In the last few years, Korea‘sSoojo Kim aka SJ Kimhas been one of the Asian Poker Tour’s (APT) most devoted and successful participants.
Kim‘s first recorded cash was in 2010 in the Asian Poker King Tournament in Macau where he placed 7th. But it was after he started joining the APT tournaments in 2012 that he began gaining attention for consistently placing high and cashing in the events.
He won his first APT side event in January 2013, banking a modest USD$2,592. December 2013 saw him add two more victories to his list of cashes, when he won the APT Iron Man Poker Challenge, and also the Iron Man High Roller 3 days later. He collected just over USD$9,000 for these results. In May 2014 Kim took another 1st place spot for USD$8,730 in APT Manila’s 6 max side event. In July of the same year, at APPT Manila, he won the team event, banking USD$1,198, before winning a Holdem Bounty tournament the following day for USD$6,476. Another victory soon followed, in September 2014, when he won an APT Deep Stack Event, for USD$4,683.
The year 2016 has also been proving profitable for Kim. On the first month of the year, Kim won the opening event of the WPT National Philippines bagging a cash prize of US$16,700 and 2 more 1st place slots in the APT Kickoff Manila Festival, one of which was the HIghrollers event where he took home US$7,084. After numerous small cashouts in between, on May 2016 he almost became victorious when he placed 2nd in the APT Monster Stack Event which earnedhim US$6,249. Few months later, Kim won 3rd place in 2 tournaments held in the Philippines, the Lucky Fish Poker Cup Series I and the 2016 APT Main Event Manila where he made US$3,133 and US$7,159, respectively
In 2017, Kim once again showed his skills in the Philippines by winning the Manila Megastack Single Day High Roller event held at PokerStars Live Manila for approximately USD$18,175 after making a deal with 2nd placerJingxiang Ongof Singapore and 3rd place finisherZheng Yu of China.
In July 2018, he finished 3rd in the VND107,500,000 No Limit Hold’em – High Roller event for VND418.23 million (USD18,028) at APT Ho Chi Mihn. A few months later, in November 2018, he scored big again in Vietnam – this time, in the VND16.5 million Asian Poker League (APL) Vietnam Main Event. He eventually took 2nd place for VND1.135 billion (USD48,736).
In November 2019, he won his first APL title. He finished first in the VND6,600,000 NLHE Turbo event for VND105.5 million (USD4,574).
2020 has been another very successful year for Kim.
At the beginning of the year, he took 4th place for PHP1.135 million (USD27,493) in the PHP 60,000 No Limit Hold’em – Red Dragon Poker Challenge event at Red Dragon Manila.
At the WSOP Online , he was able to make it into the money in 7 events. The biggest cash out of the 7 was USD39,706, which he got for coming in 7th place in the $1,000 Turbo NLHE 6-handed event on Natural8-GGNetwork.
At J88PT Korea, held in Cheongju, South Korea, SJ Kim took down two major events in a few days.
He first topped the field in the KRW4,400,000 No Limit Hold’em – Super High Roller Freezeout event for KRW63 million (USD55,655). Then, two days later, he triumphed in the KRW330,000 No Limit Hold’em – Super Deep Stack Turbo event and won KRW7 million (USD6,162).
On top of his great live tournament results, in February 2021, he scored big in an online tourney as well. He finished fourth in a field of 948 players in the USD1,050 GGMasters High Rollers event on Natural8-GGNetwork for no less than USD59,621.
