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Over the last two years, the World Poker Tour (WPT) has introduced a pronounced ‘Asia Swing’ to its calendar, adding stops in popular Asian locations in its efforts to expand its global footprint. The ongoing WPT Season XVIII began with a stop in Vietnam earlier this month before heading to Japan. Just a month before the WPT is scheduled to come visiting India for its third edition, the brand made a stop in Korea from September 17 to 23. Headlining the halt was the KRW 250 Million GTD Main Event that attracted 350 players over two starting flights. In the end, Japan’s Tadashi Takei (cover image) came out on top to win the coveted title along with the hefty ₩108,170,000 cash prize.
Takei is a relatively less known player in the live tournament circuit in Asia and had only three recorded live cashes to his name before this win. With a coveted WPT Main Event title now under his belt, not to forget the ₩108,170,000 ($90,582) boost in his winnings, Takei has undoubtedly leap-frogged into poker stardom!
The tournament prize pool of ₩509,250,000 ($426,000) guaranteed the best 40 finishers a min-cash of ₩2,600,000 ($2,177).
Final Table Chip Counts
Final Table Recap
Within the first 30 minutes of play, the final table saw its first casualty in Huidong Gu who bowed out in ninth place. Shortly after that, Dmitri Kovalevskii joined the rail in eighth place.
About an hour later, Zongxin Liu moved all-in preflop with ace-six and Chengjie Ji looked him up holding king-jack. A king on the window dimmed Liu’s chances of survival, and the rest of the board bricked out, confirming his elimination in seventh place.
Not long after that, Xing Biao Zhu was eliminated in sixth place, his king-eight failing to catch up to Roman Ro’s ace-queen.
Despite spinning up, Roman Ro lost two back-to-back hands to Xin Liu, also losing his tournament life in the latter.
The final four players jostled for the next three-and-half hours before Chengjie Ji who’d moved all-in with found Takei making the call with . The runout brought a flush for Takei and Ji crashed out in fourth place.
Several hands later, Kuang Hung Lee was sent packing in third place by Takei – Lee’s failing to hold up against the latter’s that completed a straight on the runout .
Heads-up, it was Takei in charge with a stack of 8.26 Million against Xin Liu`s 2.29 Million. Takei`s massive chip lead made this a one-sided match, and it was all over in about an hour. On the final hand of the tournament, Takei min-raised from the button for 300,000 and Liu moved all-in for 2.95 Million. Takei called it off for the showdown.
Tadashi Takei
Xin Liu
The community cards opened and Takei turned a jack-high straight to win the WPT Korea Main Event title!
Final Table Results (KRW)
Content & Images Courtesy: World Poker Tour