By Danny McDonagh
One of my roles at WPT has been to broaden the number of WPT events in the Asia Pacific and as part of this expansion of events, we had our first ever Asia Swing commencing this September in the countries of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.
The three events comprised a return to Tokyo for the second WPT Japan event, a new venue for WPT Korea at Paradise City in Incheon and the first ever WPT event in Vietnam. Plus, the first ever WPT Global Teams Event was conducted at WPT Korea.
Overall the events were a success and it was extremely pleasing to see the WPT brand really stamp its presence in Asia.
Here are a few snippets that come to mind with this Asia Swing:
There was not a lot of money on the line for the WPT Global Teams Event, but you wouldn’t know it watching the teams participating with great comraderie and intensity. Many of the 14 participating countries had formed teams with the top ranked players from their country, contrasting with WPT League qualifiers from Australia and entertainment industry leaders from Japan headlined by GACKT (pictured).
Team Japan actually took the early lead after Event 1, however, the extremely well credentialled Team China took both the preliminary points award and won the final to steal the show. My humble thanks to the team captains for putting together such quality teams and supporting this event which is planned to return in 2019.
The enthusiasm of Japanese poker players really stands out in my mind from my time in Tokyo. Despite the top prize being a $13,000 WPT passport to be used at any global WPT event, you would never know it seeing the final table action and excitement displayed by the WPT Japan champion Shingo Endo. Shingo has just confirmed he will use his prize to play the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December. The WPT Live Events brand is just one year old in Japan so it was pleasing to see some very solid increases in side event numbers year on year.
Personally, it was a great pleasure for WPT Korea to come to Paradise City at Incheon as my great friend and former colleague Dom Choi manages a great poker team there. WPT set a significant new player record for the brand in the country with 283 entries in the main event while the High Roller events also impressed with 89 in the KRW4 million HR event and three last-minute large buy-in events were also added.
Congrats to Ivan Leow and Simon Davis triumphing in the KRW15.5 million SHR1 and SHR2 events respectively while Japan’s Mitsuhiro Shiga won the KRW 10.2 million Turbo High Roller on the final day. In total the HR events awarded a total of KRW109.7 million ($985,000) in prize money.
The WPT Asia Swing had the most profound effect on the last event, WPT Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. Poker has exploded there over the past 12 months and it was always going to push a 500+ Main Event field based on local interest. However, there was a very sizable contingent of international players, many who decided to join while playing WPT Korea.
This included 34 unique main event participants from India, many of whom found out about the event from fellow countryman Dhaval Mudgal. Thus, it was a very fitting result to see Dhaval triumph over the 679-strong main event field, which set a significant new prizepool record for Vietnam, a tremendous achievement for WPT’s debut Vietnam event. The High Roller event attracted an excellent 224 players and it was good to see that title stay in local hands.
Congrats also to Kevin Ayow on being the inaugural Asia Swing champion with his fifth in the WPT Korea Main Event and win in the Pro Poker Club SuperStack classic in Vietnam. Kevin will be participating in the WPT India main event courteous of this win.
Finally, WPT India is the next stop in WPT Asia Pacific in fabulous Goa. A main event of well over 500 players is assured and please do come experience this unique event aboard the Deltin Royale and the India poker player hospitality. For more details go to WPT.com.