Out of a field of 1,089 entries in the 2024 APT Jeju Main Event, only 96 players returned to their seats at the Landing Casino at Jeju Shinhwa World. After 10 levels of 60 minutes each, the field of hopefuls was culled down to just 15 hopefuls and they are all competing for the biggest slice of the KR₩ 2,376,742,500 (~USD 1,726,125) prize pool.
Best-positioned to claim the top prize of KRW 429,292,500 (~USD 311,735) is Sergei Kim from Russia with 7,350,000 and he is well ahead of Chinese poker pro Xixiang Luo (5,550,000) as well as Mingchen Zhang (5,105,000), who also hails from China.
Eight of the final 15 contenders hail from China, who has claimed the most trophies during the most successful APT stop in South Korea so far. However, the arguably biggest name still in contention besides Luo is Thailand’s Phanlert Sukonthachartnant, fifth on the leaderboard with 3,000,000 and right ahead of the UK’s Jason Wong (2,650,000). Also still in the mix are Kyung Min Lee (2,480,000) as well as Kai Cheng Hsu (2,300,000).
Most of Kim’s big stack came from a late clash with Singapore’s Jun Hao Wu, who saw his jacks ahead versus pocket tens only for a dreadful ten to appear on the turn. Wu busted shortly after this major setback and had to settle for a payout of KR₩ 16,660,000. Decorated player Christian Harder made the next pay jump to KR₩ 19,040,000 and fell in 17th place.
Among those to fall on Day 3 were further notables such as Hiroyuki Noda and Wei Zhao, who earned KR₩ 10,150,000 for reaching the final four tables. The same payout was also reserved for Kannapong Thanarattrakul, who currently sits in second place of Thailand’s all-time money list according to The Hendon Mob.
Yuhan Liu, Natural8 ambassador Yu Chung Chang, Sho Katsura, Hon Cheong Lee, Day 3 chip leader Ya Ke Lien, Hua Wei Lin, Thaisorn Saelor, and Tae Hoon Han were likewise sent to the payout desk as well. Former APT Main Event champion Dicky Tsang saw his bid for a second title cut short when he bowed out in the early stages, earning KR₩ 5,280,000 for 89th place.
There are around 40 minutes left at blinds of 50,000-100,000 with a big blind ante of 100,000 as two eliminations at the same time during the upcoming two-table redraw halted the action for the night. All players have KR₩ 21,410,000 (~USD 15,791) locked up already with the eyes set on the elusive APT Main Event trophy.
The 2024 APT Jeju Main Event will play down to a winner as of 11.15 a.m. local time on May 4, the penultimate day of the series on Jeju island. New notable tournaments to kick off on the same day are the Mini Main Event and the KR₩ 7 Million (~USD 5,095) APT High Roller.
2024 APT Jeju Main Event Becomes Biggest International Poker Tournament in South Korea
*Article by Christian Zetzsche
About The Author
