The Paradise Walkerhill Casino in Seoul is currently playing host to Season 9 of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour. Day 1A of the KRW3,000,000 Main Event has just been completed. It attracted a total of 116 players, of whom only 44 will return for Day 2, which is scheduled for April 11.
Day 1A was completed with Alex Ward as the chip leader with 133,800. He was followed by Canadian Tyler Jennens with 101,900 and Chinese Yunye Lu with 101,100. Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand Grospellier was probably the most popular player to enter the event. The Frenchman was, however, eliminated quite early. EPT winners David Vamplew and Ben Wilinofsky, too, were among the first to leave.
PokerStars Team Pros Aditya Agarwal and Bryan Huang, as well as rising star Yaxi Zhu will also be among those to return for Day 2. In fact, the Chinese player is one who definitely needs to be paid a bit more attention.
Zhu started gaining popularity in February 2014, when she won the 2014 Asia Championship of Poker HK$ 2,500 No-Limit Hold’em – Bounty in Macau for HK$64,900 ($8,368). A few months later, she had her EPT debut. She finished second in the EPT Season 10 Grand Final €1,000 + 100 No-Limit Hold’em – Women’s Event in Monaco. Her 12th place at the APPT 2014 Asia Championship of Poker HK$100,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event in Macau was also among her notable performances throughout 2014. There, Zhu cashed HK$406,000 ($52,352).
So far, the female player has collected as much as $236,942 in live earnings. She got her best live cash for winning the EPT Season 11/EUREKA Season 4 €2,000 + 200 #32 No-Limit Hold’em in Prague late in 2014. Zhu received there a total of €119,100 ($147,980).
The Chinese player commented in a recent interview that she has been playing poker for two years now. She entered her first tournament – WPT China – in November 2013.
Zhu likes to refer to herself as a perfectionist. She has repeatedly pointed out that she is constantly striving for improvement and that her mistakes motivate her. The Chinese has noted that she is among those players who enjoy being at the table and it is the game itself that she finds exciting, not the results or the prize pool.
Day 1B of the APPT Main Event is scheduled to kick off on April 10 at noon, local time.
