Baby Dragon Sets Record in South Korea With 593 Entries; 72 Return for Final Day
While Day 3 of the 2019 PokerStars LIVE Asia Red Dragon Jeju ₩2,500,000 Main Event was playing down to the nine-handed final table, another tournament ran concurrently and continued the success of the festival at the Jeju Shinhwa World - Landing Casino.
Both starting days of the ₩1,500,000 Baby Dragon ensured a busy day at the poker tables and resulted in a record for this very event in South Korea as it nearly doubled the 298 entries of the previous year.
Day 1a drew a total of 363 entrants (296 unique players) and the evening flight with 20-minute levels gathered another 230 entries (190 unique players) to create a field of 593 total entries.
The prize pool stands at a sizable ₩ 776,534,000 (~$662,815) and the winner will take home a top prize of ₩168,502,000 (~US$143,830).
With the format playing down to the money and paying out 12 percent of the field each starting flight, a total of 44 Day 1a players locked up a payday of at least ₩2,796,000 (~US$2,385).
China's Qiuning Zhang bagged up a sizable lead with 852,000 in chips on a single bullet and the next closest rival Xinglai Yitrails by quite a margin with 597,000. Former Red Dragon Main Event champion and 2019 Main Event bubble boy Dengfeng "Denny" Yu rounded out the top three Day 1a stacks with 594,000 in chips.
Other Day 1a notables who battled through to Day 2 include China's Bin Zhao (463,000) and Dong Chen (299,000), Taiwan's Chien Fa Chou (223,000) and Australia's Kelvin Beattie (173,000).
Defending champion James Won Lee was in the running but was unable to make it through to Day 2, with other notables to come up short, at least on the opening flight, including Thailand's Phachara Wongwichit, Singapore's Alex Lee, reigning APPT Korea Champion Sparrow Cheung, the Philippines' Mike Takayama and Taiwan's Hung Sheng Lin to name but a few.
Bo Jin topped the counts of the second starting flight and returns second in chips for Day 2 with a stack of 628,000. China's Sun Guodong (617,000) and Thailand's Kannapong Thanarattrakul (432,000) rounded out the top three Day 1b stacks, with other notables to bag big including the previously mentioned Wongwichit (393,000), Taiwan's Chen An Lin (336,000) and China's Hao Chen (276,000).
Only 28 players made it through Day 1b and 72 remaining survivors returned to their seats at 1 p.m. local time to play down to a champion. Day 2 features a level duration of 40 minutes and the action recommenced with blinds of 5,000-10,000 and a big blind ante of 10,000. The event will play down to a champion today and the average stack at the start was just shy of 25 big blinds.
Top 10 Chip Counts for Day 2
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qiuning Zhang | China | 852,000 | 85 |
| 2 | Bo Jin | China | 628,000 | 63 |
| 3 | Sun Guodong | China | 617,000 | 62 |
| 4 | Xianlai Li | China | 597,000 | 60 |
| 5 | Dengfeng Yu | China | 594,000 | 59 |
| 6 | Yucheng Xiao | China | 524,000 | 52 |
| 7 | Ferlyn Cabaling | Philippines | 483,000 | 48 |
| 8 | Bin Zhao | China | 463,000 | 46 |
| 9 | Kannapong Thanarattrakul | Thailand | 432,000 | 43 |
| 10 | Nengyue Chen | China | 421,000 | 42 |
