Two High Roller Events have already crowned a champion at the 2019 PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Korea festival and defending Main Event champion Michael Soyza lifted the trophy in the two-day ₩8,000,000 ($7,050) Super High Roller. At half the prize, a single-day High Roller played down to a winner a few days ago with Toshiyuki Onda topping a 75-entry strong field. Onda cut a heads-up deal with fellow countryman Kengo Sakurai and both earned themselves a payday of ₩80,440,000 ($70,890).
The final two-day ₩4,000,000 ($3,525) High Roller Event #17 kicks off at 6.30 p.m. local time at the Paradise City Casino in Incheon, South Korea, and a bumper field is expected. The first of two tournament days will feature a total of 11 levels of 40 minutes each and the registration and re-entry period remains open until the end of level 12 on the following day. All participants receive 50,000 in chips and new entries for Day 2 would enter with 20 big blinds.
Day 1 Level Structure
Level
Small Blind
Big Blind
Big Blind Ante
1
100
200
200
2
100
200
200
3
100
300
300
4
200
400
400
5
200
500
500
6
300
600
600
7
400
800
800
8
500
1,000
1,000
9
600
1,200
1,200
10
800
1,600
1,600
11
1,000
2,000
2,000
All those that took a shot at High Roller glory and ran out of the Main Event are expected to join the action, though, the flagship event of the festival remains on the money bubble with many big names still in contention.
At the start of the event, a 30-second shot clock and time bank with a value of 30 seconds per time bank will be put into play.
At the start of play each player will receive six time bank with an additional three time bank will be issued at the start of Day 2 as well as at the Final Table. Furthermore, the event also features the popular Big Blind Ante format. In an all-in situation the Big Blind will be posted prior to the Ante.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to cover all the action as it unfolds.
On a flop of , Daniel Lee check-raised from 2,200 to 6,500 and Xiaobing He on the button made the call to see the on the turn. Lee now bet 11,500 and He moved all in.
Lee splashed in two time bank extensions right away, which caused some laughter at the table, and he ended up using one further time bank before making the call.
Daniel Lee:
Xiaobing He:
The river was a blank and Lee doubled, while He still had 40 big blinds left over.
Some 16,000 were on the middle on a completed board of and Kazuhiko Yotsushika tangled with Changyang Liu, then jammed it in only to get a snap-call by Liu.
Yotsushika turned over and Liu had snap-called for a reason, as he held the nuts with . The stacks were counted and the dealer immediately announced that Yotsushika was covered, who grabbed his belongings and left the tournament area. The stacks were counted once more and Liu had been at risk for 43,700, Yotsushika had in fact five big blinds behind that are now getting blinded out.
Keisuke Hikosaka was left with a mere 3,900 when he doubled once with versus thanks to the board. However, right after he got it in again with against the of Hie Xu and the board came .
Big stack on the table is Huijie Zhou, who confirmed he had taken the vast majority of Hikosaka's stack in a "weird hand."
On the heads-up turn of , Oleg Titov bet 11,000 in the small blind and Kenny Shih called from under the gun. The river paired the board for a second time and Titov moved all in for around 40,000, Shish verified with the dealer that the Russian was all in and snap-called.
Titov shook his head and turned over , which Shih had beat with for a full house.
In a battle of the blinds, Daisuke Ogita and Hideki Izutsu clashed when the former four-bet a flop and jammed the turn with a blank came. Ogita showed and izutsu had . The river ensured that the kicker played and Ogita doubled.
Right after, the fireworks continued. On the three-way flop of , action checked to Ogita on the button and he bet 3,000. Huahuan Feng check-raised to 8,000 in the big blind and Oleg Titov check-reraised to 19,000 in early position. Ogita called and Feng now reraised to 38,000. Titov folded and Ogita came along.
Feng bet the turn for 35,000 to pick up a call and jammed the river for effectively 41,000 to force a fold from Ogita. He flashed the and said in table chat he had pocket fours.
