The ₩4,350,000 High Roller at the inaugural PokerStars Festival Korea attracted 45 entries and generated a prize pool of ₩174,600,000, the approximate equivalent of just over $155,000. Twenty-three players bagged chips at the conclusion of play with China's Boyuan Qu at the head of the pack with 253,400. Team PokerStars Online Pro Randy Lew (203,700) was the only other player to bag a stack of over 200,000. Shinji Kashima (191,400), Elias Gutierrez (190,000), and Wei Hsiang Yeu (188,100) aren't far behind, having also spun up their 50,000-chip starting stacks quite nicely over the course of the 12 levels played today.
Several other familiar faces have advanced to Day 2, including Albert Paik (167,600), Sparrow Cheung (131,300), Alan Lau (51,800). Pete Chen, who has already made two final tables at PokerStars Festival Korea in preliminary events, also bagged chips with a stack of 43,100, and Takashi Ogura bagged the short stack with 26,400.
Unfortunately, not all of the fan favorites survived to the end of Day 1 play. PokerStars Team Pro Celina Lin, Phanlert Sukonthachartnant, and Keisuke Hikosaka had all been sent to the rail by the time play concluded.
Day 2 begins at noon local time on Friday and late registration will remain open until the end of level 14, so there's a whole lot of poker left to be played in this event. Check back here for updates from the PokerNews live reporting team on the action in the PokerStars Festival Korea High Roller and Main Event, which is also already underway.
Pete Chen, who has already made two final tables at PokerStars Festival Korea, entered this tournament late and recently lost his stack to Albert Paik. The board read and when the cards were turned over, Paik showed for a flopped set and Chen mucked.
With a substantial pot of at least 10,000 already brewing and the completed board reading , PokerStars Team Online Pro Randy Lew bet 8,500 and his lone opponent called. Lew tabled for the turned nut boat, his opponent sent his cards into the muck, and Lew took the pot.
Nishiyama Hiroshi limped from the button, Randy Lew called from the small blind, and Shinji Kashima checked his option.
The flop fell and Lew bet 250. Kashima raised to 800, Hiroshi called, and Lew folded.
The turn brought the and Kashima bet 1,800. Hiroshi called.
The river was the and Kashima bet 3,000. Hiroshi raised to 15,000 and Kashima called, quickly tabling for eights full of aces. Hiroshi showed for flopped top two pair and Kashima took the chips.
Though much of the poker world still has eyes on Las Vegas, plenty of other notable events are going on around the world, and one is about to get started right here at Paradise City Hotel & Resort in Incheon, South Korea.
PokerStars Festival Korea, the biggest poker event to hit Korean soil, is about to get under way. It's the fifth PokerStars Festival event, after series were held in London, Rozvadov, Chile and Marbella. PokerNews coverage begins with Day 1 of the ₩4,350,000 High Roller, which represents a buy-in of just under $3,900.
The plan for Day 1 is to play out 12 levels, each lasting 40 minutes apiece. Players will start with extremely deep stacks of 50,000 at blinds of 50/100. They'll progress up to 1,000/2,000 by day's end. Registration is open throughout the day and players may reenter as many times as they wish.
Action timers will be in use throughout this High Roller, as has become the custom at all PokerStars high roller events. Each player will have 30 seconds per action, with three time extension chips available for use at the player's discretion.
We expect to see some of Asia's standout players, including the likes of Pete Chen, who has already put up a nice result here at Paradise City with a second-place finish in a preliminary event for ₩10,840,000. Stay tuned to PokerNews throughout the day to follow the updates.