Red Dragon Championship (2,500,000 KRW)

The headline event of the Red Dragon Poker Tour here at the Landing Casino in Jeju attracted a total of 997 entries across all four opening flights resulting in a total prize pool of KRW 2,175,953,000 (~$1,582,120) with KRW 360,000,000 (~$250,615) going to the champion. Today we started with 37 hopefuls and determined the Final 9 that will resume play tomorrow at 12:00 local.

Having to dig deep, Wu gets some help on the flop J♣ 3♣ K♥ giving him four outs, but none of them show up when the board completes J♠ and 2♥ , making him the final table bubble and ending Day 3 of the Red Dragon Championship.

This time Vanessa's pocket pair prevails when the board runs 7♣ Q♦ 5♦ 3♥ J♦ , getting a nice little push at the end of the day.

Huang immediately jumps ahead on K♦ 4♥ 4♦ 6♦ T♦ , picking up his third pot in less than an orbit.

Hijack Marcus Law gets the ball rolling with a raise to 300,000, Junjie He flats from the cutoff before Shengfa Huang picks up another pot with a 1,700,000 squeeze from the button.

Junjie he makes it 350,000 from the small blind and Shengfa Huang defends to see the flop J♦ A♠ 8♥ where Junjie He leads 300,000, Huang ups it to 950,000 and Junjie jams. Huang surrenders two time banks to the dealer before electing to fold.

Peng stays in front on 7♥ and 5♣ , putting a dent in the leader's stack and secures a much needed double up for himself.

Marcus Law opens yet another hand from the hijack for 250,000 and Shengfa Huang comes along for the ride to the flop 5♦ A♣ A♥ that gets checked to the turn 9♣ . Huang calls a delayed c-bet of 600,000 before both players are back to checking on the river 5♦ . Law tables another winner 8♣ 8♠ and Huang mucks.

The action folds to small blind Marcus Law who limps and Junjie He opts to check to the flop J♣ 7♥ 8♠ where Law starts a triple barrel sequence of 100,000, 300,000 and 1,150,000 to the turn 2♠ and river 4♣ where Junjie He let's it go, losing a time bank in the process.

Hijack Marcus Law opens 250,000 and takes cutoff Junjie He to the flop 6♠ K♥ 8♥ which gets checked to the turn 7♥ and river 7♣ . Law forks out 650,000 with A♦ K♠ and He uses a time bank before making the call, followed by a muck.

Everything is looking peachy for Vanessa on 6♥ 9♥ 7♦ 2♠ before turning pear shaped on the river 9♣ , giving Chen trips and an almost 30BB pot close to the final table bubble.

He immediately falls behind on the turn A♣ and the river 9♦ makes his exit official.

The dealer keeps it interesting until the end by flipping over 5♥ K♥ Q♠ K♣ T♦ before pushing the massive pot into He's direction.

Everything is looking peachy for Gu on 9♦ 7♠ 5♠ T♥ before turning pear shaped on the river A♣ .

At the end of level 20 we have 15 out 250 players remaining with Quan Zhang leading by some margin having 1,900,000 and the other table has 2nd overall Haohan Tian in the lead with 1,100,000.

We now have 18 out of 20 players left at the start of level 3 with late registration still open until level 14 tomorrow.

After winning two small pots in a row, small blind Guanyu Chen jams 1,380,000 again to collect Yepeng Ni's 200,000 open from the hijack.

Big blind Yunfeng Sun defends against a 250,000 raise from hijack Guanyu Chen and both players check down to the turn 6♣ 6♦ Q♦ T♥ where Chen slides a delayed c-bet of 200,000 over the line and Sun calls. The river 3♣ is checked again with Sun flipping over the winner J♣ T♣ .

Yepeng Ni leads 200,000 from the hijack and big blind Chenxu Zhang defends to see the flop J♣ 5♠ J♠ where she check-calls 150,000 and then check-folds the turn A♥ to a second barrel of 300,000 from Ni.

The turn Q♠ gives Shin some outs, but the river A♣ sends him off to the payout desk.

