The 2019 PokerStars Red Dragon Jeju ?2,500,000 Main Event Sets New Record
It was an extremely busy day at the Jeju Shinhwa World - Landing Casino as the poker room was entirely filled with poker enthusiasts from near and far, all taking their shot at one of the most prestigious live events of the Asia Pacific Region. At times, the flagship event of the festival had to go 10-handed in order to accommodate the growing field.
For the second time, the Red Dragon Main Event is taking place in Jeju and a new attendance record for a major live poker event in South Korea was already secured half-way through Day 1b of the 2019 PokerStars LIVE Asia Red Dragon Jeju ?2,500,000 Main Event.
Not only were the 613 entries of the previous year surpassed by a decent margin, but the guaranteed prize pool of ?1,000,000,000 was also almost doubled.
After a promising first starting day with 252 entries of which 80 bagged and tagged, Day 1b attracted a staggering 444 entries including 360 unique players and 84 re-entries. On top of that, the turbo heat 1c followed right after with levels of 20 minutes each. Another 173 entries were added to the equation and boosted the total field size to 869 entries, creating a prize pool of ?1,896,592,500 (~$1,626,470).
The 2019 Red Dragon Main Event in Jeju at a Glance
| Day | Total # | Unique Entries | Re-Entries | Survivors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1a | 252 | 223 | 29 | 80 |
| Day 1b | 444 | 360 | 84 | 143 |
| Day 1c | 173 | 137 | 36 | 77 |
Huge Field Emerges for Day 1b
Even before the cards went in the air, more than 100 players were registered and it was a sign of things to come with dozens of players pouring into the poker room at the Landing Casino by the minute. It didn't take long to surpass the Day 1a field and dozens of players bowed out before the first break and immediately jumped back in thanks to the single re-entry option for each flight.
Defending Jeju champion Yuechun Shi was one of those early casualties when he ran with queens into aces and failed to catch any help, instead, Bing Zhou rivered a full house in the second level of the day. Shi re-entered in Day 1b without success and tried his luck in the final flight, too, but was unable to advance to Day 2.
Three further former Red Dragon slayers entered the final two flights in order to become the third two-time champion in the 11 years since the inception. Denny Feng was a contender for the Day 1b lead but lost a three-way all-in at the very end, however, he still bagged up a very respectable 160,000. Alvan Yifan Zheng advanced with 105,000 and Kenichi Takarabe made it through with a short stack of 38,500.
It was a very close race for the honors of being the Day 1b chip leader and ultimately Canlin Chen prevailed after claiming 238,000 to is name. Other notables with big stacks in the second flight are Hoa Thinh Nguyen (225,500), Tianyuan Tang (215,000), Paul Newey (203,000), Kilian Loeffler (196,500), Lei Yu (182,000), Nan Hong (174,000) and Daniel Lee (164,000).
Newey won a lot of smaller pots and mentioned one particular hand that boosted his stack significantly when he called a big jam with ace-king of diamonds and sent an opponent to the rail who had ace-king, as three diamonds appeared right away on the flop.
Many other big names came and left without anything to show for, their chances reduced to the last turbo flight such as Xixiang Luo, Graeme Siow, Chen An Lin, Kazuhiko Yotsushika, Joshua Zimmerman, and Victor Chong.
The third and final starting day kicked off with around 50 players in their seats and as soon as the notables fell on Day 1b without any option to re-enter anymore, they headed straight to Day 1c. High Roller finalist Bin Wang, Michael Soyza, Hao Tian, Dingxiang Ong and Lester Edoc all came up short in their bid to run up a stack.
With the reduced level duration of 20 minutes came a very fast-paced playing style and the stacks were sent on a wild roller coaster ride. Soyza saw his hopes fade away when kings were cracked by the pocket jacks of Albert Paik and Wang ran out of chips in a three-way all-in versus Yuan Yilu and Ting Shum Kwok.
For Paik Day 1c ended in rather disappointing fashion as he doubled Szymon Wysocki and Yakai Li in quick succession to bag up 53,000. The race for the chip lead was a tight one as Zhanwei Du edged past all other contenders at the very end with a stack of 161,000. Shenming Yin (150,500), and Hao Chen (146,500) complete the remaining podium spots.
Only 77 players made it through in the end with notables such as Jiayu Ruan (134,500), Szymon Wysocki (131,000), Xixiang Luo (115,000), Jun Obara (99,500), and Daniel Demicki (89,000) all earning above-average stacks for Day 2.
The Main Event continues on Tuesday, November 12th, 2019, as of 1 p.m. local time with blinds of 1,000-2,500 and a big blind ante of 2,500. As of Day 2, the level duration increases to 60 minutes each and the prize pool information will be released before the cards go back in the air.
Ben Lai Wins Single-Day High Roller
At the same time as Day 1b of the Main Event, another ?5,000,000 High Roller was scheduled to take place and kicked off with a slight delay. Ultimately, there were a total of 32 entries to create a prize pool of ?141,232,000 ($121,460) and the top six spots were paid.
Ben Lai was the early frontrunner at the top of the chip counts and would be the one to pose for the winner shots after defending Ye Wang in heads-up. In the final hand, Lai slow-played kings pre-flop and jammed on a queen-high river to get called by top pair. For his efforts, Lai takes home ?48,018,000 ($41,295). Wang won a Single-Day High Roller in Jeju one year ago and finished 3rd in another High Roller in Jeju earlier this year.
Among those that also took home a portion of the prize pool were Dong Chao, Phachara Wongwichit, Derek Ip and Natalie Teh. Luke Lee ended up as the bubble boy, which ensured back-to-back High Roller cashes for Wongwichit, as well as for Ip in his second-ever live MTT. Reigning APPT Korea Main Event champion Sparrow Cheung, Pete Chen, Jamie Lee, James Won Lee, Alex Lee and Quan Zhou were some of the familiar names that missed out on the money.
Final Result ?5,000,000 Single-Day High Roller
| Place | Winner | Country/Region | Prize (in KRW) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Lai | Hong Kong | ?48,018,000 | $41,295 |
| 2 | Ye Wang | China | ?33,190,000 | $28,543 |
| 3 | Dong Zhao | China | ?21,185,000 | $18,219 |
| 4 | Phachara Wongwichit | Thailand | ?16,242,000 | $13,968 |
| 5 | Derek Ip | Hong Kong | ?12,711,000 | $10,931 |
| 6 | Natalie Teh | Malaysia | ?9,886,000 | $8,502 |
More High Roller action awaits at the end of the festival in Jeju while the main focus in the next few days will be on the prestigious Red Dragon Main Event and the upcoming Baby Dragon tournament. Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to find out who will make it one step closer to possibly claim one of the most-unique trophies on the live poker circuit on Wednesday, November 13th, 2019.