Baby Dragon (1,500,000 KRW)

The first of three flights for the Red Dragon Poker Tour 2025 Baby Dragon attracted a total of 117 players with 18 left standing that all have a min cash secured when Day 2 begins at 12:00 on Saturday the 3rd of May.

Hui Tang - his biggest live cash to date comes from finishing 2nd at the APT Jeju 2024 Sunday Superstack for $25,103 here at the Landing Casino about a year ago - came out on top, bagging 587,000, almost 17% of all chips in play. He first took the lead in level 15 and ended the day by knocking out Lei Li on the bubble, jamming A♥ 7♥ from the button and Li calling his 27BB stack with K♥ K♦ to get out flopped on A♣ 2♥ 5♣ 2♠ 8♣ .

Yiming Kuang finished the day in 2nd with 405,000. He came out of the gates storming with his name among the top spots on the leaderboard since level 5, even surpassing Hui Tang in the late stages before he got his last minute boost.

Zhongxian Li - another player banking his biggest cash here at the Landing Casino last year by finishing runner-up in the WPT Korea Dragon Quest for $35,629 - had a rocky start to his day, being down to 4BBs during level 11 before running it back up with several double ups and then knocking out Wenhao Ying with 7♠ 7♣ against K♦ K♣ by hitting a seven on the turn. He will start Day 2 with 357,000 in chips.

Tomorrow will have the remaining two flights available at 12:00 local with the same structure as today and at 18:00 as a turbo with 20 minute levels.

The SMP team will be back on site and behind the screens tomorrow to give you updates from start to finish.

Qingtian Qian opens 12,000 from +1, Yuyang Liu ups it to 30,000 from the button, but elects to fold, after Qian jams to put him all-in.

Under the gun Yuyang Liu limps and fills up after button Lei Yu made it 6,500. The flop 5♠ 3♣ K♥ has Yu follow up with a 4,500 lead which gets countered by a check-raise to 24,000 and Yu pays up to see the turn 3♦ . Keeping the pressure on, Liu bets another 35,000, Yu calls and the board completes 8♠ . Slowing down to a check, Liu folds after watching Yu put 42,000 in the middle.

The river 6♣ changes nothing, handing Liu the pot and a huge chip lead.

Under the gun Yuyang Liu makes it 2,000 and takes a family of four to the flop 3♦ 2♥ 5♠ where the action gets checked to Lei Li in the cutoff. He bets 2,500 and only big blind Yu Zheng and initial raiser Liu stay around for the turn J♥ . Liu takes over the reins with a 6,000 lead, but lets it go after Li raised to 16,000 that got Zheng out of the way as well.

Dongchi Wan raises 2000 preflop then calls Yuyang Liu's 5000 three-bet. Both check the flop K♦ 5♦ 2♣ then Wan fires 7000 on the turn 6♠ . Liu calls. The river drops A♦ . Wan goes all in for his last 10,000, Liu snap-calls and shows Q♦ Q♠ nut flush, Wan mucks and walks off.

From cutoff, Dongchi Wan raises 2100 and finds one caller in Yuyang Liu however big blind Zhe Lin likes his cards as well and makes it 6600 to continue. Only Wan gives him action and they head to the flop A♥ 2♣ 7♦ . No stopping for Lin who pumps out 8000 which is enough to win the pot.

After losing two-thirds of his chips, Yuyang Liu is faced with a raise of 500 from Shin Vyacheslav. Liu looks down at J♠ J♥ and three-bets 1200. Action back on Shin who four-bets all in, well covering Liu's stack who commits and shows. Shin flips open A♠ Q♥ for a flip.

The board quickly improves Shin as it completes A♥ 8♥ Q♠ A♦ 3♥ full house.