Red Dragon Poker Tour Jeju Opening Day “RD Expedition Club” Highlights

The Landing Casino roared to life as opening day of the Red Dragon Poker Tour Jeju 2025 brought in a large crowd eager to take on the first ever “RD Expedition Club” Four-Player Team Event. Here’s a look at the day’s biggest moments.

RDPT Jeju “RD Expedition Club”

It was action-packed from the get-go as 132 players spread among 33 teams flooded the tables for the first ever “RD Expedition Club” Four-Player Team Event. The goal was to get to the ITM stage, earning points by going deep and delivering knockouts.

“The Army Of Destiny” racked up the required 17 KOs to become the first team to earn a spot in the final day. This was largely due to Sijia Zhang‘s one man show, delivering all of knockouts with the last one achieved when the field was down to ten players. Somuchpoker caught up with the team for a brief interview:

Wow, 17 knockouts! How was that possible?

It was all luck!

Who came up with the team name and is there any special meaning to it?

The name of the team, which we all came up with, Army Of Destiny, because we felt that playing poker was a matter of luck.

How did your team form?

Our team started with the idea of participating in the Red Dragon Series. Chen Yang organized the team amongst his friends and then encouraged us to sign up.

What got you interested in playing this novel 4-player format?

We think that Texas Hold’em is generally an individual game. This is the first time we’ve played a team game. Everyone’s honors are together. It’s very new!

Round 1 Wrap

Round 1 concluded with Team Osaka AK Royal‘s Jizhou Yu shipping the first of two tournaments, directly advancing to Day 2 tomorrow. Team Entrepreneurs made it on points with all four team members running deep, earning them 125 points in the end and Poker Planet accumulated a score of 93, good enough for the 4th and last Round 1 advancement to Day 2.

A distant 5th, but the bubble none of the less was ‘Team Dragon‘ with 53 points after Chenxu Zhang aka Vanessa carried the whole team with her 3rd place finish. Somuchpoker interviewed Zhang right after.

Congratulations on making Round 2. How has the journey been today?

Today is really full of experience. At the beginning of the team competition, I sat at the live table. Because I can’t use my phone at the live table, during my first break I realized that my teammates had all dropped, and at this time, I had to fight against the tide. So I kept going until the end and finished third in the final table But it’s a pity that because the teammates were eliminated too early, our team’s total score was not enough to advance directly, so we could only enter the resurrection round.

Who came up with the team composition? Three girls and one guy, or did your sponsor have a hand in that?

We are all original members of the Red Dragon team. He is our captain. It is an honor to represent the Red Dragons in the team competition.

What got you interested in playing this novel 4-player format?

RDPT is a very good poker brand, and it is very convenient to be close to the people of Jeju Island. As a member of the Red Dragon team, of course I will come to participate. The team competition format is very new, both individual and teamwork. This time the bounty hunter style was also added. There’s a lot of skill and fun to get involved in.

Have you been part of other team events before?

There are many brand events that have team competitions. I’ve competed a lot and won team competitions where I also played on behalf of the Red Dragon Poker team.

What do you like about the team events that regular tourneys don’t offer?

The regular season is a one-man game, and everyone is an opponent. However, because of the sense of team honor, many decisions will be more cautious and serious. Everyone is both an opponent and a teammate, and they need to work in their own hands and work as a team. Many times, strategy is more important than tactics.

Resurrection Round

With Round 1 in the bag, we saw 24 teams eligible for the Resurrection Round all starting over with the hunt for points and the win that would get them to Day 2.

A rather anticlimactic affair saw the remaining 4 teams qualify by points before the tournament was over, resulting in ‘Poker Queen Gold And Silver‘ in the lead with 104 points, ‘Team Osaka Mobile Unit‘  in a distant second banking 65 points and almost equal with 56 and 54 were 3rd place ‘Poker Queen Starlit Canvas‘ and final qualifier ‘Poker Queen Full House Team‘.

Tomorrow’s Final Round of 8 will treat us all with a completely new format in several stages. Each team will compete in 3 different formats:

• 8-handed SNG: 1 player per team.
• Tag Team SNG: 2 players per team.
• Heads-Up Elimination: 1 player per team.
• In the Heads-Up format, each player will play 3 rounds to determine final ranking.
  *Exception: 7th and 8th place will share the same score; no need to play Round 3.
• Each player may only participate in one event. Team member substitutions are not allowed once the final round begins.
• In case of a tie for 1st place:
  *One player from each of the tied teams will play an additional heads-up match to determine the winner.
  *For other ties, standard tournament rules apply.
  •During the tiebreaker, teams may substitute players at the start of each level. Each team is allowed up to 3 substitutions.
• SNGs: 15-minute levels
• Heads-Up: 8-minute levels
• 10-second shot clock system will be introduced at the start of all formats.

RD Expedition Club – Day 1 Numbers

• Buy-In: KR₩ 2,000,000 (~$1,467)
• ITM: 8 Teams
• Payouts: To Be Announed

The final day will be livestreamed in the Red Dragon YouTube channel.