In mid-May, the highly anticipated Ace Poker League (APL) City Series 2023 unfolded at the Swiss Grand Hotel in Seoul, South Korea with games taking place for five days from May 10 to 14, 2023.
The exciting series boasted a festival prize pool of KR₩ 1,854,000,000, which translated to an impressive 1.42 Million USD, across eleven thrilling events. For the first time in APL history, nearly all the events broadcasted live, allowing poker fans around the world to witness the booming poker action in the country. The Main Event saw the largest viewership of 7,500 online spectators. Here are some of the highlights and results from the APL Series 2023.
For those that missed out, APL has stated that the next festival to look forward to is in September. Stay tuned for all the details.
HYUNSUP KIM wins the Main Event
The star of the festival was none other than the Main Event which came loaded with a KR₩ 1,100,000,000 (~US$ 842,830) prize pool. Many of the region’s most well known and decorated players were among the 1,385 entries, and many made their presence felt by running deep into the money round. Among them were Sung Joo Hyun (44th), Sim Jae Kyung (22nd), Gab Yong Kim (15th), and Steve Yea who just missed the final table in 11th place.
With word out that APL produces the biggest events in Korea, it was just a matter of time before international players tried to win their share. 2022 WPT Prime Taiwan champion Marc Inizan from the UK was one of them, he placed 41st. Taiwan’s Hsing Hsiung Tai aka David Tai (CTP / Asia Poker Arena founder) placed 38th, and a Frenchman named Antoine found his way to the final table, finishing in 8th place.
At four-handed, the players opted to split the money evenly and Hyunsup “Dipper” Kim went on to become the champion. This was Kim’s first ever APL victory and his eighth title for the year. Prior to this win, he championed the Super High Roller title at the Crown Poker Series in Da Nang, Vietnam hosted by Korea’s Lucky Poker organization. Kim is one of the hottest running players from Korea today with US$ 328K in live earnings accumulated this year alone.
Buy in: KR₩ 1,000,000 (~US$ 765)
Prize pool: KR₩ 1,100,000,000 (~US$ 842,830)
Entries: 1,385
ITM: 150 places
Final 9 payouts in KR₩
1 Hyunsup “Dipper” Kim Korea 132,500,000*
2 Yang Yo Hwan Korea 132,500,000*
3 Park Chang Geun Korea 132,500,000*
4 Jeonghyun “Ghosty” Kim Korea 132,500,000*
5 Dohyeong Kim Korea 52,000,000
6 Cho Dongyeol Korea 38,000,000
7 Lee Sunghak Korea 28,000,000
8 Antoine France 20,000,000
9 Kim Hwang Bae Korea 15,000,000
*Four-way even chop