Main Event

Sumin Im raised to 34,000 from an early position with the K♣ J♠ when Gwongjin Park limped the A♣ 5♦ and Park called to the A♠ 5♥ 4♥ flop. Lim bet 18,000 and Park raised to 35,000. The three-bet to 120,000 by Lim followed but he folded to Park's shove.

Sumin Lim raised to 24,000 with the A♥ Q♣ and Longhao Shen three-bet to 70,000 holding the 9♥ 9♦ in the next seat. Limj called to the J♥ 8♣ 4♦ flop and check-called a bet of 60,000. They checked the 8♦ turn and 5♣ river for Shen to win the pot.

The private duel between Hyukjin Kwon and Sumin Lim on the live stream table continued when they saw a A♦ J♥ 2♣ 7♥ turn. Kwon check-raised from 17,000 to 69,000 with the J♣ T♥ for second pair and Lim called with the 7♣ 5♠ . The river was the 9♠ and Kwon check-folded to a shove by Lim.

Four ways with 13,000 each invested ahead of the T♠ 5♣ 3♥ flop, Geunseop Ban and Gwongjin Park checked. Hyukjin Kwon bet 25,000 and Sumin Lim called, the other two players folded.

Kwon bet another 44,000 on the Q♠ turn to get called before they checked the 2♥ river. Kwon tabled 4♣ 3♣ for a pair of fours and Lim won the pot with K♠ T♥ for a pair of tens.

The COEX Convention & Exhibition Center inside of the Starfield Coex Mall in Gangnam, Seoul was the place to be for poker enthusiasts from near and far as the Super Cup Seoul 2024 kicked into high gear. Three different tournaments commenced and that included the highly anticipated Super Cup Seoul Main Event with it's KRW 1 Billion in prizes.

It was the first of four starting days which unfolded and most of the participants were hailing from South Korea with some additions from Japan, the United States and Japan. That ultimately led to 77 participants, all in the hopes of turning their 30,000 chips into a lot more than that to lock up a portion of the cash prize.

Only 12 players were set to advance to the money stages and a duo from South Korea topped the leaderboard when all was done and dusted. Jong Hoon Lee earned the title of Day 1a leader with a stack of 465,000 while Sumin Lim ended not far behind on 441,000.

Both chip leaders were pivotal in concluding the action in level 15 with Lee scoring two big knockouts. He first took a bunch out of French chess enthusiasts and poker cash game pro Yohan "YoYo" Trens, then cracked pocket queens with seven-six suited. Soon after, Lee flopped a set of nines against the top two pair of Yoonseok Choi and soared further up the leaderboard. However, the final elimination came from Lim in the utmost cruel fashion when he hit a two-outer with pocket kings versus pocket aces.

Yoo Young Jin (316,000) and Geunseop Ban (297,000) also bagged up very healthy stacks en route to a possible deep run in this tournament.

The dozen survivors now have two days off from the Main Event action while another three starting days remain for everyone else. Some notables who came and left without anything to show for were Jaejoon Yang, YouTuber Soyoung Ham, well-known comedian Wonhyo Kim, as well as Isabelle Group ambassador Yejin Kim. More fortunate was the only female survivor on Day 1a, Yun Hye Kim, who survived the bubble on a nub and made it through with just 22,000 (four big blinds).

Day 1b will get underway at 11 a.m. local time on the second floor of the Convention Centre inside of "The Platz", with all those joining the action will hope to follow into the footsteps of Lee and Lim. Tune back in then to follow all the action right here on SoMuchPoker.

There is an open shove for 76,000 and big stack Sumin Lim calls, all other players fold. Once the other table is finished, the at-risk player reveals A♠ A♥ and Lim has one notch worse with the K♦ K♥ . The Q♥ J♠ 5♣ 8♠ K♠ board delivered the blow in cruel fashion via two-outer on the river to let the Day 1a bubble burst.

Lim almost ended the night with the chip lead, though, Jong Hoon Lee has retained the top spot by a small margin.