Japanese poker pro Yuki Ko won the championship title in one of the major events of this year’s Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) series, which after a successful run in Macau continued with a stop in South Korea. Along with the first place trophy for APPT Korea National Championship and a cash prize of around US$31,800, Yuki Ko took home the $30,000 Platinum Pass for the PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship in the Bahamas.

This year, Asia Pacific Poker Tour is running for more than ten days in Paradise City Hotel & Casino in Incheon, South Korea, from April 6 through April 15. It is gathering some of the top players not only in Asia but also a large number of poker pros from all over the world. Among its major events, we saw the intriguing APPT Korea National Championship which took place from April 8 until April 11 and drew 226 players. With a buy-in of KRW700,000 (KRW630,000+70,000) or $650, the event managed to reach the initial guarantee of KRW80,000,000 and collected a prize pool of $128,440. Interestingly, Japanese players made the largest portion of the field (22.8%), followed by China (17.4%) and the USA (12.6%), according to official data released by APPT Korea. Overall, 26 nationalities were represented in the National Championship.

The final table saw nine players who returned to compete for the championship title and the $30,000 Platinum Pass for the exciting PokerStars Players NL Hold’em Championship which will be held January 2019 in the Bahamas. Among the final nine, there were several familiar faces such as 2017 PokerStars Festival Korea Champion Taehoon Han from New Zealand and WPT Korea title holder Pete Chen (Taiwan). Chip leader was Chinese player Sheng Li who entered with 1,110,000 chips, followed by Han with his 995,000 chips. The others on the final table were Japan’s Genki Nakano, Yuki Ko, Masakazu Okamoto, and Kunimaro Kojo, UK’s Simon Burns, and Korea’s only representative who reached this level, Jaebok Ryu.

All players were guaranteed to pocket at least KRW3.45 million, which is the equivalent of around US$3,245. Most were eliminated and after Burns exited in third place (KRW14,225,000), Taehoon Han and Yuki Ko got heads up for the National Championship title. The interesting thing was that last year, the two found themselves in the same situation but for the PokerStars Festival Korea Main Event in 2017. Back then, Han dominated over Ko and won the title along with a cash prize of $74,000. This year, however, at ATTP Ko managed to come out victorious, banking KRW33,835,000 ($31,800) and taking home the PSPC Platinum Pass. Ending up second, Taehoon Han was given a consolation prize of KRW22,100,000 or $20,775.

Another poker player will be heading to the Bahamas next year after winning in one of the events during this season of APPT series in Korea. This was Diego Palma, a 30-year-old professional sports bettor from Chile. He defeated Hong Kong’s Ting Shum Kwok heads-up in the APPT Kickoff, one of the three events promising Platinum Passes for winners during APPT Korea. The Kickoff saw 377 players ante up the KRW350,000 buy-in (US$325), while only 47 of them made it to the money level where they won a minimum of KRW550,000 ($515). The event increased the guarantee to KRW115,192,350 or approximately US$107,680.

This year’s APPT Korea gives 4 four $30,000 PSPC Platinum Passes to the winners of the three major events – APPT Kickoff, APPT National, and APPT Main Event (April 12 – April 15). In addition, tour organizers will hold a random Platinum Pass draw at the start of Day 2 of the APPT Main Event. All surviving players will have the chance to win the Platinum Pass which gives them a $25,000 seat to the PSPC event, $2,000 in food and beverage allowances, as well as six nights’ accommodation at Atlantis Resort, Nassau, in the Bahamas.

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