J88Poker Tour underway in Taiwan; here’s everything you need to know
Doors are open and action is underway at the J88Poker Tour taking place in Taipei, Taiwan at the CTP Club – Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association. Bringing immediate life to the room was the Teams Event with 12 teams storming the felt. The Opening Event will follow at 6pm. This is just the beginning of an exciting six-day series running from March 29 to April 3.
Highlighting the festival is the Main Event with its NT$5,000,000 (~US$162,000) guarantee. In addition to a cash prize, the eventual champion will receive a customized golden bracelet and a WSOP 2019 Main Event ticket. Everything you need to know and expect is written below.
To officially open the festivities, J88Poker CEO Luis Jinwoo Kim, CTP Club owner David Hsing Tai, J88Poker Team Pros, and several guests shared a few words of welcome to the players followed by the ribbon cutting ceremony.
About J88Poker
J88Poker is one of the youngest poker organizations in Asia. Formed last year, they are an online brand that held their first live event right here at the CTP Club in December. The Main Event drew 360 entries and generated a prize pool of over NT$6.2 Million (~US$202,000) which at the time was the largest pot ever seen in the country. Its success has prompted this second installment with a higher guarantee of NT$ 5 Million for the Main Event. J88Poker currently has five Team Pros signed: Lin Chen An, Justin Shin, Jin Tian, HakDo Kim, and Chen Hao.
Teams Event – Mechanics
Touching lightly upon the ongoing Teams Event which we will have a recap on later this evening, four players make up one team. 12 teams signed up, each team contributed the NT$60,000 (~US$1,950) cost to enter. This is a three-day affair. For each day, teams compete on a four-game format: NL Hold’em, Hyper Turbo, Pot Limit Omaha, and Short Deck.
The top 6 teams in points automatically advance to Day 2. The other six teams enter the Resurrection Round with only three teams granted a spot into Day 2. Out of the 9 teams competing in Day 2, only the top three teams move on to the Final Day where they play until a winner is declared.
Main Event – NT$ 5 Million Guarantee
The Main Event will of course be the crowd drawer for multiple reasons. First and foremost, this edition offers a higher guarantee of NT$5,000,000. Last year was a million less and it surpassed all expectations with a pot of over NT$6.2 Million built. The eventual winner will also receive a customized champion’s golden bracelet and a ticket to the WSOP 2019 Main Event (deducted from the prize pool).
Defending his title is China’s Chia-Jung Liu who is already here and getting in some early practice at the Teams Event. Main Event buy-in is NT$25,000 (~US$810). The tournament runs a total of 5 days from March 30 to April 3. See schedule breakdown below:
Day 1A: Saturday, March 30 @2pm
Day 1B: Sunday, March 31 @2pm
Day 1C: Monday, April 1 @5pm
Day 2: Tuesday, April 2 @1pm
Final Day: Wednesday, April 3 @130pm
Players begin with a 20,000 stack; blinds increase every 40 minutes. Registration closes at the start of Level 10. Only one re-entry is allowed per day. Each Day 1 plays a total of 12 rounds. The complete structure can be found in the J88Poker website.
Other Events
In addition to the Main Event are a slew of games of varying buy-ins and formats. Events running for two days are the High Roller and Monster Stack. Both run from April 2-3.
High Roller: Buy-in NT$88,000 (~US$2,853) @ 4pm
Monster Stack: Buy-in NT$11,000 (~US$357) @ 6pm
Other events to look forward to are the Deep Stack Turbo, Short Deck, PLO, Super KO Bounty, Pair Event, and to close out the festival, the J88 Cup.
Somuchpoker will be onsite from start to finish to bring you daily recaps and other side stories on the J88Poker festival.
More: J88Poker Tour – Full coverage
