The Main Event of the WPT National Korea carries a KRW2,000,000 price tag for players who wish to participate, and is one of the more prestigious poker tournaments now being hosted in Asia on a regular basis. The latest edition of this event has been gathering momentum through the first three starting day flights, with day 1C having now been completed.
The total number of entries for this event is now confirmed at 152, with the prize pool guaranteed at KRW300,000,000. There were just enough entries to ensure that the guarantee figure was reached, with the field size being a fractional drop on the previous edition which attracted 160 runners in May of this year. 138 turned out in December 2015.
Day 1A and 1B
A combined total of 74 players took to the felt over the first two starting flights of this event, with only 12 appearing for day 1A. The day 1B field quickly helped the tournament organisers to breathe a sigh of relief however, as notable names poured into the tournament area. There was a former 4th place finisher in the 2012 WCOOP Main Event, a SCOOP Heads Up High Roller champion, along with local hero Dong Kim, President of Poker King Club Winfred Yu, Juicy Li, Ian Brion and Gao Xing who are all representing team PKC and many others. Kitty Kuo was also in attendance. Jon Ho Christensen emerged from the first two days as interim chip leader with plenty more action still to come on day 1C.
Day 1C
78 players pulled up a chair for the final starting flight of this event, helping the total number of entries reach a respectable count of 152.
Overall Chip leader: Hiroyuki Noda
Numerous big names made the trip to Korea for this event and many of them are still in the running. The total number of survivors returning for day 2 stand at just 80. China’s Dong Guo occupies 8th spot with 104,800, while Sixiao Li sits in 14th with 87,900. Following immediately behind are Alex Lee with 86,300, Zhou Zhou with 78,900 and Quan Zhou with 78,200. Daniel Lee and Leon Hsu are further down the order with a little over 58,000 each, with a number of other players chasing, including Ian Brion with 43,700.
The target of the chase on day 2 will ultimately be chip leader Hiroyuki Noda from Japan, who has a formidable 156,400 to carry into the second day. Xi Qiang Chen is in 2nd with 135,400, and end of Day 1B chip leader Jon Ho Christensen occupies 3rd with 131,100.
Top 5
| Player Name | Country | Chip Count |
| Noda, Hiroyuki | Japan | 156,400 |
| Chen, Xi Qiang | China | 135,400 |
| Christensen, Jon Ho | Norway | 131,100 |
| Liu, Yin | China | 130,000 |
| Li, Ang | China | 129,500 |
Read more: Combined chip counts of Day 1
Side Events
The side events saw Man Kit Ho from Macau put on an impressive display, leading from the first day to claim victory in the NLH Deepstack event for KRW7,355,000. Danny Tang from the UK also triumphed, in the NLH Turbo, picking up KRW3,343,000 along the way. In addition to their payday, both players won bonus prizes of luxury sunglasses, which were added to the prize pool by sponsor Vivant.
Article by Craig Bradshaw and Gabrielle Barredo
