Yin Tao was crowned as the champion of World Poker Tour Korea hosted at Jeju Shinwa World last weekend. The Chinese poker player was awarded $232,667 and the WPT trophy for his first tournament victory.
“What an incredible experience Jeju has been, from the player turnout to the celebrations and all-around atmosphere.” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska on the final day of the tournament. “Thank you to our partner Jeju Shinhwa World for the exceptional hospitality and for putting on a world class event, and congratulations to Yin Tao for becoming our WPT Korea champion.”
The KRW 3,400,000 (USD $2,643) buy-in event attracted a large field of 758 entries that made an extra day of play necessary to reach a winner. The top 95 players all took home at least $4,314 in prize money. After three starting flights there were 238 players that returned for day 2, and just 44 remained at the end of play. The third day of the tournament saw the field shrink to the final eight players.
When the last day of play began Tao was securely in the chip lead, and he quickly boosted his stack even more by taking out Hong Zhu in eight place and Li Jiang Liu in seventh place.
When the tournament reached the final three players they decided on an ICM chop before playing things out to decide who would take home the tournament title. Chao Ting Cheng had the chip lead at that point so he was awarded the largest piece of the prize pool with $251,595, Tao locked up $232,667, and short stack Valeriy Pak was guaranteed $197,332.
Tao scored a double up through Cheng to take the chip lead back, and then Tao took out Cheng in third place to even the stacks up before the start of heads-up play. After a back-and-forth battle initially, Tao had taken complete control by the time the final hand was dealt.
Pak got all in short with 5Club Suit3Club Suit, and Tao held 9Heart Suit4Spade Suit against him. The final board was dealt 7Spade Suit6Club Suit6Heart Suit10Club SuitQHeart Suit, and Pak was knocked out in second place.
