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Manh Cuong Bui Leads KPC High Roller as Dakota Anderson Tops KPC Main Event Day 1B at JPF

Callum Jury
Callum JuryLive Content & Social Media Specialist

Manh Cuong Bui bagged the chip lead on Day 1 of the KPC High Roller at Jeju Poker Festival 2026, finishing with 748,000 as 25 players advanced from a field of 50 entries. In the KPC Main Event, Dakota Anderson leads Day 1B at LES A Casino after a late-night chip rush.

Day 1C also played out, taking the KPC Poker Main Event to 348 entries with two flights still to come.

Bui Leads KPC High Roller

Manh Cuong Bui
Manh Cuong Bui

The KRW 5,000,000 KPC High Roller built a KRW 216,001,600 (~USD 160,960) prize pool, and 25 players return today to play down to a winner. Bui, who finished 5th in the opening day's Single Day High Roller, needed a re-entry but finished the night with a stack well clear of the field, ahead of Yilong Wang (474,000) and Qinxue Jiang (447,000).

Mingchen Zhang rivered a full house with king-queen and got a pot-sized bet called by Ningyi You's pocket aces, though You recovered to bag 446,000. Ziyu Gao won a big pot from Zhi Ye when both held king-queen and a spade on the river gave Gao a flush.

Ziyu Gao
Ziyu Gao

Fresh from re-entering, Nang Quang Nguyen eliminated Single Day High Roller champion Anton Florin when his ace-ten turned a straight against ace-eight.

Fabian Gumz (422,000) and Jianting Cai (402,000) bagged top-six stacks after both also survived KPC Main Day 1A. 2010 WSOP Main Event 3rd-place finisher Joseph Cheong, two-time APPT Main Event winner Aaron Lim and Wynn Summer Classic winner Sebastian Toro Henao are also through.

Ranno Sootla, Michel Molenaar, Seunghyun Nam and Aaron Gao were among those who fell.

KPC High Roller Top 10 Chip Counts

Rank

Player

Country

Chips

1

Manh Cuong Bui

Vietnam

748,000

2

Yilong Wang

China

474,000

3

Qinxue Jiang

China

447,000

4

Ningyi You

China

446,000

5

Fabian Gumz

Germany

422,000

6

Jianting Cai

China

402,000

7

George Mircea Tomescu

Romania

388,000

8

Hyunyeong Kang

South Korea

359,000

9

Jaemoon Seok

South Korea

350,000

10

Mingchen Zhang

China

337,000

Anderson Leads KPC Main Event Day 1B

Dakota Anderson
Dakota Anderson

Day 1B of the KPC Main Event drew 185 entries, with 28 players cashing and 24 advancing to Day 2. Anderson bagged the lead with 465,000, just ahead of Yuqi Chang on 456,000.

He eliminated Lifeng Lu when the river gave his pocket kings a flush against a straight, then sent out Haonan Tian with trip kings.

Kok Cheng Chai was the bubble, his pocket tens falling to Renqiang Wang's pocket kings. Earlier, Sheng Zhong almost walked away from a pot he had won after rivering a flush with ace-queen against pocket jacks, and Zhiqi Li nearly mucked a winning straight before seeing Jingwei Cheng's trip eights.

Yiwen Guan
Yiwen Guan

Jiawen Xue, the TLPT Jeju Main Event champion, had her stack dented when Xiaoxiao Chen rivered a full house with king-deuce.

She went out in Level 8, shoving queen-five on the flop into Yao Wang's pocket aces. Wang also sent out Yiwen Guan, rivering a full house with pocket jacks to crack her queens.

Florian Duta, Maxim Lykov, Slaven Popov and Chi Jen Chen also fell, while Youfan Zhang cashed for the second flight running.

KPC Main Event Day 1B Top 10 Chip Counts

Rank

Player

Country

Chips

1

Dakota Anderson

United States

465,000

2

Yuqi Chang

China

456,000

3

Hui Liu

China

377,000

4

Jing Su

China

368,000

5

Zhen Xu

China

368,000

6

Enze Shi

China

349,000

7

Long Chen

China

312,000

8

Yuefeng Pan

China

307,000

9

Renqiang Wang

China

288,000

10

Thi My Phuong Nguyen

Vietnam

241,000

Wei Shen Leads Day 1C

Wei Shen
Wei Shen

Day 1C drew 63 entries, and eight players bagged for Day 2, led by Wei Shen on 475,000. Yang Su has now bagged two flights after adding 64,000 to the 15,000 he finished with on Day 1A, while Xue's exit from 1C ended her run across all three flights so far.

KPC Main Event Day 1C Chip Counts

Rank

Player

Country

Chips

1

Wei Shen

China

475,000

2

Shaoping Xiao

China

426,000

3

Weiyang Zhou

China

343,000

4

Phuong Ngoc Nguyen

Vietnam

288,000

5

Wei Sun

China

121,000

6

Wenwen Chen

China

90,000

7

Ruiyang Wang

China

84,000

8

Yang Su

China

64,000

Side Event Winners

Taiwan's Yih Ming Hsu won the Big O Championship, while Li Ta Hsu took the NL 2-7 Single Draw. Dapeng Qiao finished runner-up in the Super Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo, with Daisuke Nakagawa 3rd for his second podium of the festival.

Event

Buy-in

Entries

Winner

Country

Prize

#9 Big O Championship

KRW 1,500,000

15

Yih Ming Hsu

Taiwan

KRW 9,160,000 (~USD 6,830)

#13 NL 2-7 Single Draw

KRW 600,000

13

Li Ta Hsu

Taiwan

KRW 3,860,000 (~USD 2,880)

#15 NL Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo

KRW 400,000

28

Xuliang Zhang

China

KRW 3,470,000 (~USD 2,590)

#16 NL Super Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo

KRW 300,000

16

Xin Jiang

China

KRW 1,847,000 (~USD 1,380)

Schedule: Friday, 30 October

Start

Event

Buy-in

11:00

MS5 Milestone Satellite to KPC Main Event

KRW 300,000

12:00

#3 KPC Main Event Day 1D

KRW 1,300,000

13:00

#12 KPC High Roller Day 2

KRW 5,000,000

13:00

#17 FL Dealer's Choice

KRW 1,000,000

13:00

#18 NL Hold'em

KRW 800,000

17:00

#19 NL Hold'em Bounty

KRW 800,000

17:00

#20 KPC Single Day High Roller

KRW 3,000,000

18:30

#21 5 Card PLO

KRW 500,000

20:00

#3 KPC Main Event Day 1E

KRW 1,300,000

21:00

MS6 Milestone Satellite to Baby Dragon Classic

KRW 300,000

21:30

#22 NL 6 Card Archie Single Draw Hyper Turbo

KRW 400,000

22:00

#23 NL Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo

KRW 400,000

23:59

#24 NL Hold'em Crazy Pineapple Super Hyper Turbo

KRW 300,000

The KPC High Roller plays down to a winner from 13:00, the KRW 3,000,000 KPC Single Day High Roller starts at 17:00, and Day 1D and Day 1E close out the Main Event's starting flights. Follow the full schedule on the Jeju Poker Festival 2026 page.

Follow Somuchpoker on Facebook and Instagram for updates throughout the festival.

Images and data courtesy of RDPT and KPC.

About the Editor

Callum Jury

Callum Jury is Somuchpoker's Live Content and Social Media Specialist, reporting live from WSOP and Asia Pacific poker festivals including the APT and PokerStars LIVE series. Originally from the Lake District in the UK, he has covered the Southeast Asian poker circuit since 2025, combining day-by-day tournament reporting with the social and digital content that brings the action to fans.