The 75 survivors from the two starting flights came together in a unified field for Day 2 of the 2013 World Poker Tour (WPT) Korea Main Event Tuesday as the first official WPT event on the Asian continent moved right along. Those who sat down with chips on Day 2 were hoping to make the money, but nobody was that fortunate. The day ended with 23 players remaining, two short of the payouts. It may have been a fitful night’s sleep for the short stacks.
“Simba” Jae Kyung Sim is the chip leader heading in to Day 3, holding 475,000 chips. Chane Kampanatsanyakorn is not all that far behind with 433,000, but then it’s a gigantic drop to the next player, Jason Park, who has just 284,000. The 300,000 chip spread between first and tenth is about as large as you will see at this stage in a similarly-sized tourney.
Sim has very little live tournament history. In fact, should he catch (which he almost assuredly will), he will already be at his third-largest score of all time. A min-cash would increase his lifetime winnings by 30 percent.
It is very common to see early chip leaders sink as tournaments progress, but it was a little surprising to lose both the Day 1A and Day 1B chip leaders on Tuesday. Zhu Ya Xi, owner of the top stack at the end of Day 1B, was eliminated at the beginning of level 14 when she was all-in with A-J on a board of A-4-9-T-Q. Not a bad hand, but Iori Yogo had pocket Aces and won the biggest pot of the day to that point.
Day 1A’s leader, Alex Lou, was knocked out in level 13.
Despite seeing his chip stack climb to over 400,000, Yogo was not able to ride that momentum to Day 3. He had to have been surprised at how it happened, too. With a pot of about 175,000 chips and a board that read A-5-2-3-A, Yogo moved all-in for 110,000. Chane Kampanatsanyakorn called and Yogo said, “Straight,” likely thinking he nailed it. But Kampanatsanyakorn trumped him, saying, “Full house,” and revealing A-3. Their stacks were almost exactly the same, but Kampanatsanyakorn had less than one big blind more than Yogo, eliminating him unceremoniously from the tournament just before the night ended.
Day 3 is just getting underway at the Ramada Plaza Jeju; when play ends for the night, we will have our six-handed final table.
2013 World Poker Tour Korea Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
- “Simba” Jae Kyung Sim – 475,000
- Chane Kampanatsanyakorn – 433,000
- Jason Park – 284,000
- Chris Park – 259,500
- Asaka Matsunaga – 246,500
- Yoshimichi Makoto – 219,000
- Hyunshik Hun – 207,500
- Gu Guan Qun – 176,500
- Masato Yokosawa – 172,000
- Linh Tran – 171,000
