The World Poker Tour (WPT) Korea Main Event has reached its climax with the Final 8 players determined. The event initially attracted an impressive 758 entries over the course of three starting days. This was followed by an intense Day 2 as the 283 advancing players battled for a spot in both the money round and in the next heat. 44 made the cut into Day 3 which was further trimmed to the final 8.
Among the contenders are hot running Russian player Valeriy Pak who recently won the Big Bounty NLH and cashed at the WPT Opener in 22nd place. He is wedged in the middle with 37 bb.
A few spots higher in the rung is 2023 APPT Cambodia Main Event champion Chao-Ting Cheng with a strong 66 bb stack. Cheng denied Pengfei Song (9th) a final 8 seat with 
straight on the turn beating Song’s 
flopped nuts straight. Cheng pushed on the river 
, Song called for his tournament life.
Only one player bested Cheng and that was China’s Tao Yin who closed Day 3 with the biggest stack of 77 bb. Tao catapulted to the top of the counts in three hands starting with the elimination of Goto Takeshi in 12th place with 
turning the Ace to bust 
. Shortly after, Tao cracked cowboys again, with 
flopping the two-outer Jack to eliminate Wang Yanfeng’s 
. For the hat trick, Tao eliminated Yuzhou Yin in 10th place.
When the final 8 players return on Saturday, July 21, they are each guaranteed KR₩ 50,300,000 (~USD 39,100) but of course the top prize will be most coveted, the KR₩ 405,188,000 (~USD 315,000) champion’s purse and the first WPT Korea Main Event title since 2019.
You can watch some of the daily action via the livestream by Sharehand broadcasted in the WPT YouTube page with Tony Dunst, Matt Savage, Scott Baumstein, Bryan Paris, Henry Kilbane, Chris Soto, Jamie Kerstetter, and AJ Rudolph alternating on the commentary. You can also read up on the action via the Live Updates.
WPT Korea – Livestream
WPT Korea Main Event – Live Updates
Buy in: KR₩ 3,400,000 (~USD 2,680)
Guarantee: KR₩ 2,000,000,000 (~USD 1,575,600)
Entries: 758
Prize pool: KR₩ 2,246,947,400 (~USD 1,770,200)
Day 2: 283 players
ITM: 95 places
Final 8 players
| Rank | Seat | Player | Flag | Stack | BB |
| 1 | 6 | Tao Yin | China | 9,625,000 | 77 |
| 2 | 7 | Chao Ting Cheng | Taiwan | 8,300,000 | 66 |
| 3 | 4 | Li Jiang Liu | China | 5,450,000 | 44 |
| 4 | 5 | Chun Hao Zhang | China | 5,425,000 | 43 |
| 5 | 2 | Valeriy Pak | Uzbekistan | 4,675,000 | 37 |
| 6 | 8 | Shu Jianguo | China | 2,175,000 | 17 |
| 7 | 3 | Zhu Hong | China | 1,875,000 | 15 |
| 8 | 1 | Toshihide Sawada | Japan | 800,000 | 6 |
Remaining payouts
| Place | Payout in KR₩ |
| 1 | 405,188,000 |
| 2 | 266,500,000 |
| 3 | 192,500,000 |
| 4 | 146,500,000 |
| 5 | 110,300,000 |
| 6 | 82,000,000 |
| 7 | 64,930,000 |
| 8 | 50,300,000 |
Main Event Day 3 recap
Day 3 of the Main Event kicked off with 44 players back on the hunt. Among the first to go was Japanese high roller Fabio Oka in 42nd place. On a three-bet pot preflop, Oka jammed with 
mid pair flush draw on a flop 
that failed to improve on the turn and river 
against 
set.
WSOP bracelet winner David Yan also bounced out in Day 3, falling in 27th place. Australian pro Aaron Lim followed out when he tank-called all in on the river with 
two pair, only to drop to crumbs on a player’s 
flush on a board 
. Lim was eliminated in 23rd place.
Main Event satellite winner Jun Mondalo took his ticket all the way to 19th place, busting with 
to Zhu Hong’s 
. The day’s entering chip leader Yuwen Pan was also one of the day’s casualties, denied in brutal fashion with 
cracked by on a board 
.
*Full list of payouts in WPT Korea – Festival Results
Side Event results
Liu Yin wins the NLH Survivor Bounty
Buy in: KR₩ 850,000 (~USD 660)
Entries: 153
Prize pool: KR₩ 61,514,000 (~USD 47,830)
Bounty pool: KR₩ 26,010,000 (~USD 20,220)
ITM: 20 places
Final table payouts
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in KR₩ |
| 1 | Liu Yin | China | 14,984,000 |
| 2 | Zhang Chenxu | China | 10,000,000 |
| 3 | Ding Yu Jia | China | 7,130,000 |
| 4 | Tamalayan Joseph Jimenez | United States | 5,190,000 |
| 5 | Taniguchi Itsuki | Japan | 3,860,000 |
| 6 | Jae Moo Young | United States | 2,930,000 |
| 7 | Wong Ka Fai | Hong Kong | 2,270,000 |
| 8 | Okada Takeya | Japan | 1,810,000 |
| 9 | Jie Dai | China | 1,470,000 |
Lin Wei wins the 8-Max NLH
Buy in: KR₩ 510,000 (~USD 400)
Entries: 64
Prize pool: KR₩ 28,495,000 (~USD 22,155)
ITM: 8 places
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in KR₩ |
| 1 | Lin Wei | China | 9,315,000 |
| 2 | Fan Chunsan | China | 6,210,000 |
| 3 | Khodov Vladimir | Russia | 4,140,000 |
| 4 | Yu Wenguang | China | 2,880,000 |
| 5 | Nakata Daigo | Japan | 2,080,000 |
| 6 | Hu Jin Long | China | 1,580,000 |
| 7 | Kataoka Toshio | Japan | 1,250,000 |
| 8 | Yu Daesun Samuel | United States | 1,040,000 |
*Full list of payouts in WPT Korea – Festival Results
WPT Korea High Roller
Upcoming in a day’s time is the final key event of the festival, the WPT Korea High Roller which features a buy in of KRW 17,000,000 (~USD 13,400). Elite players have already been seen since the opener. You can expect more to make their way for this final key event. Event runs July 23 to 24, 2023.
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.
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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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