Jakob Karlsson Bursts the Bubble to Lead Final 42 in Red Dragon Plus Championship
Jakob Karlsson bagged the chip lead with 1,715,000 as just 42 players survived Day 2 of the Red Dragon Plus Championship at Jeju Poker Festival 2026 at LES A Casino.
The Swede burst the bubble himself, and he leads a stacked field that includes John Matsuda, Joseph Cheong and Red Dragon Classic champion Yichen Wu.
Red Dragon Plus Day 2
The Red Dragon Poker Tour's KRW 4,000,000 headline event finished with 407 entries after late registration on Day 2, with the players competing for a KRW 1,800,000,000 (~USD 1,341,280) prize pool.
132 players returned from the four starting flights, with Day 1A leader Zhi Ye, Matas Cimbolas and Day 1D leader Gang Liu among the big stacks.
Early Levels
Gang Liu's day did not go to plan. He limped with ace-king and called Anton Florin's shove, but Florin's jack-deuce flopped two pair to double, and Liu later fell well short of the money.
Sebastian Toro made a good fold with two pair against Matsuda, who had turned the nut flush with king-nine of hearts.
Ryoya Enomoto won two big pots in quick succession. His ace-king outkicked Iulian Blebea's king-queen, then he flopped a straight with five-four against Shuai Li's nut flush draw to win a 513,000 pot.
Junjie Tao flopped Broadway with ace-queen to knock out Day 1D runner-up Yongliang Li, and Yong Zhao made two pair with ace-king to send out Xing Wang.
Midday
Yabin Sun picked off Chengcai Pan's river bluff with a pair of tens to climb to around 1,000,000.
3rd Anniversary Event champion Anh Tai Do four-bet shoved with ace-king, but Takashi Yagura had pocket kings, and they held.
Aaron Lim's pocket queens knocked out Sishu Peng, while Junqing Ge, 3rd in the 3rd Anniversary Event, flopped a set of tens against Weizhou Zha's jacks.
79 Places Paid
With the field confirmed at 407, 79 players were set to cash, with a min-cash of KRW 8,100,000 (~USD 6,040).
Zheng Hu went out in 83rd when his pocket queens ran into Shuanghong Zhu's aces, and Super U Challenge runner-up Takashi Ogura fell in 84th.
Zhengshan Hao doubled with pocket aces against Alan Pham's kings, and Dakota Anderson's king-ten paired on the flop to send Guoan Yuan out in 81st.
Florian Duta made a backdoor straight with ace-deuce to leave Hongjun Zhao on around 50,000.
The Bubble
Play went hand-for-hand with 81 players left, and two short stacks found the doubles they needed.
Blebea's pocket queens held against Enomoto's ace-five, and Cheong's queen-jack beat Wenjie Sun's ten-four to keep him alive.
The bubble finally burst when Toro got his chips in with queen-jack of spades against Karlsson's pocket eights. The board ran out ten-high with no help for Toro, who left in 80th with nothing.
In the Money
Xianling Chen moved all in with a straight flush draw against Wu's top pair and rivered a flush to double.
Matsuda got a scare when Abhijith Cheruku moved in with the same king-ten and came within one heart of a runner-runner flush, but the pot was chopped.
Cheruku went out in 52nd soon after when Zhao's ace-queen caught an ace against his pocket queens.
Khanh Duy Ta made the nut flush to knock out Lim in 50th, before falling himself in 43rd for KRW 9,200,000 (~USD 6,860).
Cimbolas (47th), Duta (45th), Aaron Gao (44th), Anderson (55th), Enomoto (58th), Seunghyun Nam (67th) and Martin Sedlak (72nd) all cashed.
Red Dragon Plus Day 2 Top 10 Stacks
Rank | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1,715,000 | ||
2 | Zhengshan Hao | 1,370,000 | |
3 | Xugang Zhang | 1,365,000 | |
4 | Zhi Ye | 1,340,000 | |
5 | Wenjie Sun | 1,330,000 | |
6 | 1,325,000 | ||
7 | Xiangyu Yu | 1,210,000 | |
8 | Chen Wu | 1,180,000 | |
9 | Junqing Ge | 1,140,000 | |
10 | Linyu Zheng | 1,100,000 |
Girard Leads Mini Main
The KRW 2,500,000 Red Dragon Plus Mini Main drew 53 entries across two flights for a KRW 114,480,000 (~USD 85,310) prize pool, with nine players advancing.
Hugues Girard leads with 430,000 from Day 1B, while Ruiyang Wang topped Day 1A on 355,000. George Tomescu, Alexandru Papazian and Fabian Gumz are also through.
Side Event Winners
Aleksandras Rusinovas, runner-up in the Red Dragon Classic, picked up a title in the NL Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo. Wei Sun won the NL Hold'em Crazy Pineapple, and Yuqi Chang took a third title of the festival after a heads-up deal in the FL Triple Draw Mix.
Event | Buy-in | Entries | Winner | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
#102 FL Triple Draw Mix (2-7, A-5) | KRW 1,000,000 | 7 | Yuqi Chang | KRW 2,957,000 (~USD 2,200) | |
#105 NL Hold'em Crazy Pineapple | KRW 800,000 | 4 | Wei Sun | KRW 2,642,000 (~USD 1,970) | |
#107 NL 6 Card Archie Single Draw Hyper Turbo | KRW 300,000 | 15 | Yuna Akihama | KRW 1,732,000 (~USD 1,290) | |
#108 NL Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo | KRW 500,000 | 11 | KRW 2,688,000 (~USD 2,000) |
RDPT Taiwan Coming in 2027
The Red Dragon Poker Tour heads to Taiwan next year, with RDPT Taiwan running from 27 February to 7 March 2027.
The headline Red Dragon Championship has a buy-in of TWD 38,000. Keep an eye on Somuchpoker for the full schedule as it's announced.
Schedule: Tuesday, 10 November
Start | Event | Buy-in |
|---|---|---|
12:00 | #76 Red Dragon Plus Championship Day 3 | KRW 4,000,000 |
12:00 | #101 Red Dragon Plus Mini Main Day 2 | KRW 2,500,000 |
12:00 | #104 "We Poker" Dragon Egg Mystery Bounty Day 1B | KRW 2,500,000 + 2,000,000 |
12:30 | #110 T.O.R.S.E Championship | KRW 1,500,000 |
13:00 | #111 NL Hold'em | KRW 1,000,000 |
15:00 | #112 Red Dragon Prestige Super High Roller Day 1 | USD 12,000 |
17:00 | #113 NL Super Hold'em | KRW 1,000,000 |
19:00 | #104 "We Poker" Dragon Egg Mystery Bounty Day 1C | KRW 2,500,000 + 2,000,000 |
20:00 | #114 NL Hold'em Hyper Turbo | KRW 700,000 |
21:00 | MS17 Milestone Satellite to Dragon's Ascent Finale | KRW 300,000 |
21:30 | #115 5 Card PLO Bounty Hyper Turbo | KRW 300,000 + 100,000 |
22:00 | #116 NL Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo | KRW 500,000 |
23:59 | #117 NL Hold'em Crazy Pineapple Super Hyper Turbo | KRW 400,000 |
The final 42 return in the Red Dragon Plus Championship, the Mini Main plays down to a winner, and the USD 12,000 Red Dragon Prestige Super High Roller begins at 15:00. 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 Jeju Poker Festival.
About the Editor
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.
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