Red Dragon Poker Tour Jeju Early Highlights: Jinguo Tao Wins Baby Dragon

Jinguo Tao Wins Baby Dragon For KR₩ 129,688,000 (~$95,195)

Attracting 503 total entries across four opening flights the RDPT Jeju II 2025 Baby Dragon became the biggest of its kind on record with a colossal KR₩ 651,888,000 (~$478,509) prize pool.

A total of 75 players started the Final Day and China's Jinguo Tao emerged as the new winner, taking home a career high KR₩ 129,688,000 (~$95,195) his first trophy and the coveted Red Dragon Champion's Jacket.

Tao came to the final table as 4th in chips, played carefully when the ICM pressure was high, but unleashed his potential during the heads-up even in the eyes of adversity when he had runner-up Haozhao Wang on the ropes with a preflop all-in holding A♥ Q♠ against Wang's K♦ Q♥ but the board ran 7♥ K♠ 8♦ J♦ 8♥ , knocking him back down to a 2:1 underdog. He was in a commanding lead again about an hour later when he jammed Q♠ 7♠ and Wang called with K♦ 6♣ hitting a flush on T♠ 2♠ J♣ 3♠ 5♠ while standing and cheering.

Relive the action via the Live Updates.

Team Osaka Mobile Unit Wins “RD Expedition Club” Red Dragon Team Event For KR₩ 18,604,000 (~$13,650)

'Team Osaka Mobile Unit' fell behind early, but bounced back in the end, narrowly defeating 'Poker Planet' to clinch the trophy and three medals alongside the KR₩ 18,604,000 (~$13,650) first prize.

Congratulations on winning the RDPT 4-Player Team Event! How do you feel?

Very excited, still feeling very happy now, especially the emotions at the moment of the comeback.

What do you think of the tournament format on the second day?

Very good, the experience is also very fresh, this format gives anyone the possibility of a comeback.

Did you assign team members based on different tournament formats?

Yes, we arrange team members who are good at different formats to participate.

Do you have any memorable hands you would like to share with us?

It should be that hand where I went all-in with two-eight and survived, very thrilling and exciting, Texas Hold'em is all about the adrenaline rush.

How was your team formed? Did you all know each other or did one person recruit the others?

We are all Chinese living in Japan. We usually play poker together and have known each other for a long time, especially close with one of them. We think that when we come out to compete, we should compete and work hard together to create miracles.

Who came up with the team name, and what does it mean to you?

Because the captain's surname is Wang and has been living in Osaka, so we chose this team name.

What made you interested in playing this new 4-person game format?

We also often play team games, and we want to try out new formats.

What do you like about team competitions?

We can leverage individual strengths and unite as a team to aim for the championship.

How did you find out about RDPT?

RDPT is an international event with high visibility, and we came to participate in this competition.

Event Recap

After 132 players across 33 teams registered, this novel format two-day event started with two qualification rounds where 'The Army Of Destiny' was the first to secure a slot in the finals. Player Sijia Zhang racked up 17 KOs - one of several ways to advance to the final - before Round 1 even got to the final table. When asked how they managed it and what their team name stands for they said:

It was all luck! The name of the team, which we all came up with, The Army Of Destiny, wanted us to be the luckiest team, because we felt that playing poker was a matter of luck.

After seven more teams qualified, the Final 8 resumed play on Day 2 with every team having to compete in 3 different formats:

1. 8-handed SNG: 1 player per team.

2. Tag Team SNG: 2 players per team.

3. Heads-Up Elimination: 1 player per team.

'Team Osaka Mobile Unit' came from behind to win the first ever RD Expedition Club Four-Player Team Event.

Veni, Vidi, Vici For Tommy Maguire Shipping The Baby Dragon Warm-Up For KR₩ 8,017,000 (~$5,885)

Australian pro Tommy Maguire wins the first RDPT tournament he ever entered, beating a field of 34 in this KR₩ 800,000 (~$584) buy-in event. Already his third victory this year in a very successful career mostly in Australia we caught up with the Jeju newcomer after his victory.

Congrats on another win! Your third this year already. How does it feel?

Pretty good, it's nice to have a good start, but it's one of the smaller event, so I'm not going to get carried away celebrating or anything like that.

How did the tournament go? Smooth sailing?

So I was the shortest stack when the final table started and I just got outrageously lucky. First I won a 3-way all-in where I had Kings vs J9 off and J10 suited so that was for a lot of chips. And then the very next I had Aces vs Queens and so I doubled up again so after that I became the chip leader and I just kept running really fine.

How do you know about Red Dragon Poker Tour?

My roommate and my best friend his name is Jordan the commentator in the livestream so I heard about it through him and the timing was good so I decided to come.

With a perfect start to the series already, planning on breaking the $500k life time earnings this RDPT?

It would be great, but I don't think about that, I actually have a few incorrect results in Hendon Mob, so if results were accurate I would really be well over 500K. So I don't actually think about it, I'm just going to play my best and see what happens.

Is this your first time here in Jeju? How was your experience so far?

Yes this is my first day. Nothing in particular. Actually I am interested in going on the rides at Shinhwa World, especially the water park. I am quite looking forward to doing that actually.

The $117k high roller runner-up last year was massive, how big of a change was that for your career, if any?

So that was actually one of the wrong results. So my actual score is 230K so that was actually a heads up deal that was a massive result for me. Especially because it was right at the very end of that series and I'd been having a terrible series. So to bring it all back in the last event was brilliant and yeah that was a massive, massive win for me.

How do you approach variance and maintain a positive outlook?

It's probably one of the toughest things about poker. It's not easy for me or for anybody. Consistent mindset work is really all you can do and just hope to run good.

How do you manage your bankroll and ensure you have enough to cover expenses during downswings?

I haven't had to worry about that for a long time, so it's not really something I have a good answer for. But definitely moving down stakes when you start down swinging is a good one. A lot more of people have too much pride to do that, but it's a very important thing to do if you're losing. And also you can consider selling action.

Do you have any advice for aspiring professional poker players?

Just invest in yourself as much as you can. Your mind is your biggest weapon in poker.

Chinese Pro Yuhan Liu Takes Down MegaStack Classic For KR₩ 12,397,000 (~$9,095)

Another win for the high roller specialist Yuhan Liu in this stacked 43 player field, with other pros like Tommy Maguire and Yunchao Yu at the final table that made him work for it. It is his first RDPT crown after making two final tables at the last one in May.

David Tai Ships Single Day Mystery Bounty For KR₩ 14,730,000 (~$10,810)

Taiwan's David Tai - owner of CTP and team leader of the 'TMT 18' - wins second RDPT Bounty tournament this year and collects KR₩ 4,100,000 (~$3,000) in additional Mystery Bounties, after beating Ren Zhao in the heads up of this 100 entry KR₩ 1,000,000 (~$730) buy-in.

Ren Zhao took home the lion share of the KR₩ 84,480,000 (~$61,990) prize pool after drawing most of the big bounties - including the biggest for KR₩ 8,500,000 (~$6,220) - accumulating an enormous KR₩ 21,800,000 (~$15,965) in bounties alone on top of his 2nd place KR₩9,600,000 (~$7,045) payout.