Big blind Yepeng Ni defends a 200,000 open fromt under the gun Yu Jiapeng and watches the flop 5♥ 8♠ A♠ hit the felt where he check-raises 350,000 into Yu's 100,000 c-bet who calls. The turn A♦ has Ni fork out another 600,000 that gets the job done.

Still in level 1, John Juanda and six other early birds are already exchanging chips.

After Marcus Law eliminated Dong Li on the feature table in 17th place for KRW 14,350,000 (~$9,990) the clock is stopped for another table draw.

After just winning a pot, hijack Jiapeng Yu leads 200,000 again and takes cutoff Ziwei Chen to the flop 5♣ 9♥ 5♦ where Yu check-calls 400,000 before the hand gets checked down to the turn A♥ and river K♣ with Yu tabling the winner K♥ 9♣ and Chen mucks.

No miracle for Zhao on K♥ T♣ A♠ 4♣ 3♦ spells the end for him, just over an hour after being massive chip leader.

Under the gun Yepeng Ni opens 160,000, Jiawei Huang ups it to 500,000 in the small blind before folding to a 1,400,000 four-bet from Ni. Both players lose a time bank in the process.

Sishu Peng takes two customers to the flop 8♥ K♦ 3♥ for 175,000 from +2 and continues for 240,000. Button Shengfa Huang raises to 500,000 with no takers.

Chen flops the nuts on K♣ A♥ A♦ 3♥ 2♠ to take out a decent chunk of the leader's stack.

Shengfa Huang opens 120,000 from +1 and overall chip leader Qing Zhao targets him again with a re-raise to 300,000 on his immediate left. Huang lets it go again.

Less than two hours into the final day, Qishen Tang draws the top bounty of KRW 40,000,000 (~$28,654) with 37 out of 240 players remaining.

Table 1 is now on stream.

The dealer favors the over cards on 3♠ K♥ 3♣ 8♠ 5♠ with a runner runner flush for Ni, scooping the biggest pot of the tournament to take the overall lead.

Everything is looking peachy for Sun on 3♣ 5♣ 6♣ 3♥ before going pear shaped on the river 8♣ , granting Feng a triple up.

Yu's cards are live and he hits one of them on 7♥ 5♦ K♠ 2♥ 6♦ to scoop the pot and leave Wu with crumbs.

Hijack Jiawei Huang lays out 125,000 and takes three customers to the flop 8♥ J♠ 3♣ where his 175,000 continuation gets the job done.

Vyacheslav Shin opens 100,000 from +1 and pays up after big blind Junjie He increased to 350,000. Shin calls another 300,000 on the flop 9♠ 3♥ 2♦ before folding to a jam on the turn 5♣ .

Cutoff Wen Wen Chen wants 100,000 and button Yong Zhao obliges to see the flop 7♣ A♠ 9♠ where he calls a 100,000 c-bet. The turn 5♣ gets checked to the river 6♠ where Chen check-calls 250,000. Zhao shows K♠ 8♦ straight and Chen mucks.

Huahuan Feng opens 100,000 from +1 and fills up after Dong Li upped it to 225,000 from the hijack. Li double barrels 110,000 and 250,000 on 2♥ 8♠ 4♠ 2♣ before both players elect to check down the river 2♦ . Li's ace-high A♠ J♦ beats Feng's Q♠ J♠ .

Zijie Lu leads 100,000 and big blind Yong Zhao defends to see the flop Q♥ J♥ 5♣ . Lu continues for 105,000, Zhao check-raises to 350,000, but throws it in the muck after Lu requested the triangle.

Still stacking the chips from just winning a hand, Junjie He three-bets 300,000 from the small blind into a 100,000 open from button Dong Li. Li pumps it further to 500,000 but lets it go after He five-bet to 750,000.

After just winning a massive pot against Qing Zhao - chip leader at the time - Wen Wen Chen is at it again, opening 100,000 from the hijack, button Yong Zhao pumps it to 450,000, but lets it go after Chen shoved.

