The inaugural World Poker Tour (WPT) Korea Main Event continued Monday as another round of players gathered at the Ramada Plaza Jeju in South Korea, all gunning for a shot to become the first WPT champion to be crowned on the continent of Asia. Emerging from the scrum as the chip leader was Zhu Ya Xi, proud owner of 165,200 chips.
Day 1B, as expected was larger than Day 1A, but also as expected, it was still fairly small. At total of 87 runners paid the $3,000 to play, so combined with the 50 from the first flight, Korea’s first World Poker Tour event is 137 players strong. The total prize pool is $358,803, producing the following payout schedule:
1st place: $100,000 (WPT World Championship seat included)
2nd place: $60,700
3rd place: $38,500
4th place: $28,500
5th place: $21,400
6th place: $17,100
7th place: $14,200
8th place: $11,400
9th place: $8,500
10th -12th places: $6,200
13th -15th places: $5,100
16th -18th places: $4,400
19th – 21st places: $3,800
Zhu Ya Xi, in addition to being the chip leader of Day 1B, is also the overall chip leader in the tournament, well ahead of Day 1A leader Alex Lou, who has 125,000 chips. With blinds set to be 400/800 with a 100 chip ante, that 40,000 chip difference is quite significant.
Zhu escalated to the tournament’s highest perch thanks to a big hand during the day’s final level. After a pre-flop raise to 1,500, both she and another player called. On the flop of J♠-T♠-7♥, Zhu bet 3,000. One opponent raised to 8,000, the other two folded, and Zhu three-bet it up to 13,000. Then the fireworks started. The other player re-raised to 27,000, Zhu five-bet to 40,000, her foe moved all-in for another 21,775, and Zhu called. Zhu turned over J♣-T♦ for top two pair, a much better hand than her opponent’s 8♦-7♣. The turn and river changed nothing, allowing Zhu Ya Xi to grow her stack to near where it ended the night.
The 75 survivors from the Day 1flights will get together at 2:00pm Korea Standard Time (midnight EST) for Day 2 of WPT Korea. The plan is to play eight more levels before calling it a night.
2013 World Poker Tour Korea Main Event – Day 1B Chip Leaders
1. Zhu Ya Xi – 165,200
2. Hyunshik Yun – 119,300
3. Gu Guan Qun – 114,200
4. Chris Park – 111,000
5. Zhang Jian – 104,900
6. Masayuki Kamegawa – 102,000
7. Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – 90,500
8. Wei Guo Liang – 87,600
9. No Seung Worl – 85,900
2013 World Poker Tour Korea Main Event – Overall Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Zhu Ya Xi – 165,200
2. Alex Lou – 125,000
3. Hyunshik Yun – 119,300
4. Gu Guan Qun – 114,200
5. Chris Park – 111,000
6. Zhang Jian – 104,900
7. Masayuki Kamegawa – 102,000
8. Mesato Shimizu – 91,300
9. Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – 90,500
10. Liu Peng Cheng – 88,100
