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

Ding Biao raises to 160,000 from the cutoff and fellow big stack Mao Renji defends big to see the flop 6♦ 9♥ T♣ that gets checked to the turn A♦ with two more checks revealing the river K♠ . Mao leads 500,000, Ding jams his massive stack with the nuts Q♥ J♠ and Mao finds the call with two pair A♣ 6♣ for his remaining 2,350,000 to hand Ding Biao a massive lead over the remaining 16 players.

Ding Biao gets the ball rolling with a raise to 120,000 from under the gun and takes button Mao Renji to the flop T♠ 2♣ A♣ . Mao bets 100,000 into a missed c-bet, gets called and the turn Q♠ hits the felt. Mao's 450,000 gets check-called again and the river K♠ kills the action, having Mao table the winner with A♠ Q♥ against Ding's K♣ T♥ .

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.

Picking up the action on T♣ 3♠ A♦ with 165,000 in the pot, hijack Issac Haxton leads 40,000, big blind Mao Renji check-calls for the turn 6♦ and four more checks revealed the river 9♦ and have Mao table the winner K♠ T♥ .

Under the gun kicks off the action with a raise to 50,000 and takes two players to the flop 8♥ 3♥ T♦ that gets checked to the turn 7♣ . Cutoff Xu Qiang leads 125,000 in position, small blind Paulius Plausinaitis ups it to 350,000, the initial raiser folds and Xu calls for the board to complete J♠ . Plausinaitis puts out a 250,000 value bet with a straight J♣ 9♣ , Xu calls and throws it in the muck.

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!

Daniel Dvoress kicks off the action with a 45,000 raise from under the gun, Mao Renji ups it to 125,000 from the cutoff and Rainer Kempe flicks his remaining two blinds into the middle before Dvoress calls. The flop 9♦ 5♥ K♣ has Dvoress fold to Mao's 125,000 c-bet with K♦ Q♥ , Kempe flips over A♥ 5♦ , but cant improve on 4♣ and T♥ exiting the tournament with just a few minutes left until the end of Day 1.

Calvin Lee, who won a single day high roller here in Jeju last November, gets the ball rolling with a raise to 27,000 from the button, Main Event runner-up Mao Renji three bets his big blind to 85,000 and Lee calls for the flop 6♠ 4♣ 5♦ . Mao c-bets 95,000, Lee calls and the turn 9♦ has Mao finish the job with a jam that goes unanswered.