The dealer conjures up an ace right away on A♠ K♥ J♣ 7♣ 8♣ granting Sun an early double.

Hijack Yunfeng Sun opens 110,000, cutoff Vyasheslav Shin calls, but Huahuan Feng ends the hand with a 400,000 squeeze from the small blind.

Everything looks like a double elimination when the dealer flips over Q♣ 6♣ 3♦ 2♥ before an ace from space A♠ saves short stack Wu.

Flopped nut flush for Junlong Zhang on 9♣ K♣ 6♣ 7♣ 3♥ and the last remaining bracelet holder in the field is out.

Flop well everyone!

The headline event of the Red Dragon Poker Tour here at the beautiful Landing Casino in Jeju attracted a total of 997 entries across all four opening flights resulting in a total prize pool of KRW 2,175,953,000 (~$1,582,120) with KRW 360,000,000 (~$250,615) going to the champion. The remaining 37 players will battle it out until the Final 9 are set in stone.

Recap of Day 2 :

A lot of the big names didn't make the cut, leaving only one bracelet winner - Weiran Pu with 565,000 (16 BB) - in the field and after starting Day 2 with players from five different continents we are left with a single player that doesn't reside on the Asian continent in Australian Marcus Law with a respectable 2,185,000 (54 BB). Which means that a lot of the remaining players will be looking to bank the biggest cash of their careers by simply making it to the final table.

One of the early international exits was Hungarian Patrik Demus - 3rd place finisher at the WPT Cambodia Prime Championship for $111,200 just two months ago - who fell victim to a scripted preflop all-in with A♥ Q♠ against Xiangchen Gao's A♠ K♠ and a board that ran all blanks.

Not long after that another elimination by Xiangchen Gao - open jamming from the small blind with A♥ 2♣ into short stack Chung Cheun Co who called with A♣ K♠ , but was outdrawn on the board 8♠ T♦ 2♥ 3♥ 9♥ - started hand for hand play on the bubble with 151 players eager to make the 150 ITM spots.

With the tournament clock on hold, it took over an hour until the bubble burst with every short stack all-in resulting in a double up over and over until Chi Zhang - WPT Jeju 2024 Main Event 3rd place finisher for $159,008 - was forced all-in on the big blind with his last 0,7BB. Qingbo Gao min-raised and Ruoyu Yang called with both of them checking down to the river 6♠ 3♥ 9♥ 2♠ A♥ where Gao won with king-high K♣ 7♦ against Zhang's ten-high T♠ 4♦ . This extended bubble play with the clock on hold later led the organizers to shorten play by one level.

Another European player that didn't make the cut was Tom Verbruggen who was all-in against Erdun Xu three times within a few hands before finishing in 111th. We caught up with him after the end of Day 1C where he said:

"My run today was all right, i only fired one bullet. I think my highest Chip Count was 200K this was around break, so after level 9, then unfortunately from there went slowly but surely downhill, so i only bagged 93K which will be 15BB. Tomorrow could be better but at least I'm in day 2, and as one of my coaches says 'you can't win the main event in day one', so let's go for day 2."

When asked about Jeju and the tournaments at the Landing Casino he said :

"It's nice to come here, because there are many Chinese people here and I used to live in China for over seven sears, so for me it's actually a great opportunity to keep my Mandarin on point as well. I think it's a very beautiful casino, very luxurious, so it's a nice place to be."

Once the day came to an end after level 23 it was Qing Zhao on top of the leaderboard who started the day as second in chips, kept using his stack to apply pressure throughout the day and knocked out several opponents along the way. He ended the day with a late charge that started with the elimination of Xiangchen Gao after a preflop all-in with A♥ Q♣ against Gao's A♦ 5♦ that started out grim, being out-flopped on 9♠ 5♥ T♠ improving on the turn A♠ and ultimately clinching the win on the river T♥ . From then on he ran over his table - at one point scooping four pots preflop in less than an orbit - to finish the day with 3,455,000 (86 BB).

Live coverage will be here for you from start to finish. See you at 12:00!