Yokosawa wins WPT Korea, PokerStars LIVE Macau Events, New Manila Poker Room, New HPT California Stop

Masato Yokosawa wins WPT Korea

The World Poker Tour tournament at the Ramada Plaza Jeju in South Korea began on December 15. The WPT Club Phoenix event offered a $3K NLHE Main Event with reentries, which resulted in 137 entries and a prize pool of $358,803.

The final table began on December 19 with Chane Kampanatsanyakorn as the chip leader and Hyunshik Hun as the short stack. But Kampanatsanyakorn quickly lost ground and was the first to exit the six-handed table. Hun, on the other hand, found several double-up opportunities and made it to heads-up play against Masato Yokosawa, though the latter had the chip lead. Yokosawa stayed strong and ended up with the win, title, and $100K prize money.

1^st place: Masato Yokosawa ($100,000)

2^nd place: Chris Park ($60,700)

3^rd place: Hyunshik Hun ($38,500)

4^th place: Kosei Ichinose ($28,500)

5^th place: Jae Kyung Sim ($21,400)

6^th place: Chane Kampanatsanyakorn ($17,100)

PokerStars LIVE Macau Events Announced

The PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room in Macau announced several major events set to take place in 2014, all of which will be included in the Asia Player of the Year race.

The Macau Poker Cup is the first on the list and is set for January 10-21. It will include a special Red Dragon Main Event with a HK $11,000 buy-in and HK $8 million guarantee.

Asia Championship of Poker Platinum Series III will follow in February, then the Macau Millions in March, which had been on a two-year hiatus. The ACOP returns in April with Platinum Series IV, May hosts the APPT Macau, August features the Macau Poker Cup, and the year finishes with the ACOP from October 24 to November 9.

Solaire Poker Room opens in Manila

The Philippines saw a large casino resort constructed for $1.2 billion in Manila, and its Solaire Poker Room finally opened on December 12. Its room coordinator is Ronald Regis.

The opening of the room didn’t go as well as hoped. Attendance was high, but the table space was limited, and many patrons were not able to play at the stakes available. Regis told PokerNews that a new stand-alone poker room with 14 tables will be available by 2015.

Staff is looking forward to trying to bring at least two big tournaments to Solaire in 2014. They have been in discussions with the World Poker Tour and the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour.

HPT Expands California Tour

The Heartland Poker Tour announced the expansion of its California tour with another stop on the 2014 schedule. The Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa near Palm Springs, California, will host a ten-day series beginning on February 27, 2014 and running through the final table of the Main Event on March 10.