The 2017 PokerStars Festival Korea Main Event, held at Paradise City Hotel & Resort in Incheon, finished with Taehoon Han emerging victorious after grinding the massive stack of chips of his heads-up opponent Yuki Ko only to scoop the first prize worth ₩83,130,000.
PokerStars Festival Korea Main Event proved once again that experience is not of vital importance in some cases when it comes to poker. Yuki Ko was the player, who appeared to be the chip-leader in most of the time. It seemed that the player will be the next winner, as he managed to accumulate a massive stack of chips. That could not be any other way as Ko got off to a flying start after the first two days of the tournament.
The Japan-based poker player Yuki Ko is one of the poker heavyweights. He is reported to have nearly $300,000 in cash from poker tournaments in comparison to Han’s modest $8,000. All these facts tipped the scales in favor of Ko, who also had many supporters among the poker fans.
In fact, it was namely Yuki Ko who entered the heads-up duel against the eventual winner Taehoon Han. The chances for Han to win the battle were not very promising, even though he had a slight chip advantage, as he managed to derail Weikuo Hsiao at third place.
Before the start of the heads-up battle, the two players discussed a possible deal. Han explained that his opponent asked too big share of the prize pool and that is the reason why the two players failed to strike the deal.
The heads-up battle between the two opponents was about to decide who will be the winner of the event. By the time the final hand occurred, Ko was holding [Jh][10h] against Han’s [Qc][Js]. The dealer flopped [10s][2c][Qd], which quenched Ko’s enthusiasm, as he bumped into Han’s stronger pair of queens. The board ran out [As] on the turn, which was of no use to both players, followed by [4d] on the river. Namely, Han’s pair of queens rocketed him to the first position.
His runner-up Yuki Ko raked ₩55,280,000 for his deep run in the event. Even though he had a massive support by his fans, he missed the opportunity to add one more first position to his list of achievements.
In a post-victory interview, the winner expressed his excitement of his triumph. He admitted that he is even happier that he did not agree on the suggested deal and continued to play with confidence. The 26-year-old poker player is born in Korea, but he moved to New Zealand, only to come back again in his home country to improve his poker skills by playing live cash games. His future plans are not clear, but one thing is for sure – he is ₩83,130,000 richer than before.