Fast forward one hand, Wayne Heung raised to 2,000 and Ogita three-bet to 10,000. Izutsu called all in for fewer than that and Heung folded.
Hideki Izutsu:
Daisuke Ogita:
The board came and Izutsu busted for a second time today.
A raise by a player in early position was called by Keiji Takahashi and Xiaosheng Zheng in the blinds. On the flop, Takahashi led for 25,000 and Zheng called. The initial raiser moved all in for 62,000 and Takahashi moved all in over the top for more than 180,000. Zheng gave it some thought, even asked for a count and called it off.
The player at risk showed for top pair and Takahashi revealed for middle set. Zheng was gutted and barely flipped over his for bottom two pair ... he was already drawing to running sevens only for miracle quads. It was all over on the turn for Zheng, but the short stack could still hit a straight. A blank followed on the river and Takahashi scored a massive double knockout to take the lead.
The 2019 PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Korea festival went from strength to strength thus far with bigger field sizes in all major events at the Paradise City Casino in Incheon, South Korea, and it came as no surprise that the final ₩4,000,000 ($3,525) High Roller Event turned out to be an overwhelming success.
One year ago, the very same event drew a total of 82 entries for a buy-in of ₩5,000,000 and the field size was shattered in the 2019 edition with 155 entries after 11 levels, consisting of 119 unique players and 36 re-entries. That number may still rise further, as the registration and re-entry period remains open for the first 40-minute level on Day 2 as of 1.30 p.m. local time. A prize pool of ₩556,295,000 has emerged so far, which equals approximately $490,249.
Out of the 155 entries, only 72 players advanced and Japan's Keiji Takahashi has bagged up an enormous stack of 509,500, nearly or more than two times as many chips as his nearest followers Michael Soyza (264,000), Yasreel Praveen Doddaiavar (255,000) and Daniel Smiljkovic (247,000). In level six, Takahashi was down to fewer than half the starting stack and got it in for 20 big blinds with four-two suited against ace-queen suited. Takahashi hit a deuce and doubled once more to get back into contention.
What followed in the final level of the night was the far biggest pot of the tournament so far when he scored a double knockout with a middle set against top pair and the bottom two pair of Xiaosheng Zheng. That pot catapulted Takahashi into the top spot and he will enter Day 2 at blinds of 1,000-2,500/2,500 with a sizable lead over the rest of the field.
Other big stacks and notables that advanced include Ming Huang (195,500), Linh Tran (160,500), Pete Chen (160,000), Konstantin Pogodin (160,000), Natalie Teh (136,500), Randy Lew (121,500), Oleg Titov (115,500), Ken Okada (91,000), Short-Deck Champion Phachara Wongwichit (66,500, Chin Wei Lim (62,500), two-time festival champion Yan Li (61,500), and Danny Tang (41,000). Hideki Izutsu, who final-tabled the Super High Roller, eventually made it through to Day 2 with 74,500 on his fifth bullet.
As far as Soyza is concerned, the Malaysian is having yet another stellar festival. He triumphed in the Super High Roller and went on to bag the second-biggest stack on his starting day of the Main Event after. While his title defense in that event fell short in 20th place (₩6,400,000/$5,640), he bagged up the second-biggest stack once more.
Celina Lin was the only one to represent the Red Spade in the High Roller Event and joined after she had bowed out in 22nd place in the APPT Korea Main Event. Unfortunately for Lin, she ran out of chips in the final two levels of the night and will have to re-enter in the first level of Day 2 for another shot at a deep run in Incheon.
Other notables that came and left without anything to show for on Day 1 were Christopher Park, Jun Obara, Single-Day High Roller champion Toshiyuki Onda, Jack Wu, Norihiro Otani, Yuki Ko, Robert Glasspool and Alex Lee. All of them may or may not give it another try after a good night's sleep, as Day 2 recommences at 1.30 p.m. local time. The event is scheduled to play down to a champion on Sunday, April 14th, 2019, and the PokerNews live reporting team will be your one-stop-shop until the conclusion of the tournament.