Red Dragon Championship (2,500,000 KRW)

The fourth of five opening flights for the KR₩ 2 Billion (~$1,451,326) guaranteed RDPT Jeju II 2025 Championship is set in stone with 55 out of 221 players advancing to Day 2 at the end of level 12. That brings the total to 200 out of 770 with Flight E Turbo's late registration still open.

China's Shengyuan Zhu bagged the lead with 480,000 (160 BB) which puts him into second overall right now. His Journey started as one of the early birds that took their seats right at the start of level 1 and was a constant force on the leaderboard beginning with the knockout of Lei Li with A♦ J♦ against Li's Q♣ J♠ after a preflop all-in with the board running 5♠ 7♦ 8♣ 3♠ 9♣ in level 3. Another big hand came during level 8 where he called a 46 BB jam from Peng Chen on K♠ 7♠ A♦ 7♦ with A♣ Q♣ and Chen missed his J♦ 9♦ flush draw on the J♥ river. He then coasted to the end picking up a lot of small pots with controlled aggression. We had a quick chat with him after the flight:

Congrats on bagging the lead in Flight D! How do you feel?

It feels great. When your chips are much ahead of others, I think you can put more pressure on your opponents.

Tell us some key hands that got you to the top?

I tried to use strong hands to raise my opponents instead of bluffing. Too many bluffs will always be caught, which is too dangerous. Of course, I am lucky today that several of my weaker hands have overtaken my opponents on the river.

What is the plan for Day 2? It's not ITM yet, so play it safe, or go big or go home?

I hope Day 2 will continue today's momentum and enter Day 3 smoothly. To be honest, this is my first time offline, and I hope I can have a good ride.

Second in chips Huu Dung Nguyen from Vietnam started his day late, sitting at barely more than the 40,000 starting stack after late reg closed, but went on a tear in the last three levels. He knocked out Wenqing Cai with kings against eights, added around 40 BB with A♥ Q♠ on 2♠ 6♠ Q♦ T♦ Q♣ and put a 20 BB cherry on top by hitting trips on the river of the last hand against Jingjing Li with top-pair. He will start Day 2 with 441,000 (147 BB).

Sijia Zhang - the only player hitting 17 KOs in the Team Event to single handedly qualify his team for the final - is a distant third with 316,000 (105 BB) which is still good for one of the top spots going into Day 2.

Flight E Turbo still has late registration open and the SMP Live Updates will resume over there until the lineup for Day 2 is complete.

Remaining Red Dragon Championship Schedule

• Day 2 2025.07.11 - 12:00

• Day 3 2025.07.12 - 12:00

• Final Day 2025.07.13 - 12:00

First to act Huu Dung Nguyen lays out 6,000 and big blind Jingjing Li defends to watch the K♥ 7♣ 4♣ flop hit the felt where Nguyen starts a triple barrel sequence of 5,000, 15,000 and 30,000 to the A♣ turn and K♦ river with Li check-calling all the way holding A♠ 7♠ , but has to surrender the pot to K♠ Q♣ from Nguyen.

Cutoff Shengyuan Zhu makes it 6,000, button Takashi Morita increases to 12,000, but lets it go after Zhu jammed his colossal stack to win a 2nd pot during hand-for-hand play. He shows A♦ A♣ before scooping the pot.

You Kan Li raises to 6,000 and both blinds defend to lay eyes on the J♠ 4♣ 9♥ flop where Li's 6,000 continuation gets called by big blind Yonqi Chen only to reveal the 8♥ turn. Chen switches gears to a 20,000 lead and Li takes the offer for the T♦ river to drop. Both players check with Chen's 7♥ T♥ straight coming out on top.

The K♦ turn and J♣ river grant Fang the win and an enormous double up just before the day ends.

Chongchua Wen opens 7,000 from +1 and big blind Huu Dung Nguyen defends to see the 8♦ Q♦ 6♣ flop where Wen continues for 7,000 and another 16,000 on the A♥ turn with Nguyen check-calling before the 3♠ river gets checked down and Nguyen tables the winner A♣ 6♦ two pair.

Cutoff Shen Tong starts off with 5,000, small blind Wei Zhu makes it 16,500 and Jiaxin Wang takes a while before cold four-betting 35,000 which is enough to scare the opposition away.

Cutoff Huu Dung Nguyen makes it 5,000 and takes both blinds to the 2♠ 6♠ Q♦ flop where his 5,000 c-bet receives a fold, but big blind Chongchua Wen raises to 15,000 and Nguyen fills up. The T♦ turn has Wen fire another 18,000 which also gets met before he slows down to a check on the Q♣ river. Nguyen bets 50,000 with A♥ Q♠ and Wen goes in the tank before finding a call and mucks.

Cutoff William Teoh raises 5,000 and both blinds defend to see the 8♣ 4♠ Q♦ flop where Teoh's 13,000 c-bet gets called by both before the 8♦ turn gets checked to the 9♦ river. Teoh forks out another 25,000 with J♦ 4♦ flush and only small blind Mingjie Zhang is willing to pay up just to throw it in the muck.

The T♥ and 4♥ keep the rockets ahead and propel Ye up the leaderboard.

The 5♠ makes Cao's double up official with nothing more than a dent in Zhu's overall chip lead.

Digging for two outs, Zhang gets there on the 9♠ 3♣ K♠ J♣ turn, but a last minute Q♥ puts Teoh back in front who puts a huge smile on his face.

Lights out for Yang on the 2♠ river with about 15 minutes of late registration still left on the clock.

