Russian poker player Dmitrii Kovalevskii emerged chip leader at the end of Day 1A of PokerStars Festival Korea Main Event. Day 1A suffered a slow start as only several tables were in operation when the event kicked off at 2 pm local time. Six hours later when registration had already closed, the field had escalated to 54 players who all contributed with an entry fee of ₩1,650,000. The festival is currently taking place at the luxurious Paradise City Integrated Resort in the city of Incheon, which borders the South Korean capital of Seoul.
All participants who paid the entry fee received 30,000 in chips, with the big and small blinds set at 50/100. Day 1A featured nine levels, each one lasting for 45 minutes. For hours after late registration was closed, Dmitrii Kovalevskii was named chip leader for Day 1A.
One of the reasons for the relatively small field the Main Event attracted is the PokerStars Festival High Roller event which was in progress at the same time. Despite this obstacle, the Main Event attracted the attention of some notable names in the tournament poker world, including Asia Player of the Year Jack Wu and Bryan Huang, who currently sits on top of the all-time money winners list for Singapore.
Huang was, in fact, one of the chip leaders at the table for a while but after two more hours of play, the Singapore native ultimately ended up with 90,200 in chips. Meanwhile, his opponent Jack Wu managed to boost his initial stack to 66,900 in chips.
A number of participants in the PokerStars Festival High Roller tournament hit the rail and decided to test their luck and skills in the Main Event instead of buying their way back in the High Roller. Among them were players Sparrow Cheung, Alan Lau, and Pete Chen. Transferring to the Main Event table proved to be a good decision for these players as all three of them managed to finish Day 1A successfully. Pete Chen and Alan Lau accumulated 41,900 and 38,600 in chips, respectively. Sparrow Cheung, on the other hand, was sitting on an impressive stack of 158,100 in chips at the end of the day.
Other notables who made it to the PokerStars Festival Korea were Celina Lin and American poker pro Randy Lew, more popular under the alias “nanonoko”. Both choose the High Roller over the Main Event, though. Things did not go well for Lin, but Lew succeeded in finishing the day as a runner-up, with 203,700 in chips.
Day 1A chip leader Dmitrii Kovalevskii has cashed in only once from another deep-stack event which was held last year, also in South Korea. However, after his strong performance during Day 1A of the No Limit Hold’em Main Event, Kovalevskii may add more live scores to his list of poker achievements. Players who proceed to Day 1B are to compete with the Russian’s top stack of 201,000 in chips.
The official Day 2 of the PokerStars Festival Korea Main Event is to kick off on Sunday, July 23rd again at 2 pm local time.
- Author
Harry Evans
