The three most recent Asia Player of the Year champions and leader are currently playing in today’s field.
In 2013, Jian Yang took out the title after taking down the APPT ACOP Warm-up event in October followed by the ACOP Platinum Series Main Event one month later.
Reigning champion Pete Chen was awarded for his consistency after several final tables to take down the recent title.
The current leader in this year race for the title is Yuguang Li who’s efforts in taking down the Red Dragon event at the Macau Poker Cup followed by the High Roller event in the same series sees him hold a commanding lead over his rivals.
Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier was just spotted entering the poker room and with that the tournament just got a whole lot tougher. ElkY, who considers South-Korea his second home after having lived here for many years as a professional Starcraft player, plays this event every year but he's still chasing down a result in South-Korea.
Grospellier has been one of the most successful tournament pros in the world since his breakthrough win at the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Grospellier won the Main Event for $2,000,000 and added another $1.4 million to his bankrol after winning the WPT Festa a Lago in October of that year.
The French pro completed the Triple Crown in 2011 when he won his first WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event for $331,639. In total Grospellier has $10.8 million in live tournament earnings, which puts him atop the French all-time money list and 25th worldwide.
We arrived at the table with the flop showing . KC Wong bet out 1,300 from the small blind and was called by his opponent in middle position.
The landed on the turn and Wong checked his option. His opponent reached for his chips and splashed out a bet totalling 1,500 which was instantly called.
With the completing the board, Wong slid out 4,500 in chips and was immediately called. He then rolled over his but it was no good as his opponent rolled over his for a full house.
Wong now drops to 10,400 in chips early in today’s proceedings.
While the Main Event is in the beginning stages it is good to look back at what already went down here during the APPT Seoul festival. Two days ago the poker action started with the KRW700,000 ($640) Warm-Up that drew a crowd of 106 players, creating a prize pool of KRW 64.7 million.
Former EPT London winner David Vamplew made the final table and finished 8th for KRW 2.9 million and in the end of was KC Wong who beat Arnaudyvon Messager heads up. Wong took home 17.1 million KRW ($15.650) for his first-place finish and he jumped into the Main Event right away today. After his Warm-Up victory Wong now sits fifth on the current standings of the Asia Player of the Year race.
The KRW 1.1 million Pot Limit Omaha tournament took place yesterday and had 37 total entries. Late last night it was Japan's Yukihiro Yasuda who took down the event for 14.3 million KRW ($13,140) and we will keep you posted on the results of all the upcoming side events as well.
Ben Wilinofsky raised to 800 from the hijack and was called by Kitty Kuo in the blinds.
The flop came down and both players checked. The on the turn saw Wilinofsky bet out 1,200 following a check from Kuo which was enough to take down the pot.
Last year Sam Cohen had a huge run in this event, finishing third for $81,829, which is her second biggest score to date. This year things are not looking that great for Cohen who already lost most of her chips in the second level of play.
Cohen told us how she raised to 500 from early position before the flop holding pocket aces, and Kelly Liu three-bet to 1,200. Another player decided to call the three-bet and Cohen four-bet to 3,700. Lui made the call and the third player involved moved all in for 10,500.
Cohen moved all in, Liu called off her total stack of 13,000 and a three-way all in was upon us.
Cohen:
Liu:
Short stack:
The board ran out and Cohen was left behind with just 5,000 chips. Liu meanwhile sits on around 34,000 chips.
We arrived at the table with the board showing . Both Artem Lobus and his opponent checked their options before doing the same when the completed the board.
Lobus then turned over his for two pair which was enough to take down the pot. The Russian moves up to 43,000 in chips which is more then double of what he started with.
. KC Wong bet out 1,300 from the small blind and was called by his opponent in middle position.
landed on the turn and Wong checked his option. His opponent reached for his chips and splashed out a bet totalling 1,500 which was instantly called.
completing the board, Wong slid out 4,500 in chips and was immediately called. He then rolled over his 
but it was no good as his opponent rolled over his 
for a full house.
. Both Artem Lobus and his opponent checked their options before doing the same when the 
completed the board.
for two pair which was enough to take down the pot. The Russian moves up to 43,000 in chips which is more then double of what he started with.