Li Qiao gets going for 3,000 in +2 and takes two interested parties to the T♠ A♣ 4♠ flop where he triple barrels 5,000, 11,000 and 12,000 on the 8♠ turn and J♦ river with only button Jingjing Li tagging along before jamming 28,500 on the river that gets Qiao to fold.

None of Song's chop outs arrive on the 9♠ river and she has to start from scratch again.

We had a little chat with the friendly Aussie after he won the first event of the series.

Congrats on another win! Your third this year already. How does it feel?

Pretty good, it's nice to have a good start, but it's one of the smaller event, so I'm not going to get carried away celebrating or anything like that.

How did the tournament go? Smooth sailing?

So I was the shortest stack when the final table started and I just got outrageously lucky. First I won a 3-way all-in where I had Kings vs J9 off and J10 suited so that was for a lot of chips. And then the very next I had Aces vs Queens and so I doubled up again so after that I became the chip leader and I just kept running really fine.

How do you know about Red Dragon Poker Tour?

My roommate and my best friend, his name is Jordan, the commentator in the livestream, so I heard about it through him and the timing was good so I decided to come.

With a perfect start to the series already, planning on breaking the $500k life time earnings this RDPT?

It would be great, but I don't think about that, I actually have a few incorrect results in Hendon Mob, so if results were accurate I would really be well over 500K. So I don't actually think about it, I'm just going to play my best and see what happens.

Is this your first time here in Jeju? How was your experience so far?

Yes this is my first day. Nothing in particular. Actually I am interested in going on the rides at Shinhwa World, especially the water park. I am quite looking forward to doing that actually.

The $117k high roller runner-up last year was massive, how big of a change was that for your career, if any?

So that was actually one of the wrong results. So my actual score is 230K so that was actually a heads up deal that was a massive result for me. Especially because it was right at the very end of that series and I'd been having a terrible series. So to bring it all back in the last event was brilliant and yeah that was a massive, massive win for me.

How do you approach variance and maintain a positive outlook?

It's probably one of the toughest things about poker. It's not easy for me or for anybody. Consistent mindset work is really all you can do and just hope to run good.

How do you manage your bankroll and ensure you have enough to cover expenses during downswings?

I haven't had to worry about that for a long time, so it's not really something I have a good answer for. But definitely moving down stakes when you start down swinging is a good one. A lot more of people have too much pride to do that, but it's a very important thing to do if you're losing. And also you can consider selling action.

Do you have any advice for aspiring professional poker players?

Just invest in yourself as much as you can. Your mind is your biggest weapon in poker.

Button William Teoh separates 3,000 from his stack and both blinds defend to watch the 2♥ Q♦ 4♣ flop roll onto the board where big blind Junjie Wang donks 3,500 and both opponents stick around for the T♠ turn where another 7,000 from Wang gets only met by Teoh. The 6♣ river is checked down and Wang scoops with 3♥ 6♠ .

Catching the action on the 8♣ 3♠ T♣ K♦ 8♥ river with 54,500 in the middle, small blind William Teoh bets 30,000 with Q♣ 2♣ missed flush draw and Junjie Wang finds a call with J♠ T♥ after spending some time in the tank.

No flush for Chen on the J♥ river and Shengyuan Zhu climbs the leaderboard some more.

Cutoff Cang Sheng Ni opens 2,500 and small blind Takashi Morita defends to see the 4♣ 5♦ K♥ where Ni's 5,000 c-bet gets met before his 7,000 second barrel gets check-raised to 18,000 on the 6♥ turn. Ni pays up, but lets it go on the Q♥ river after Morita forked out another 22,000.

No queen on 2♠ and 5♥ spells the end for Zhihua Yang with enough late reg time left to enter again.

Small blind William Teoh looks at A♥ 6♦ 4♦ with 26,000 up for grabs and decides to lead 16,000 which is called by Junjie Wang for the T♣ turn to be revealed. Teoh slows down to a 40,000 check-call before letting it go on the 9♣ river against a 106,000 jam from Wang.

We get to the table with 8♣ 4♥ T♣ on the board and 21,000 in the middle when big blind Yiheng Luo leads 7,000, button Zhuang Shao raises to 15,000, but lets it go after Luo tanked and forked out 26,500.

The 3♠ keeps Li ahead, eliminating Yin in the process.

Dead on arrival, Cai doesn't need to wait for the 2♥ river to start packing his things.

With a 2,000 raise and a flat in front, big blind Mingjie Zhang pumps it to 9,000 and only button Erdun Xu fills up to see the J♣ 6♣ K♥ flop. A 4,000 c-bet from Zhang and a call is all the players are willing to invest, checking down the 4♥ turn and 9♥ river where Xu wins with 8♠ 8♣ against A♦ Q♣ from Zhang.

Hijack Andrew Han leads 2,000 and flicks in the rest after big blind Luyao Wu increased to 6,500. Wu continues for 4,500 on the 8♦ 5♣ A♠ flop, Han calls, the 3♦ turn gets checked to the J♠ river and Wu lays out the winning bet of 11,500.

Liu immediately hits the flush on the 3♠ turn, but the J♠ river gives Dang the higher flush to scoop a massive pot.

The 9♦ river seals the deal for Xu, winning the biggest pot of the day so far.

Catching the action on Q♦ 4♣ 7♦ A♠ 4♦ and 19,800 in the pot, Xiaobin Zheng declares all-in for 23,800 with K♦ J♠ high and Mingzhe Zhang snaps with T♦ 9♦ flush.