Daniel Dvoress to the flop A♠ 7♦ 4♣ where a 350,000 c-bet gets called, the turn J♣ sees a 550,000 second barrel being called and the river 3♠ has Christopher Park fire a third barrel, putting Dvoress all-in, but he doesn't take the bait and folds.

The dealer keeps it interesting until the end on A♠ 6♥ 4♦ 5♠ Q♠ , but eliminates the #3 on the all time money list and allows the rest of the field to catch up by a little bit.

The board runs 5♠ A♠ A♥ T♥ 6♣ and Yeu Wei Hsiang is out early in his 2nd Superstar Challenge final table, after finishing 3rd in the $15,000 SSC on the weekend.

After picking up the blinds, Christopher Park defends his big blind against Sean Ooi's 400,000 open from under the gun. The flop 3♦ 9♥ 7♣ gets checked around for the turn 8♥ where Park leads 200,000 and picks up the pot.

The turn 8♦ and river 4♠ has Park extend his lead and leave Tony Lin, who just missed out on a bracelet in December, in the dust.

With 4 WSOP Bracelets, 2 WSOP Rings and more than $135M in live earnings between them, this final table will be a treat for every poker fan. All of them will be gunning for the $431,905 top prize. Flop well everyone!

Another beautiful sight for Cheong is the flop Q♠ 7♥ 7♦ , jumping ahead of Park, the turn T♣ leaves Christopher Park with less than 5%, but binks the river 8♣ for a boat, denying Joseph Cheong a second Superstar Challenge final table appearance in just three days.

The remaining 10 players have four familiar faces from the $15,000 Superstar Challange final table among them. Still in the hunt for a second appearance are Joseph Cheong, Yeu Wei Hsiang, Yu Lei and chip leader Ding Biao.

Christopher Park min-opens 300,000 from under the gun, Ding Biao pumps it to 900,000 from the big blind and Park fills up to see the flop 3♠ 5♠ Qj where Dings 500,000 c-bet gets called and the turn K♦ hits the felt. Ding fires a second barrel of 1,000,000 that gets the job done, taking most of his chips back from Park.

When the action folds to Ding Biao in the small blind he fills up and Christopher Park opts to check and sees the flop 8♣ A♥ 7♠ that gets checked to the turn 4♦ . Checked to Park again he lays out 300,000, Ding check-calls and the board completes 8♦ . Another 1,500,000 bet from Park sends Ding in the tank before he folds, handing 2 time banks to the dealer. That's the 3rd time Park picked up a small pot against Ding in just a few hands.

Stephen Chidwick kicks off the action with a raise to 275,000 and Christopher Park defends big to see the flop 4♠ 5♥ 7♥ that gets checked to the turn 7♦ . Chidwick tests the waters with a 175,000 delayed c-bet that gets called, before forking out a large 800,000 bet on the river A♣ . Park check-calls again with A♠ 3♥ top pair winning against Chidwick's queen-high Q♥ J♦ .

Opening 120,000 from the button, Yu Lei takes big blind Christopher Park to the flop A♣ 2♥ Q♥ where Yu c-bets 65,000. Parks's 220,000 check-raise gets called for the turn J♥ where Park leads with 275,000. Yu calls and goes deep in the tank when the river 6♣ has Park lead again for a massive 900,000. Consuming two time banks, Yu Lei finds the call with a straight K♦ T♥ against Park's 5♣ 4♣ bluff.

With late registration concluded and a total of 81 entries, the $20,000 Superstar Challenge prize pool ballooned to a whopping KRW2,262,330,000 (~$1,585,263) and KRW622,100,000 (~$435,932) for first. We have 28 player still in the hunt with ITM starting at 11th place.

The Poker Dream 16 $20,000 Superstar Challenge Day 1 came to a close with 30 out of 59 players remaining after 11 levels of 40min each. The total entries will certainly increase with late registration still open throughout the first 40 minutes of play tomorrow until 13:40, giving the late entries still 20BB to work with in the hunt for a slice of the already over $1,100,000 prize pool.

Canadian 2-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Dvoress bagged the biggest stack with 2,550,000, after a massive all-in against Rainer Kempe just a few hands before the end of the day. Dvoress opened 2.5BB with A♠ Q♣ from UTG+1, big blind Rainer Kempe made it 10,7BB with K♣ K♠ and Dvoress called to hit the nuts on J♦ K♦ T♥ where Kempe led 7,5BB and snapped Dvoress' 58BB jam and couldn't improve on 6♣ and 2♥ .

2nd in chips is young Malaysian poker phenom Sean Ooi with 2,280,000 who continuously picked up small to mid-sized pots, growing his stack from start to finish.

Mao Renji from China, also a bracelet winner and runner-up of the Super High Roller last night, had a steady day as well, closing the gap to the chip leader last minute in a three-way pot, knocking out Rainer Kempe and winning a small side pot against Dvoress that left him with 1,880,000.

Poker Legends like Stephen Chidwick and Isaac Haxton - who are 3rd and 9th on the all time money list with live earnings of more than $50M each - are also still in the running, most likely getting company from some more all time greats during the last level of late registration tomorrow.

The Final Day will start at 13:00 on February 24 with 40 minutes of late registration and finishes when a new champion is crowned. Live updates will be there from beginning to the end!

Chris Park kicks off the action with a min-raise to 30,000, taking Martin Nielsen to the flop 8♣ 7♥ A♠ that gets checked to the turn 6♠ . Another check from Park has Nielsen slide 75,000 over the line before Park check-raises to 160,000 and another call completes the board 5♣ . Park leads for 40,000, making it look like a blocker, Martin Nielsen falls for it, puts his opponent all-in for 265,000 with J♠ 8♠ which gets snapped by Park's nuts T♠ 9♣ .

Another under the gun raise to 24,000 gets called by Stephen Chidwick in the cutoff, Miao Chenxiang wagers his last 49,000 from the button and small blind Chris Park ups the fee to 75,000 with A♦ A♠ . Only Chidwick fills up to see the flop 9♦ A♣ 3♣ where Park continues for 26,000, gets called and the turn falls 4♥ . Another 20,000 barrel gets called again before the board completes K♦ . Park sets a trap by switching to a check, Chidwick puts him all-in for 133,000, thinking his A♥ Q♥ is good, but has to surrender the pot to the top set. Miao's 2♠ 2♣ didn't survive either.