Zhao and Sedlak Dominate Day 1a of the 2025 TLPT Jeju Circuit Series Main Event
The first-ever standalone live edition of The Lord Poker Tournament (TLPT) at the luxurious five-star Jeju Shinhwa World Hotel has kicked off with the first of many exciting days of live poker action in one of Asia's up and coming hot spots on Jeju Island, South Korea. With an overall guarantee of US$8 million, the first two events in the poker room of Landing Casino focus more on the low-stakes players dubbed as the TLPT Jeju Circuit Series and that also includes Event #2 TLPT Circuit Main Event.
With four different starting days available, all featuring different buy-in levels and in-the-money targets, the opening flight gathered a field of 69 entries for the US$500 price tag. All of contenders vowed to finish inside the top 5% finishers but only four of them succeeded. With the vast majority of the participants hailing from China, it comes as no surprise that three of them advanced and they are joined by Vienna-based poker pro Martin Sedlak.
He was one of a handful of international players who joined the action today and Sedlak doubled into the lead on the nine-handed final table before he was leapfrogged for the top spot by Xuanzhi Zhao in the final hand of the night. Zhao bagged up 666,000, narrowly ahead of Sedlak's 625,000 and there is already a large gap to Rui Sun (281,000) as well as Weiqiang Shan (154,000).
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xuanzhi Zhao | China | 666,000 | 133 |
| 2 | Martin Sedlak | Germany | 625,000 | 125 |
| 3 | Rui Sun | China | 281,000 | 56 |
| 4 | Weiqiang Shan | China | 154,000 | 31 |
With very shallow blinds at the end, all players had to carefully navigate their way with the prospect of blinds rolling back all the way to 3,000-5,000 and a big blind ante of 5,000 for Day 2 when more of at least US$700,000 in prize money will be up for grabs. Sedlak soared into the top spot after winning a crucial flip with ace-king against the pocket jacks of Qiheng Liu thanks to an ace on the river, while the chip leader heading into the nine-handed final didn't make it through thereafter.
They will be joined by another five survivors from the evening Day 1b flight, which attracted 45 entries for the US$1,000 buy-in. At the time of writing, there were 18 hopefuls still with chips at their disposal including Stephen Song, Siddharth Karia, Gary Thompson, Julian Warhurst as well as the Taiwanese duo "winpokercouple" Huawei Lin and Nevan Chang.
Song was among the notable Day 1a casualties after he saw his ace-ten cracked by the queen-ten suited of Qun Dang. Soon after, the reigning World Poker Tour 2024 Player of the Year Yunkyu Song was also sent to the rail. After a topsy-turvy day with many all-ins, the magic of putting on his jacket ran out when his ace-nine was crushed by Jing Sun. However, on the Day 1a bubble the last woman in the field Sun saw her hopes vanish against Zhao to end the night for the final four players who all received an UD$1,000 cash bonus for reaching the money already.
Another two starting days remain for players from near and far to join the action on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. Day 1c with a buy-in of US$750 is scheduled to kick off at 2 p.m. local time and the top 7.5% of the field will reach the money. The final flight Day 1d has a higher buy-in of US$2,000 and the top 20% finishers will advance. All Day 1 survivors then return for Day 2, where the largest slice of the six-figure prize pool will be on everyone's mind.
Stay tuned for more live poker action from the TLPT Jeju live poker festival, as the PokerNews live reporting team will provide updates throughout the entire series.