Hua Tian Zhou opened to 5,300 from the cutoff and Sparrow Cheung three-bet to 20,000 out of the small blind. Zhou took a few moments to consider his decision before he four-bet to 55,300, sending Cheung into the tank for over a minute. When Cheung saw that the PokerNews live reporting team was on the scene, he said "you're writing this hand?!"
Cheung ultimately mucked, but the highly-accomplished player still has quite a few chips to work with early on Day 2.
With 197 unique entries and 88 reentries for 285 total, PokerStars has released prize pool information. The total pool is ₩427,500,000, or roughly $382,000. The winner of the event will bank ₩83,130,000, equivalent to a bit more than $74,000. A min-cash in 39th will be worth ₩2,860,000, or about $2,500. Check the "Payouts" tab above for a full breakdown of the prize money.
After four starting flights in the inaugural PokerStars Festival Korea Main Event, 98 players out of the 285 total entries remain in contention, and they'll take their seats at Noon local time on Sunday to battle it out on Day 2 for the top prize of ₩83,130,000 and trophy.
Leading the way is Japan's Yuki Ko with 226,300, a familiar face on the Asian tournament scene with over $250,000 in live earnings to his name. Close behind him is Scott Janik with 215,800, one of the few American players in the field. Daniel Demicki (209,500), Justin Chan (203,700), Naohito Tamaya (204,800) and Dmitrii Kovalevskii (201,000) were the only other players to bag stacks north of the 200,000-chip mark after the first day of play, but with the likes of Sparrow Cheung (158,100), Takashi Ogura (140,200), PokerStars Team Pro Celina Lin (73,900), PokerStars Festival Korea High Roller winner Boyuan Qu (66,800), PokerStars Team Online Pro Randy Lew (52,700), and 2014 Asia Player of the Year Pete Chen (41,900) still in the hunt, victory won't come easy for anyone.
The field will play 12 one-hour levels on Day 2 or until eight players remain, whichever comes first. There will be a ten-minute break every two levels and a one-hour dinner break after level 18. A total of 39 places will be paid with a mincash good for ₩2,860,000 and the eventual champion taking home ₩83,130,000. Keep it here for coverage of the PokerStars Festival Korea Main Event, presented by the PokerNews live reporting team.