WPT® Seoul’s KRW 1 Billion Championship Begins, Japan Sets the Pace

WPT®'s historic first Korean festival reaches its main event this week.

It's none other than the WPT® Seoul INSPIRE Championship. Carrying a KRW 1,000,000,000 guarantee (roughly $700,000, depending on the exchange rate), it will take its first flight on Thursday, November 5. It will take place at the brand-new YY Poker Club, a world class poker venue. You'll find it inside the INSPIRE Entertainment Resort near Incheon.

Going into it, we've noticed a pattern so far. Japanese players have taken off to a flying start. They've been winning almost everything in sight during the warm-up week.

Here's what's going on:

The INSPIRE Championship is a KRW 1,750,000 buy-in event (about $1,250) with a KRW 1 billion guarantee. It's the main pull of the 46-event festival that opened October 30. It runs across four starting flights before combining for the business end:

If you're a player, you have the option to enter any or all the four Day 1s. After, we'll have the survivors bagging through to Day 2. Plus, if you get to the final table, it's livestreamed. The final table records direct from the YY Poker Club's dedicated studio on November 9.

The legal age to play in Korea is 19 and over. And, Korean-won figures are the official ones. All US-dollar equivalents are approximate are subject to change with the exchange rate.

The lead-in week belonged to the travelling Japanese contingent. It started on day one, when Daisuke Nagano took the opening INSPIRE Superstack. For Japan, it kept getting better from there. Continuing the winning trend, Fumito Murayama won the Mini High Roller Warm Up (fellow countryman Takahiro Nakayama runner-up). Also, Kyohei Tobita took a Mega Stack Turbo title.

The Super High Roller Warm Up drew 39 entries for a KRW 113,490,000 prize pool (about $85,000) and finished on November 3. Ryuta Nakai won it for KRW 37,460,000 (roughly $28,000), beating fellow Japanese player Kensuke Kanamori heads-up.

Third place went to our WPT® Global ambassador Romulo Dorea of Brazil. He banked KRW 15,890,000 (about $11,900). It's a deep run in the week's toughest field from one of our own. Hong Kong's Chun Kit Kwan rounded out the top four.

By the daily recaps from SoMuchPoker, Japanese players claimed title after title through the warm-up events. They stacked the podiums even where they didn't win. Several of the deepest runs and runner-up spots across the week went to the same contingent.

The Japanese poker boom is becoming more and more evident. This brilliant performance from Japan indicates a huge, fast-growing player base. A base that's now travelling and winning on the world stage.

In saying that, it hasn't been a total clean sweep for the land of the rising sun. American Gary Moon took a title during the week, and China's Guanglai Jin led one of the marquee warm-up events deep into its final day.

The Championship field will be no doubt an international one.

Turnout versus the guarantee. It's worth checking if Championship field clears that KRW 1 billion floor. A guarantee clearance is a clear sign of how ready the Korean market is for a big tour stop. Day 1 entry counts and chip leaders will post on WPT®'s live updates once flights begin November 5.

Can Japan take the big one too? It remains to be seen. Can it happen? No doubt. But, we'll have to see if Nakai, Murayama or any of the others can convert the side event into a title. No one can deny that they've had a promising start, however.

The first-ever WPT® Seoul champion. Whoever wins writes their name in as the inaugural champion of WPT®'s Korean debut. Will it be a regional pro, a travelling name, or an online qualifier who climbed a satellite ladder to get here? Players who won their seats through WPT® Global's online qualifiers earlier in the campaign are here. It could be the classic online-to-live fairytale finish.

The spectacle. This poker room means business. It's world class. It's new. And it's ready to host a big championship.