The Asia Swing has swung across to Korea this week, stopping off at Incheon. The WPT Korea got the action rolling on September 17th with a packed poker room at Paradise City.
With the Main Event Warm Up and two High Rollers among the events now in the books, allow us to bring you the latest from the festival so far, and a preview of what’s yet to come.
KRW800,000 Main Event Warm Up (Single Re-Entry) – Winner: Igor Kim
Event 3 marked the first big tournament on the schedule in terms of prize pool, with 88 entries paying KRW800,000 (US$674), helping the prize pool to reach KRW61,459,200 (US$51,750). Not all were unique entries, with the 2-day event allowing for a single re-entry per player.
The final table saw a heavy Chinese presence among the remaining competitors, with five of the final eight playing under a Chinese flag. Despite this, it was a little-known player from Uzbekistan who swept his fellow survivors aside at the final table to claim the title. Igor Kim managed to defeat China’s Zhang Bolei along the way to picking up a 1st prize of almost KRW20 million. This almost trebles his lifetime career cashes.
Final Table payouts :
1st – Igor Kim (Uzbekistan) – KRW19,820,000 (US$16,689)
2nd – Zhang Bolei (China) – KRW11,984,200
3rd – Roman Shcherbakov (Russia) – KRW7,450,000
4th – Yuan Yilu (China) – KRW5,040,000
5th – Aleksandr Pak (Russia) – KRW3,840,000
6th – Xing Biao Zhu (China) – KRW3,075,000
7th – Zhang Fang (China) – KRW2,550,000
8th – Huang Yiqing (China) – KRW2,150,000
9th – Ryusuke Matsuo (Japan) – KRW1,985,000
Single Day and Super High Roller events
Among the events concluding this weekend were two High Rollers. The KRW5,000,000 (US$4,207) Single Day High Roller attracted 29 players, generating a prize pool of KRW133,617,500 (US$111,896). The tournament floor was littered with poker talent, but none could stop popular Asian star Danny Tang from sweeping the field aside and claiming the victory.
Tang, who occupies 2nd place on Hong Kong’s all-time money list has now brought his career cashes up to over $7,516,000, closing to within just $250,000 of Stanley Choi. Tang has been on excellent form lately, picking up over $1.1 million in cashes during the last month alone.
The final payouts are as follows:
1st – Chi Hang Daniel Tang (China) – KRW60,130,000 (US$50,355)
2nd – Wai Kiat Lee (China) – KRW36,080,000
3rd – Yuichiro Ishimoto (Japan) – KRW22,710,000
4th – Martijn Gerrits Johannes (Netherlands) – KRW14,697,500
The second High Roller to finish yesterday was the KRW10,000,000 Super High Roller. A total of 23 players bought into this event, creating a prize pool of KRW215,291,500 (US$180,293). Over KRW100,000,000 was set aside for the champion. Four players went on to get paid, with Hong Kong’s Jamie Jin Ming Lee taking the victory after defeating China’s Xiaqing Ji heads up.
The final payouts are as follows:
1st – Jamie Jin Ming Lee (Hong Kong) – KRW104,650,000 (US$87,638)
2nd – Xiaqing Ji (China) – KRW60,585,000
3rd – Andre Lettau (Austria) – KRW40,056,500
4th – Gerald Karlic (Austria) – KRW10,000,000
Other side events
Along with the Main Event Warm Up, there has also been a Superstack, a Short Deck and Bounty event, the three of them have now concluded.
Here are the key numbers and winners.
Event 1 – KRW500,000 (US$421) Superstack (Single Re-Entry)
Entries: 52
Prize Pool: KRW22,698,000 (US$19,112)
Final Payouts:
1st – Kuen Wei Jeffrey Lo (Hong Kong) – KRW7,345,000 (US$6,185)
2nd – Su Fang (China) – KRW6,050,000
3rd – Masato Shimizu (Japan) – KRW3,065,000
4th – Kengo Sakurai (Japan) – KRW2,155,000
5th – Toyoshima Yuki (Japan) – KRW1,703,000
6th – Deng Jiwei (China) – KRW1,360,000
7th – Liu Yue (China) – KRW1,020,000
Event 2 – KRW1,000,000 (US$842) Short Deck (Single Re-Entry)
Entries: 8
Prize Pool: KRW6,984,000 (US$5,881)
Final Payouts:
1st – Xing Biao Zhu (China) – KRW6,984,000 (US$5,881)
Event 4 – KRW600,000 (US$505) Bounty (Single Re-Entry)
Entries: 86
Prize Pool: KRW27,846,800 (US$23,447)
Final Table payouts:
st – Jieming Xu (China) – KRW8,980,000 (US$7,561)
2nd – Andrei Pak (Russia) – KRW5,430,000
3rd – Yenhan Chen (Taiwan) – KRW3,375,000
4th – Deng Jiwei (China) – KRW2,285,000
5th – Toyoshima Yuki (Japan) – KRW1,740,000
6th – Kengo Sakurai (Japan) – KRW1,390,000
7th – Ben Lai (Hong Kong) – KRW1,155,000
8th – Wang Jie (China) – KRW975,000
9th – Rie Hazama (Japan) – KRW900,000
Joint 10th – Takafumi Murakita (Japan), Yakai Li (China) – KRW808,400
Asia Swing Leaderboard
The Asia Swing leaderboard is adding extra excitement to WPT’s journey through Asia, with the eventual winner set to be awarded a WPT India High Roller Package, which includes travel expenses and a $1,400 tournament entry. There will also be a $500 prize (redeemable also at WPT India) awarded to the top 3 finishers. WPT Korea is the final stop which awards points for this leaderboard, and things remain very close at the top with several events still to play.
- Seven players are currently tied for 1st on 100 points: Hamish Crawshaw (New Zealand), Le Ngoc Khanh (Vietnam), Lim Yohwan (Korea), Situ Junheng (China), Shigeji Kusakabe (Japan), Nozomu Shimizu (Japan) and Igor Kim (Uzbekistan).
- Six players are tied for 2nd, just 10 points adrift with 90. They are: Fuk On Wong (Hong Kong), Huynh Tan Dung (Vietnam), Labroo Rubin (India), Osamu Shishime (Japan), Kohei Nakai (Japan), Taro Kimura (Japan), and Zhang Bolei (China).
Still to come at WPT Korea
The best is still to come in Korea, as the Main Event’s first day 1 flight began yesterday. This KRW1,650,000 (US$1,388) buy in event has a KRW250,000,000 (US$210,326) guarantee, with day 1b playing out through the course of today.
- The KRW350,000 (US$294) Turbo Freezeout begins on the evening of Saturday 21st, and the KRW900,000 (US$757) Megastack Freezeout starts the following day.
- A 2-day KRW500,000 (US$421) PLO event gets going on Sunday 22nd.
- Sunday also sees cards hit the air in the KRW4,000,000 (US$3,365) High Roller.
- The 500K Finale (US$421) tournament begins on the 23rd, along with the KRW5,000,000 (US$4,207) Turbo High Roller. The Main Event champion will also be decided on Monday the 23rd.
Article by Craig Bradshaw
