Jinwoo Kim Takes Down Inaugural APT Korea Seoul 2018 Main Event Title For ₩26,225,000

Even as the biggest and the most extravagant poker festival of the year, the 2018 World Series of Poker seems to be grabbing everyone’s attention; closer home the Asian Poker Tour (APT) visited Korea (Seoul) for the first time and concluding the series was the Main Event that crowned Jinwoo Kim (cover image) as the champion. Kim not only captured the title and the trophy but also won the APT Championship Ring along with ₩26,225,000 in prize money.

The APT 2018 has already held three successful tours in Vietnam, Philippines, and Macau, and for its fourth stop the tour headed to South Korea. In partnership with Geutebruck Korea Inc, the series took place from June 15 – 24 in Paradise Casino at the Grand Walkerhill.

The Main Event attracted 170 entries creating a prize pool of ₩164,900,000. A total of 29 players took a piece from that pool with the Kim taking home the largest share of ₩26,225,000 after a heads-up deal with Paul Hong.

Final Table Recap

Kim began the final table in a good position and on just second hand he scored a big pot against Canada’s Hyun Kyu Bae.

The first one to make an exit from the final table was Japan’s Teruhisa Aoyama who had already lost a big stack to Hyun and soon ran out of chips for an eighth place finish.

Falling next was another short-stacked player, Japan’s Okabe Shoei in seventh place courtesy, fellow countryman Masaki Fujitani.

It took a while before the next player was railed, and it was China’s Jason Sun hitting the rails in sixth place. He held with Qx Jx that couldn’t stand up against Roman Shcherbakov’s Ax 3x.

Next out was the last Japanese on the table, Masaki Fujitani who went out in fifth place as Hong’s five pair held up against his Ax Jx.

The next elimination took a long time coming and after 26 hands it was Hyun Kyu Bae who got busted by Kim. At this point, Kim held over half of the chips in play followed by Hong and then Shcherbakov with a very short stack.

The three handed play actually seemed like a two handed one with Kim and Hong at loggerheads every hand, while Shcherbakov sat back watching. It was finally Kim who ousted Shcherbakov in third place making way for the heads-up play.

Heads up began with Kim holding a 2:1 chip advantage against Hong but was a very swingy affair as after every few hands, the chip lead exchanged. It was only after an ICM deal was discussed that left ₩2M and the title to fight for that the final hand was dealt. It was Kim who took down the hand with for top pair against Hong’s missed flush draw.

Final Table Results (KRW)

1. Jinwoo Kim – ₩26,225,000*

2. Paul Hong – ₩34,337,000*

3. Roman Shcherbakov – ₩16,744,000

4. Hyun Kyu Bae – ₩11,999,000

5. Masaki Fujitani – ₩8,915,000

6. Jason Sun – ₩6,808,000

7. Okabe Shoei – ₩5,485,000

8. Teruhisa Aoyama – ₩4,542,000

*denotes heads-up deal

Related Articles:

1. APT Macau Championships 2018: Hung Sheng Lin Crowned Main Event Champion

2. APPT Macau 2018: Series Gets Underway With Sizeable Indian Contingent in Attendance

3. PokerStars Championship Macau 2017: Pakani Lisawad on Top After Day 2 of Main Event