The 2024 Asian Poker Tour (APT) stop in Jeju is officially underway and the opening day on April 26, 2024 at Landing Casino was certainly a successful one. Seven different tournaments took place and the most notable ones were the All-Star Showdown and the Korea National Cup opener.
Asian Poker Tour Jeju – Korea National Cup
The KRW 800,000 (~USD 600) buy-in Korea National Cup which drew 404 entries ensured that the KRW 200M guarantee (~USD 150,000) was surpassed and both flights played down to the money bubble with the top 14% each advancing to Day 2. The turnout was significantly boosted by players from China, which represented almost half of the field.
“Our opening day at APT Jeju 2024 is a much stronger start than last year’s record-breaking poker festival in South Korea. We expect a rush of players to arrive throughout the weekend so I’m quietly optimistic that we can do something special over the next nine days,” Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the APT told Somuchpoker.
Day 1A recap
Day 1A attracted a field of 201 entries (162 unique players) and the top 29 finishers bagged up chips. Fei Wang turned his starting stack of 30,000 into 519,000 to top the first flight ahead of Hong Kong’s Ki On Chan (465,000) while Jie Xu finished third with 391,000.
Other notables to bag up big stacks were Hao-Shan Huang (386,000) and Yen-Han “Pete” Chen (375,000), both hailing from Taiwan. French pro Alexandre Viard (184,000) and Matthew Ginn (98,000) were the only non-Asian players to advance from Day 1A, while well-known pros Dicky Tsang (51,000) and Alan “King Lun” Lau (40,000) scraped through with short stacks.
Day 1B recap
An almost identical attendance was then generated on Day 1B, which drew 203 entries of which were 170 unique players. The same 29 spots ensured the survival to the money stages and Baiyu Ni narrowly missed out on the overall lead with 513,000 in chips. Manato Goto from Japan (387,000) and Tao Wang (384,000) claimed the other two spots of the Day 1B podium.
Notables to make it through via the second flight include Timothy Yim (334,000), Kiwanont Sukhum (233,000), Tae Hoon Han (225,000), Hairong Ma (192,000), Man Lok Chan (180,000), as well as Joshua Tan (128,000) while China’s Zhong Zheng was eliminated on the bubble.
All survivors secured a min-cash of KRW 1,225,000 (~USD 888) and the nine-handed final table will pay at least KRW 5,247,000 (~USD 3,800) for their efforts. The winner can look forward to a payday of KRW 20,035,000 (~USD 14,538) and will be crowned on April 27, 2024.
Danny Tang redeemed at All Star Showdown
Another highlight of opening day was the invitational All-Star Showdown with eight highly decorated players and one wild card player Hao-Shan Huang enjoying the day battling for the special title. During the first edition of this event held in Taiwan, Hong Kong’s Danny Tang finished runner up to wild card player Lung Lung. This time however was much different.
Rising among his peers Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Punnat Punsri, Daisuke Ogita, Marc Rivera, Dong Chen, and Weiran Pu, the four-time Triton champion Tang redeemed himself to claim the winner-take-all pot of KRW 23,517,000 (~USD 17,135) plus a seat worth KRW 2.5 Million to the Main Event. Tang defeated three-time WSOP champion Anson Tsang at heads up.
“I’m feeling good! My first APT trophy since the new era rebranding so yeah, I’m happy,” Tang stated to APT immediately after his win.
Tang will be seen throughout the entire series having stated he will be attending all of the High Roller events and of course the Main Event.
APT Jeju – Main Event
Several other key events are coming up soon but all eyes will be set on the 2024 APT Jeju Main Event, which runs from April 29 until May 4, 2024. The tournament features a buy-in of KRW 2.5 Million (~USD 1,875) buy-in and a massive guarantee of KRW 2 Billion (~USD 1.5 Million).
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*Article by Christian Zetzsche
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