The World Poker Tour (WPT) concluded its first day of games in Jeju Island, with the WPT Opener and Deepstack NLH attracting good crowds. The ten-day festival is a special one on the WPT lineup with three key events to look forward to. The festival runs from July 15 to 24, 2023 at Landing Casino within the premises of the luxurious Jeju Shinhwa World Landing Resort.
Have a look at the Day 1 results.
Event 1: WPT Opener – Day 1A results
Kicking off WPT Korea festivities was WPT Opener with the first of three entry heats attracting 88 players and 15 re-entries for 103 total. Playing down to ITM, 13 players reached ITM with Japan’s Kataoka Toshio bagging the chip lead.
Already sitting on a big stack, Kataoka eliminated short stacked Stuart Alexander Eliott on the bubble. Luckily for Stuart, there are still two entry heats remaining to get back in the game.
Another strong finisher was China’s Liu Yin who held the chip lead for a large part of the day. Notable player Paul Hong bagged the third largest stack, part of which he earned on 
set that booted a player with top pair.
Russian player Valeriy Pak saw his stack swing all day with many bouts against Suzuki Yuto. On one of their final match-ups, Pak dragged in good pay for his 
two pair to finish with 253,000. Considerably one of the most decorated in the lineup is China’s Jinlong Hu who already has four side event titles this year alone.
Date: July 15 to 17
Buy in: KR₩ 850,000 (~USD 670)
Day 1A: 103 (88 unique, 15 re-entry)
Day 1B: July 16 at 1pm (local time)
Day 1C: July 16 at 6pm (turbo)
Day 2: 13 players
| # | Player | Flag | Stack |
| 1 | Kataoka Toshio | Japan | 576,000 |
| 2 | Liu Yin | China | 361,000 |
| 3 | Hong Paul | New Zealand | 358,000 |
| 4 | Pak Valeriy | Uzbekistan | 253,000 |
| 5 | Lei Sun | China | 176,000 |
| 6 | Suzuki Yuto | Japan | 174,000 |
| 7 | Hu Jin Long | China | 170,000 |
| 8 | Waki Yasuhiro | Japan | 120,000 |
| 9 | Yue Shan | China | 113,000 |
| 10 | Yu Yi Xing | China | 108,000 |
| 11 | Huang Xing Long | China | 77,000 |
| 12 | Tan Win Meng | Malaysia | 69,000 |
| 13 | Zhang Fangxiao | China | 30,000 |
Event 2: Deepstack NLH – Day 1 results
Running alongside the opener was the Deepstack NLH, and it too attracted a good crowd of 63 players and 7 re-entries. At bubble time, Lee Xiang sent Han Liang’s stack to crumbs with 
over 
on a board 
then cleaned him out on the next hand.
Day 1 ended on a thrilling double bust with Shimizu Masafumi 
booting Iwaka Yutaka 
and Yuwen Pan 
on a dry board. Both players walked away with KR₩ 796,000 (~USD 627) each. Closing with the chip lead was China’s Wang Hong Ling with 83 bb.
The final 8 players are all guaranteed KR₩ 903,000 (~USD 710) however all eyes will be on the KR₩ 7,959,000 (~USD 6,270) top prize.
Date: July 15 to 16
Buy in: KR₩ 425,000 (~USD 335)
Entries: 70 (63 unique, 7 re-entry)
Prize pool: KR₩ 25,972,000 (~USD 20,460)
ITM: 10 places
| # | Player | Flag | Stack | BB |
| 1 | Wang Hong Ling | China | 496,000 | 83 |
| 2 | Yuan Xin | China | 312,000 | 52 |
| 3 | Lee Xiang | China | 188,000 | 31 |
| 4 | Li Hao Yuan | China | 182,000 | 30 |
| 5 | Shimizu Masafumi | Japan | 154,000 | 26 |
| 6 | Wang Yubo | China | 75,000 | 13 |
| 7 | Juncheng Wu | China | 48,000 | 8 |
| 8 | Xiaoyu Wang | China | 42,000 | 7 |
Key Events of WPT Korea
Three key events are coming up. First up is the WPT Korea Main Event, highlighted by its jaw-dropping KR₩ 2,000,000,000 (~USD 1,575,600) guarantee. This is the largest guarantee ever offered by the WPT in Asia. As added bonus, the final table will be livestreamed.
| Event | Guarantee in KR₩ | Date |
Buy in KR₩
|
| WPT Korea Main Event | 2,000,000,000 | July 17 to 21 | 3,400,000 |
|
WPT Alpha 8 One Drop Korea
|
July 21 to 22 | 170,000,000 | |
|
WPT Korea High Roller
|
July 23 to 24 | 17,000,000 |
The stakes climb higher with the WPT Alpha8 One Drop Korea charity event which features a buy-in of $133,930. A portion of the buy-in goes to the One Drop foundation to help bring access to water to communities in need of clean water.
To complete the key three is the WPT Korea High Roller with a buy in of KRW 17,000,000 (~USD 13,400). Expect elite players from the region to populate the tables. A large contingent of players from Japan and China are expected to attend.
Getting to Jeju Shinhwa Landing Resort
For arriving players, getting to the venue couldn’t be any easier. Just look for the WPT Korea banner with the bus schedule and hop in once it arrives. It takes approximately one hour to get to the venue. The bus runs daily on a two hour schedule starting at 6am. The last bus to the venue is at 10pm.
WPT Global
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Read our WPT Global review and register here:
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Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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