The WPT Korea Main Event rolled on with more action from Grand Jeju Paradise Casino on Thursday. Sixty players returned for Day 2, but with registration open for the first two levels of the day, that number was kicked up as 14 more entries were added to the mix. At the close of registration, 175 total entries were tallied, making good for a prize pool of more than KRW 229 million (approx. $200,000). That was a good chunk clear of the prize pool’s KRW 200 million guarantee, and the top 21 places were set to pay. The winner of the WPT Korea Main Event was set to take home KRW 56.992 million (approx. $50,000).
When day 2 was all said and done, just 26 players remained. Leading the way was Albert Paik (pictured) and his stack of 694,000. Paik entered the WPT Korea Main Event with career live tournament earnings of more than $200,000 stemming from eight cashes. The largest score of his live tournament career was his first-ever result, a victory in the APPT Seoul Main Event in 2016 for KRW 119 million (approx. $103,000). Paik is riding a little bit of a hot streak that, in combination with his chip lead, could prove the ultimate recipe for success in the WPT Korea Main Event. Just last month in August, Paik won the APT Korea Main Event in Incheon for KRW 44.8 million (approx. $39,000).
Cloest to Paik on the leaderboard is Yu Shun Ji with a stack of 590,500, and then it’s Day 1b chip leader Jessica Bian Hong Yang in third place overall with a stack of 518,500 and Day 1a chip leader Tsun Ming Chan in fourth place overall with a stack of 441,000. Rounding out the top five was Iori Yogo with 345,000, who is third on Japan’s all-time money list.
Other notables advancing to Day 3 were Poker King Club’s very own Winfred Yu with 270,000, Hao Chen with 202,500, Juicy Li with 87,500, and Bryan Huang with 49,000. Chen is known in the region for winning the WPT National Sanya Main Event to the tune of $229,523 when he topped a field of 886 entries. Huang is the winner of the WPT Korea High Roller earlier in this series and also the sixth-place finisher from the Season XVI WPT Beijing Main Event.
As 26 players return for Day 3 on Friday, five will go home empty handed. Players will return to action at 1 p.m. local time, with the plan to play down to the final six remain. As always, stay tuned to WPT.com for continued coverage of the WPT Korea Main Event.
Photo courtesy of YiqiPoker.com