Jun Obara Wins Inaugural Colossus by Mission RunGood During 2025 JOPT Grand Final

Since 2019, the Japan Open Poker Tour – JOPT Grand Final has been taking place at various locations within Tokyo and the most recent edition is underway at Belle Salle Takadanobaba, not far away from the bustling streets of Shinjuku and Shibuya Crossing. Since April 26 and until May 5, 2025, the 2025 JOPT Grand Final features a total of 170 tournaments.

Japan Open Poker Tour – 2025 JOPT Grand Final

Due to the different legal situation for live poker in Japan, the JOPT focuses on the low and mid-stakes and specific rules are in place with fixed guaranteed prize pools. Yet, the brand has been seeing a tremendous growth throughout the last few years and became the largest live poker brand to operate on Japanese soil. The JOPT has also been able to attract numerous local mainstream brands as sponsors for specific tournaments during the festival, and there was one notable exception to that.

Colossus By Mission RunGood

From April 27 to 29, 2025, Event #22 NLH Colossus by Mission RunGood featured a ground-breaking cooperation between two thriving live poker brands. JOPT teamed up with the US-based RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) and hosted the first-ever live poker event outside of the United States in which a RunGood ring could be won.

The tournament came with a very affordable buy-in of JPY25,000 (~ USD 175) and four different starting flights were available spread across two days. Before the first cards were dealt, the tournament screens already showed the fixed total prize pool of USD 165,394.37 with the top 175 spots set to earn a share of the prizes. According to the local Japanese regulations, these are available either as WebCoin or JOPT player contracts which can then be used to enter other international live poker events all over the world.

The JOPT ambassadors Shiina Okamoto and Nana Nakamura were present during the early stages of the festival but didn’t enter this particular event. Official JOPT partner Junnosuke Taguchi, perhaps better known on home turf as popular singer-songwriter, actor, model, and former member of the Japanese idol group KAT-TUN, entered the action but failed to make it through to the final day. Likewise, the PokerStars commentator Joe “Stapes” Stapleton also jumped into the action but didn’t bag up any chips.

Throughout the four flights, an overall field of 1,585 entries emerged to make it one of the largest JOPT tournaments in quite some time. Nearly all Day 1 survivors ensured a prize of just under $280. The prize bubble burst within the first level and the action was fast-paced on the entire final day.

With most participants using their game ID to participate and the JOPT using the same alias to share updates during the festival on their social media accounts, there were a few exceptions that provided their real names. A couple of South Koreans cashed and the one going the furthest was Dong Yeon Lee, who reached the second prize pool step for 136^th place.

Day 1c and overall Day 2 chip leader Tomokatsu Kumano was eliminated prior to the second break in 65^th place, which had already culled down the field to fewer than 60 hopefuls within the first four hours. It would still take a while until the nine-handed final table was set and one particular notable of the Asia-Pacific live poker circuit was still in contention.

Jun Obara Wins Colossus By Mission RunGood

Known under his moniker “misawa” on home turf, Jun Obara was in the middle of the pack when the field combined to one table and he was railed by his partner and two young daughters – always with his trademark smile on the face. Obara scored a fortunate double with ace-four against the pocket kings of “Nakaten” before then picking up kings to knock out “PINZMAN”. He entered heads-up play against “mashipi” with a minor advantage, dropped to a short stack only to double into a commanding lead before sealing the victory worth ~ USD 26,053 in JOPT player contracts. 

The champion seemed fitting to the very fun environment of the JOPT Grand Final and a large crowd gathered for Obara’s winner shot, who has already cashed for more than USD 2 million on the international live poker circuit since 2017. He previously reached the final table of the EPT Prague Main Event and most recently finished sixth in the 2024 WPT World Championships $25,000 WPT Alpha8 High Roller last December for his second-best score of USD 145,688. During the P1 CIRCUIT in Incheon in late February 2025, he reached ten final tables and won four of the events.