The World Poker Tour (WPT) concluded a fun-filled series in Jeju, Korea with games hosted at the world-class Jeju Shinhwa World Landing Casino. The festival ran from July 15 to 24, 2023, attracting players from all over including a large contingent from China. Over the ten-day event, 18 tournaments generated a combined prize pool of KR₩ 7,611,741,050 equivalent to ~USD 5.9+ Million. With the dust now settled, here are the final highlights and final winners.
The brand takes a short break then returns to Asia for WPT Prime Taiwan from August 8 to 21, 2023. With a massive USD 1 Million guarantee and a lineup of 46 trophy events, it will be the biggest festival ever put forth by the brand in the region. Event takes place at the Asia Poker Arena in Taipei City.
Festival highlights
Dates: July 15 to 24, 2023
Location: Jeju Shinhwa World, Landing Casino, Jeju Island, Korea
Festival prize pool: KR₩ 7,611,741,050 (~USD 5,918,330)
Events: 18
Entries: 2,567
Main Event prize pool: KR₩ 2,246,947,400 (~USD 1,770,200)
Main Event champion: Yin Tao – China – KR₩ 295,000,000 (~USD 229,370)
Alpha8 for One Drop funds raised: KR₩ 144,000,0000 (~USD 111,960)
Biggest single event payout: Steve O’Dwyer – KR₩ 1,294,256 (~USD 1,006,300)
Multi-winner: Liu Yin – 2 events
Most final tables: Shimizu Masafumi – 4
Trophy by Flag: China – 10, Canada – 1, France – 1, Irealand – 1, Japan – 1, Philippines – 1`, Russia – 1, Taiwan – 1, UK – 1.
WPT Korea – Festival Results
WPT Korea – Livestream
WPT Korea Main Event – Live Updates
Main Event
The WPT Korea Main Event ran from July 17 to 22 featuring a KR₩ 2 Million guarantee and a buy in of KR₩ 3,400,000 (~USD 2,680). This was the largest Main Event buy in and guarantee in Asia for a non-high roller series. Players hailing from China poured in to dominate the 758 turnout. 95 players earned a piece of the boosted KR₩ 2,246,947,400 (~USD 1,770,200) prize pool. China’s Yin Tao came out victorious to pocket a payout deal of KR₩ 295,000,000 (~USD 229,370).
Multi-winner: Liu Yin
China’s Liu Yin was the only player two win to events. Liu topped the NLH Survivor Bounty by outlasting the 153 entry field for a KR₩ 14,984,000 (~USD 11,650) payout plus 8 bounties amounting to KR₩ 1.360,000 (~USD 1.060). Two days later, Liu championed the Superstack NLH Turbo for KR₩ 9,281,000 (~USD 7,215).
Most final tables – Shimizu Masafumi
Numerous players ran deep with two and three final table cashes but only one player, Japan’s Shimizu Masafumi, had four final table cashes.
3rd – Event 2: Deepstack NLH
8th – Event 5: NLH Turbo
7th – Event 7: NLH Single Day
4th – Event 16: Superstack NLH Turbo
Final Day winners
Daniel Merrilees wins maiden live title at WPT Korea High Roller
UK’s Daniel Merrilees captured his first Asia title at the WPT Korea High Roller event. Merrilees topped the 47-entry field to pocket a career high KR₩ 264,459,000 (~USD 205,620) payout.
“This is my first live tournament win so it’s really nice. I’ve been trying to win a live tournament for a long time and always came up a bit short. I was actually in Seoul, relaxing on holiday and I saw that the WPT was here so I couldn’t resist. I wanted to get that South Korean flag. It was a cool tournament, nice field, and nice to win it.”
On final table play, “I didn’t really have a strategy coming in, I just played the cards and went from there. I did have a tough spot with pocket Jacks against Ace-King. I knew the guy had a big hand so I had to find the call.”
Two spots before the bubble, Michael Wang three-bet shoved pre-flop with 
, Merrilees called and doubled up with 
on a board 
.
Leading up to the win, hot running Russian player Valeriy Pak delivered the bubble, China’s Ran Bi then bulldozed four players that included Pak in 3rd place to bring about heads up. Impressively, this was Pak’s third final table payout. The final hand was Merrilees 
, Ran 
, the board 
. No clubs for either player for a winning set and first live victory for the Englishman.
Date: July 23 to 24, 2023
Buy in: KR₩ 17,000,000 (~USD 13,220)
Entries: 47
Prize pool: KR₩ 743,869,000 (~USD 578,380)
ITM: 6 places
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in KR₩ |
| 1 | Merrilees Daniel | UK | 264,459,000 |
| 2 | Bi Ran | China | 176,310,000 |
| 3 | Pak Valeriy | Russia | 117,540,000 |
| 4 | Zhendong Li | China | 81,620,000 |
| 5 | Sun Guo Dong | China | 59,140,000 |
| 6 | Li Chao | China | 44,800,000 |
Vincent Chauve wins Superstack NLH for KR₩ 26,270,000 (~USD 20,425)
Date: July 23 to 24, 2023
Buy in: KR₩ 1,360,000 (~USD 1,060)
Entries: 70
Prize pool: KR₩ 83,110,000 (~USD 64,620)
ITM: 9 places
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in KR₩ |
| 1 | Chauve Vincent | France | 26,270,000 |
| 2 | Erquiaga David | Philippines | 17,520,000 |
| 3 | Zhang Hong Ru | China | 11,680,000 |
| 4 | Tsai Ting Yi | China | 8,110,000 |
| 5 | Taniguchi Itsuki | Japan | 5,890,000 |
| 6 | Sakai Masahiko | Japan | 4,470,000 |
| 7 | Chengchun Sha | China | 3,560,000 |
| 8 | Sorokin Maxim | Russia | 2,980,000 |
| 9 | Lam Wai Lun William | China | 2,630,000 |
Duncan Son wins WPT Megastack Closer
Date: July 24, 2023
Buy in: KR₩ 680,000 (~USD 530)
Entries: 44
Prize pool: KR₩ 26,121,000 (~USD 20,310)
ITM: 6 places
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in KR₩ |
| 1 | Son Duncan | Canada | 9,281,000 |
| 2 | Li Yanchao | China | 6,190,000 |
| 3 | Chan Man Lok | China | 4,130,000 |
| 4 | Lei Xiang | China | 2,870,000 |
| 5 | Cheng Chao Ting | Taiwan | 2,080,000 |
| 6 | Yuzhou Yin | China | 1,570,000 |
Chuang Hao wins Superstack Closer Turbo
Date: July 24, 2023
Buy in: KR₩ 1,700,000 (~USD 1,320)
Entries: 22
Prize pool: KR₩ 32,651,000 (~USD 25,390)
ITM: 3 places
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in KR₩ |
| 1 | Chuang Hao | Taiwan | 17,951,000 |
| 2 | Yuji Kawata | Japan | 9,800,000 |
| 3 | Chauve Vincent | France | 4,900,000 |
Up next: WPT Prime Taiwan
World Poker Tour Prime Taiwan: A Million Reasons – August 8 to 21 @Asia Poker Arena
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Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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