HomeThe tournament floor was bustling with action in Paradise City with players coming out to attend the inaugural APT Korea Incheon 2017 opening festivities. While the event was swingin’, the official ribbon cutting ceremony took place.
From left to right, Dom Choi, Geutebruck Director, Lloyd Fontillas, APT Exceutive Tournament Director, Lee Sang Yul, Paradise SegaSammy General Manager, Park Jong Hun, Paradise SegaSammy Executive Marketing Director, and Jeff Mann, CEO of the Asian Poker Tour.
Zhou Hong Ming leads final 8 of the NLH Welcome Event
The APT Korea Incheon 2017 festival was underway at 1pm today with the NLH Welcome Event as the main attraction. At the end of six rounds, late registration closed with a 96 strong entry field for a healthy prize pool of KRW 27,936,000 (USD 24,400 approx).
While there were tons of exciting poker showdowns happening throughout the day, we picked up the action at the crucial bubble stage with 11 players remaining and Zhou Hong Ming as the commanding chip leader. It took several hands before the axe finally fell with APT Player of the Year 2016 champion, Iori Yogo, winning all of a short stacked player’s chips to drive his own to second in command.
At ten-handed, Yogo continued to climb, eliminating Bae Hyunku who pushed it all in with king-jack only to run into the Japanese pros pocket aces. Immediately after, the event came to a rapid close with chip leader Zhou burning Kham Vladislav in 9th place with 10♠ 6♠ outdrawing A♠ 10♣ on a board of 7♦ J♥ 8♥ J♦ 6♣. Zhou ended the day in full control with 298,000 in chips. The final 8 players will return on Sunday, August 13th at 1pm for the race to the title and the first place purse of KRW 7,604,000 (USD 6,600 approx).
NLH Welcome Event Final 8
Final 8 Chip Counts:
Seat 1: Genki Nakano – Japan – 63,500
Seat 2: Jeremy Alan Graves – USA – 79,000
Seat 3: Aya Ryoke – Japan – 29,500
Seat 4: Eric Ahn – USA – 122,500
Seat 5: Maj. Dave “Rock” Shepherd – USA – 111,000
Seat 6: Yam Chun Ho Edward – Hong Kong – 50,000
Seat 7: Iori Yogo – Japan – 206,500
Seat 8: Zhou Hong Ming – Singapore – 298,000 (chip leader)
Payouts
9th Kham Vladislav – Russia – KRW 1,319,000
10th Bae Hyunku – Canada – KRW 1,195,000
Singapore’s Tyler Tan wins the Ante Up for Charity
Ante Up for Charity Champion, Tyler Tan
By late evening, the first trophy left the awards table with Singapore’s Tyler Tan winning the Ante Up for Charity event. This event attracted 33 players with each one generously contributing the KRW 300,000 buy-in. A total of KRW 9,900,000 was pooled in with KRW 3,300,000 generated for the Dicha Hill Children’s Home, an orphanage in Korea for the abandoned and orphaned youth. The remaining KRW 6,600,000 was divvied up by the top five players with Tan earning the largest portion of KRW 2,640,000 and of course, the event trophy.
Prior to his victory, Tan was seen tanking for a very long time during the bubble round. He was running second in chips and was being pushed all in on a three-bet by the chip leader Watanabe Takahisa. The clock was eventually called on Tan and on the last second, he opted to put himself at risk and opened up J♣ J♦ against Takahisa’s A♣ 10♠. With the board running J♥ K♦ 2♣ 9♦ 6♥, Tan landed a big double up. Several hands later, he delivered the bubble and increased further.
At the money round, Tang Jia began his incredible ascent eliminating the next three players, Zhao Weibao (5th), Kijima Yosuke (4th), and Takahisa whose 10♦ 10♥ fell to Jia’s 8♦ 3♣ on a board of 8♣ 4♣ 3♥ 6♦ 7♦. Due to his three takedowns, Jia was up nearly 2:1 in chips against Tan at the final heads up round. However, Tan proceeded to win a majority of the hands and shipped in all the chips with a winning pocket nines over Jia’s ace-eight.
Payouts
1st Tyler Tan – Singapore – KRW 2,640,000 (USD 2,300 approx)
2nd Tang Jia – China – KRW 1,650,000
3rd Watanabe Takahisa – Japan – KRW 990,000
4th Kijima Yosuke – Japan – KRW 730,000
5th Zhao Weibao – USA – KRW 590,000
That concludes opening day of the APT Korea Incheon 2017, we will return tomorrow for another rockin’ nonstop day of exciting poker action in Paradise City.