WSOP 2019: Sejin Park wins Korea’s second bracelet as Yueqi Zhu is denied title defence

The 2019 WSOP continues to roll on, with stories and bracelet battles springing up across the Rio. Yesterday saw two exciting Asian stories unfold, with Korea’s Sejin Park adding to Korea’s stellar series, and Yueqi Zhu attempting to win the same event two years running, having also final tabled it the year before that.

Event 61: Sejin Park Takes Gold for Korea

Just under two weeks ago, Korea was celebrating its first ever bracelet winner as Jiyoung Kim took the Ladies Event title. Never had a Korean player won an open event however, until yesterday. Sejin Park had to wade through a giant field to do so, with the 13,109 entries for this COLOSSUS $400 NLH event being a significant increase on the previous year. This created a hefty prize pool of $4,391,515, with $451,272 set aside for the winner. Park was not the only Asian player to run deep in this event, with Taiwan’s Chen-An Lin taking 31st place for $13,261, China’s Dong Chen taking 51st for $8,780 and India’s Kunal Patni finishing in 56th for $7,219.

With the final table set, Andrew Barber was the only former bracelet winner involved. Sejin Park soon got busy at the final table, and after several swings in big pot, managed to grab the chiplead. One by one, the players fell away, with Park and Georgios Kapalas looking the more likely to claim the gold. Youtube enthusiast Ryan Depaulo had been one of the livelier players at the table, but his run ended in 3rd place soon after. Park began heads up player with a better than 2 to 1 chiplead and never looked likely to let the chance slip as he extended his lead before closing the event out.

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – Sejin Park – $451,272

2nd – Georgios Kapalas – $278,881

3rd – Ryan Depaulo – $208,643

4th – Juan Lopez – $157,106

5th – Andrew Barber – $119,072

6th – Norson Saho – $90,838

7th – Patrick Miller – $69,757

8th – Maksim Kalman – $53,925

9th – Diego Lima – $41,965

Event 63: Anatolii Zyrin takes the bracelet to deny Yueqi Zhu an impossible feat

The $1,500 Omaha Mix brought together a strong field of 717 players, generating a prize pool of $967,950. Among those players was China’s Yueqi Zhu, who had achieved the admirable accomplishment of winning the event in 2018 just a year after having to make do with 6th place in the same event. Over the next few days, the same man once again seemed on a mission to stamp his name on this event, grinding his way up the rankings until the final table beckoned once more. He was not the only Asian hope on the third day however, with Japan’s Iori Yogo also putting on a good display to look threatening in the closing stages. The final table did not start well for Yogo, who eventually hit the rail in 6th, but for Zhu the impossible seemed possible as play ended for the night with four players still in contention. Zhu had final tabled the event three years in a row and was a close second from top in the chip counts.

When play resumed the next day, Zhu and Russia’s Anatolii Zyrin continued where they had left off the previous day, as the two big stacks built on their dominance until they were the only two players remaining. Zhu began with a slight chip lead but having finished 2nd place in an event just three weeks ago, Zyrin was not going to be easily denied. He soon overhauled Zhu and began to pull away, a pattern which could not be broken by the Chinese pro. Zyrin kept the pressure up until finally, Zhu’s remaining stack collapsed to give victory to the Russian.

The final payouts are as follows:

1st – Anatolii Zyrin – $199,838

2nd – Yueqi Zhu – $123,466

3rd – James Van Alstyne – $84,106

4th – Mesbah Guerfi – $58,289

5th – Aron Dermer – $41,112

6th – Iori Yogo – $29,518

7th – Alan Sternberg – $21,582

Other winners

Event 60 – $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha hi/lo

Prize pool: $1,507,950

Entries: 1,117

Winner: Anthony Zinno – $279,920

Event 62 – $10,000 Razz

Prize pool: $1,090,400

Entries: 116

Winner: Scott Seiver – $301,421