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

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.

This time it is Ding who has to evade his opponents outs and does so on the river 2♦ to double up once more, being back above average.

Digging for ten outs with a gutter and two overs, Ding Biao strikes gold in the form of the turn J♥ that gives him the nuts and makes the river 2♥ just a formality.

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.

With an open to 55,000 from the hijack, Paulius Plausinaitis takes big blind Xu Qiang to the flop 4♠ K♣ J♠ . A 60,000 c-bet gets called for the turn A♥ where Plausinaitis takes it down with a second barrel of 200,000.

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!

Another 30,000 open from under the gun has hijack Lee Wai Kiat three-bet to 65,000, but it is Paulius Plausinaitis who picks up the pot with a cold four-bet to 125,000 out of the big blind.

Looking at the flop 4♥ T♠ A♠ , 170,000 in the pot and a 35,000 lead from Lee Wai Kiat, Lithuanian high roller Paulius Plausinaitis check-raises to 80,000 and Lee calls. The turn 2♣ gets checked around to the river 9♥ where Plausinaitis jams before scooping the pot.