Jeju Red Dragon 2018: James Won Lee Slays Baby Dragon For ₩74.31 Million (~$66,327)

The first-ever PokerStars LIVE 2018 Jeju Red Dragon currently underway at South Korea’s largest integrated resort – the Jeju Shinhwa World – Landing Casino has been the epicenter of poker action these past few days.

The record setting ₩60M Super High Roller has already crowned a worthy champion in Romain Arnaud who banked the ₩748 Million (~US$673,256) top prize. Running alongside the Super High Roller was the popular Baby Dragon, which crushed its advertised ₩300 Million guarantee on its debut run in Korea. The event attracted 298 entries that generated a prize pool of ₩312,900,000 with the top 32 finishers crossing the money line.

Taking down the inaugural event was 42-year-old poker player from U.S.A – James Won Lee (cover image), who won his career`s second largest score of ₩74,310,000 (~$66,327) along with his second PokerStars Live title. Post his win, an elated Lee said, “I don’t play many tournaments, maybe five a year so it feels awesome to become the Baby Dragon champion! It’s what I wanted, but didn’t expect it. Now I want to win the Red Dragon too.”

Rounding up the Indian representation at the event were MadOverPoker pro Zarvan Tumboli and Kalyan Chakravarthy, as both of them were among the 62 survivors of the final day but they fell short of the money line.

Albert Paik went out on the money bubble when he shoved with and got the call from a player holding pocket eights. With no help on the board, Paik missed out on the ₩2,190,000 min-cash.

Once the bubble burst, the floodgates of eliminations opened up. Notables who busted early on in the money included Peng Li (12^th for ₩5,163,000), Sheng Chen (14^th for ₩4,224,000), Feng Liu (16^th for ₩3,442,000), Yuji Takeshita (19^th for ₩2,973,000), start of the day chip leader Pete Chen (22^nd for ₩2,660,000) and Jianfeng Sun (32^nd for ₩2,190,000).

Liang Song bubbled the final table in 10^th place for ₩6,102,000.

Final Table Recap

The first casualty of the final table was China’s Yue Liu, with fellow countryman Xiao Zhu following him out in 8^th place. Zhu first got unlucky when his pocket tens were cracked by Ye Wei Tang’s pocket nines and he was unable to recover from the hit.

Hui Wang followed suit when he jammed with and got two callers in eventual champion Lee and Chi Ying Tsai with pocket fives. The board ran and Tsai`s rivered set knocked out Wang.

Weiwen Zeng went out next when his lost to Lee’s . Ye Wei Tang soon hit the rail in fifth place when his lost to Dong Chen’s pocket eights.

The last lady player on the table – Tsai shoved her seven big blind stack with pocket fives and lost out to Chen’s pocket eights to head out in fourth place.

Down to three-handed play, Lee won a huge hand when he rivered a straight with against Yin’s on the rundown . Yin was left with less than three big blinds after this hand and busted shortly thereafter.

The heads-up play saw Chen and Lee facing off against each other. The swingy match had Chen pulling up ahead early on, but he lost two back-to-back hands that saw his dream run come to an end. In the first hand, Lee’s pocket tens dominated Chen’s that got him in striking distance of the title. The very next hand, Lee hit a straight with his against Chen’s to take down the title and banked ₩74,310,000 for his finish.

Final Table Results (South Korean Won)

1. James Won Lee – ₩74,310,000
2. Dong Chen – ₩47,717,000
3. Wei Cheng Yin – ₩30,508,000
4. Chi Ying Tsai – ₩24,250,000
5. Ye Wei Tang – ₩18,305,000
6. Weiwen Zheng – ₩14,863,000
7. Hui Wang – ₩11,734,000
8. Xiao Zhu – ₩9,387,000
9. Yue Liu – ₩7,510,000

Keep following PokerGuru for more updates from the 2018 PokerStars LIVE Asia Jeju Red Dragon!