Poker Dream Jeju Wraps Up With John Juanda, Martin Zamani, Christopher Park Banking The Biggest Prizes

After three days of play, 29 levels, and beating a field that included some of the best poker players in the world, USA's Martin Zamani emerged as the winner. The 123 entry field each paid KR₩ 14,500,000 (~USD 9,998) to take part in this event for a back to back seven figure USD prize pool of KR₩ 1,626,195,300 (~USD 1,134,545) for this event in Jeju. Zamani shared some thoughts after his win,

"I feel good and this is a good start for me. It's a small event compared to the upcoming events, so let's see how it goes. I just got lucky, you know. It's just poker, you go all-in and some hands you win, some hands you lose, that's all that happened. I'm the all in guy, everyone knows it."

After two days, 26 levels and outlasting all of his opponents in this 81 entry star studded field that reached a stunning prize pool of KR₩ 2,262,330,000 (~$1,585,263), Christopher Park wins his first career trophy against some of the best players in the world and more than doubles his current live earnings.

It was my first time ever winning a big tournament, so it feels pretty great and I'd like to win some more."

It was a very lopsided 3 to 1 in favor of Park at heads up. They went back and forth for a while until a flip with 9♠ 9♦ against Sean Ooi's A♥ J♦ made Park the champion. Park earned a career high payout of KR₩ 622,100,000 (~$431,905) and the Poker Dream special dragon trophy.

Poker superstar John Juanda emerged as champion at the $15,000 NLH Superstar Challenge after outlasting the 65 entry star studded field to lock up the largest share of the $924,305 prize pool. He defeated Jun Yap at heads up to for a payout of KRW 389,400,000 ($270,350). In a post win interview with Juanda, he shared his thoughts on his victory.

How does it feel to win this tournament?

Anytime you win a tournament it always feels great, it doesn't mean you're the best player but on that particular day nobody's doing better than you so you're on top of the world in a way that they saw you, it feels great in that way.

What was your strategy against fellow professionals?

I guess in tournament I use different strategy depending on my stack size. When I have a short stack I can't make any moves. I just have to wait for good hands but when I have big stack, especially when there's money pressure or it's close to ITM or final table you can often put pressure on your opponent if you are able to dig deep in their strategy. So when you have a big stack you have a lot of options.

On the bubble hand, what was going through your mind? You pushed on the small blind with 6♠ 4♥ preflop eliminated Christopher Park A♦ T♠ when you rivered the ten.

I definitely got lucky. Even though I won the tournament it didn't necessarily mean I'm the best player. Those are one of the hands that I decided to play aggressively because we are one out of the money and losing that pot wouldn't hurt me as much but it would hurt my opponent more, so from his perspective he cannot really call unless he has a really good hand. Actually even with that hand it's really difficult for him to call. He tanked for a long time. I definitely got lucky but I played my hand the way I'm supposed to.

What keeps you coming back to Asia?

I lived in Japan now so it's only a two and a half hour flight, I hope they have more tournaments here in the future.

On another topic, what is the biggest mistake you see beginners make?

I think when they get short stack they give up too easily, like for example you start with 50bb and lose half of your stack, which still is okay and then they just get involved with the hands that they shouldn't have, maybe because they are amateurs or recreational players. They let their emotions affect them too much.

What advice can you give to the beginners player?

It really depends on the level of the tournament, but the best advice i can give them is to be more observant when they play. I see a lot of them they're not really paying attention on the table. By paying attention on what's going on at the table you'll usually able to find something. You observe your opponent and know their strengths and weaknesses, those are things that you can take advantage of. For example if you see somebody playing overly aggressive or bluffing too much you can counter that by calling them more or maybe trapping them, but if somebody playing tight maybe you have to think twice before you get involved in that hand.

How do you read your opponent?

By being observant and paying attention because at the end of the of day everybody is also a human being, everyone has their tendencies, which guy who gets mad or which guy is very calm poker players are like that. So when you pay attention you'll be able to know who loses their steam or who plays loose and who gets scared and play tighter.