Baby Dragon (1,500,000 KRW)

The biggest of the four opening flights attracted a total of 204 entries that resulted in 31 players advancing, more than doubling the qualifiers already in waiting for Day 2 / Final from the previous two flights. Not official yet, but the roughly KR₩ 650 Million (~$477,123) prize pool smoked the previous record by a lot, giving the remaining players a historic Baby Dragon champion's purse to fight for.

Lucky Steve stayed true to his nickname and topped the leaderboard after 19 levels of play - a marathon session for a non turbo opening flight due to a flurry of short stacks starting to stall way before the bubble which led the organizers to go hand-for-hand with three busts left to the money positions.

The Vietnamese bagged 543,000 - good for third overall at the moment with Flight D Turbo still running - kickstarting his hunt for the top spot after defending Main Event champ Shengfa Huang mounted a double barrel bluff with 5♠ 4♣ on 8♥ Q♥ 9♥ K♦ 5♣ and Steve called with A♠ K♣ that got him into the top spots on the leaderboard. He then rolled over the field, putting a cherry on top with the elimination of David Tai just before the end.

Cang Sheng Ni is a close second with 507,000 to his name and Zongxin Liu follows with 452,000. Both of them more than doubled their stacks with a late charge.

Flight D Turbo is still in full swing, so follow us over there to finalize the Day 2 contenders of this record breaking Baby Dragon!

The 4♥ wraps up the day, sending Jun Liu home on the bubble.

Lu evades the eleven outs on the J♣ river to bank a massive double up just before the end of the day.

Under the gun Zongxin Liu lays out 20,000 and both blinds defend to see the 9♣ 8♥ T♦ flop that gets checked to the 6♣ turn where big blind Yuki Hirata leads 30,000 and Liu becomes the sole caller to the 5♣ river. Hirata puts another 15,000 in the middle with A♦ J♦ and has to surrender the pot after Liu calls with Q♦ Q♣ .

The board shows T♦ J♥ 7♠ 9♠ with 89,000 up for grabs when big blind Zijie Lu leads 58,000, but lets it go after Zhihan Cui check-jammed his monster stack.

Lucky Steve opens 16,000 from +1, hijack Xiaqing Ji increases to 60,000 and Steve laments 'it's the third time he three-bets me and next I'll just go all-in', showing the A♣ before folding and Ji rubs it in, showing T♦ 9♣ for good measure.

Both players improve on 2♣ 3♠ 5♠ A♠ 7♦ with Tai on the losing end, busting two places before the money.

First to act Lucky Steve puts 12,000 in the middle and calls after small blind Zhihan Cui increased to 39,000. Steve calls 35,000 on the 6♥ 6♠ 4♠ flop, 6,000 on the 6♦ turn, but folds to a 14,000 third barrel from Cui on the 2♦ river. Cui shows J♠ J♣ .

Barely a sweat for Ma on 3♦ 3♥ 9♣ 6♠ J♦ good for a much needed double up.

Small blind Jonty Obrien forks out 28,000 and big blind Jingou Tao defends before folding to Obrien's 25,000 c-bet on the J♦ Q♣ 7♣ flop.

With only 38 players left, the field is getting close to the 31 player cutoff for Flight C that will join the 30 qualifiers that already bagged their chips in yesterday's two flights.

First to act Zongxin Liu raises to 13,000 and takes two interested parties to the 4♥ 9♣ 7♦ flop that gets checked to the T♦ turn where big blind Yuki Hirata leads 7,000, Liu calls, but Ying Song's 32,000 raise from the button ends the hand.

Under the gun Jing Xu makes it 13,000 and small blind Kenji Hata defends to see the K♥ 8♥ J♣ flop that gets checked to the J♠ turn where Hata tests the waters for 16,000, received with a call and the J♥ river drops. Checked to Xu, 95,000 wander over the line to push Hata out.

Small blind Linfeng Sun opens 10,000 and fills up after Cang Sheng Ni upped it to 22,500 for a shared A♠ T♣ A♣ flop where Sun check-raises to 45,000 and Ni adds to his 15,000 c-bet. The 9♣ turn has Sun lead 30,000, Ni tanks before calling and the 8♥ river gets checked down. Ni's A♥ 2♠ comes out on top against 7♦ 7♥ from Sun.

First to act Zongxin Liu looks at Q♥ 5♣ J♣ 6♣ with 57,500 in the middle and check-calls 20,000 from button Ying Song. The board completes J♥ and Liu calls another 25,000 with J♦ 9♦ against Song's A♠ A♣ .

Just catching the action on the 2♠ K♦ J♥ 4♣ 3♥ river, 81,000 up for grabs and Haozhao Wang betting 60,000, small blind Haonan Tian check-calls before throwing it in the muck against K♥ J♣ from Wang.

The dealer makes short work of Cang by tabling 3♠ 7♣ A♣ K♦ J♦ and puts Ni back in contention.

The J♣ and T♣ make Jinguo Tao's double up a done deal to get him close to the top stacks.

No miracle for Yu on 9♥ 6♥ Q♥ K♥ 3♦ and the field thins out some more.

Ye Li makes it 6,000 from +1 and calls after button Kenji Hata upped it to 18,500 for a 3♥ 5♠ A♠ flop where Hata's 45,000 continuation is enough to take it down.

Another 5,500 open and a call gets squeezed to 20,000 by button Haonan Tian who picks up his 2nd pot in a row and a fourth this orbit alone.

Drawing dead already, Tai watches the 6♥ hit the felt to make his loss official.

Both players hit aces full on 9♥ A♣ A♦ A♠ J♥ with Hata's bigger pair staying ahead.

Things are looking peachy for Zhang when the dealer flips over 8♠ A♦ 7♥ 7♠ before turning pear shaped on the river T♦ to hand Yang a much needed double up.

The K♣ river makes another exit official and Steve is sitting pretty towards the sharp end of the leaderboard.

The 4♥ turn takes Wu ahead and the 7♥ river keeps him there for a double up.

Getting into the action on T♥ 7♥ T♠ and 32,500 in the middle, Zijie Lu triple barrels for 8,500, 20,500 and 53,000 all-in to the 2♦ turn and 4♠ river with Jianting Cai check calling all the way. Lu flips over K♠ K♥ and leaves Cai's Q♥ Q♠ in the dust.

After having attracted another 204 entries in the penultimate flight the prize pool already sits at KR₩ 550 Million (~$403,720) - breaking the record from May by quite some margin - and Day 1D Turbo just opened its doors.

The field will play down to the last 31 that advance to Day 2 tomorrow with everyone there being a min cash guaranteed.

The dealers flips over 9♦ J♠ 8♠ 9♠ A♠ , giving Huang the ace, but completing Zhao's flush in the process to keep him in the tournament.

With 14,500 up for grabs and the board showing T♠ K♦ 8♥ 5♦ Lizhe Chen bets 10,000 from the hijack and big blind Haonan Tian min-check-raises and the T♦ river rolls onto the felt. Tian jams with Q♦ 9♦ flush, Chen fills up for 21,000 holding K♠ J♦ and is eliminated.