A New Red Dragon Champion Will Be Crowned in Jeju
Only nine players out of a field of 869 entries remain in the biggest live poker event in the history of South Korea at the Jeju Shinhwa World - Landing Casino and will aim to become the 28th Red Dragon Main Event champion in the 2019 PokerStars LIVE Asia Red Dragon Jeju ₩2,500,000 Main Event.
So far, all finalists are guaranteed at least ₩32,242,000 ($27,728) for their efforts, but the unique red dragon trophy in the most influencial poker event of the Asia-Pacific Region is up for grabs. The winner can look forward to the top prize of ₩393,553,500 ($338,456) and a luxurious Rolex watch worth USD$14,000, exclusively sponsored by 6UP – the official partner of PokerStars in Asia.
Zhihao Zhang enters the final day with 11,750,000, 45% of the chips in play, and there is a massive gap to Xin He (2,450,000) and Ting Yi Tsai (2,445,000), who sit in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Tsai is the only remaining non-Mainland Chinese player in contention and one of the most accomplished finalists with 40 live cashes – including five live tournament titles – to his name for live tournament winnings just shy of US$147,000.
All further remaining six finalists have between 10 and 20 big blinds at their disposal and one double up would significantly alter the chances of a possible top-three finish. Yifan Cao (2,045,000), Cangsheng Ni (1,880,000), Wenyan Liu (1,875,000), Dapeng Wang (1,570,000), Zhenhua Lu (1,190,000) and Rongshan Li (1,020,000) complete the line-up for the final day.
Lu has reached his second Red Dragon Main Event final table as he finished fourth to Alvin Yifang Zhang in February 2018 out of a field of 1,122 in Macau and received his largest score of HK$800,000 ($102,293) so far. Ni is the next most successful player in terms of money won, with over US$118,000 in live tournament cashes, though he has yet to win a title.
Seat Assignments for the Final Table
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wenyan Liu | China | 1,875,000 | 19 |
| 2 | Rongshan Li | China | 1,020,000 | 10 |
| 3 | Ting Yi Tsai | Taiwan | 2,445,000 | 24 |
| 4 | Yifan Cao | China | 2,045,000 | 20 |
| 5 | Cangsheng Ni | China | 1,880,000 | 19 |
| 6 | Dapeng Wang | China | 1,570,000 | 16 |
| 7 | Xin He | China | 2,450,000 | 25 |
| 8 | Zhenhua Lu | China | 1,190,000 | 12 |
| 9 | Zhihao Zhang | China | 11,750,000 | 118 |
The action is set to resume at 1 p.m. local time with 40:42 minutes remaining in level 29 at blinds of 50,000-100,000 with a big blind ante of 100,000 and the final showdown will be broadcasted live on the Red Dragon Poker website with Mandarin commentary and hole cards displayed on a security delay of 30 minutes.
All PokerNews updates until the conclusion of the tournament will be published according to the delay on the live stream.
