Gods of Poker Incheon Festival Highlights; Hanh Tran Crowned at POS

From May 15 to 24, players from across Asia gathered in Incheon, South Korea for the debut of Gods of Poker at Paradise City Casino.

Across ten days, 79 trophies were awarded, five coveted Gauntlets found their champions, and countless unforgettable stories unfolded beneath the lights of one of Asia’s premier poker destinations.

When the final cards were dealt and the last champion minted, the festival closed with the awarding of the prestigious Player of the Series title to none other than Hanh Tran who ruled the race even before the halfway mark.

Check out the final highlights down below.

Hanh Tran Wins GOP Incheon Player of the Series

Hanh Tran - Player of the Series

Austria's Hanh Tran climbed to the top of the Player of the Series standings on Day 4 and never looked back. He put together the most consistent campaign of the entire festival.

By the end of the series, the avid mix game player accumulated 9 cashes - unmatched by anyone at GOP Incheon - along with 3 victories for 18,907 points. With no one able to catch him in the closing stretch, Tran was crowned the Player of the Series and earned the POS Crown Trophy.

In his pursuit of the title, Tran won Event #28: Badugi Mix, Event #46: 10-Game Mix, and to avoid the sweat of being overtaken, he won Event #79: 5-Card PL Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot on the final day.

As for the battle for the remaining podium spots, that came down to the wire.

Lester Edoc takes 3rd at POS

Lester Edoc entered the final day within striking distance of first place after an incredible series that included a Gold Gauntlet victory, another side event title, and 10th at the Main Event.

Read about his Main Event run right here.

However a late push from Alfie Adam changed the standings one final time. Adam’s runner-up finish in the last Turbo High Roller lifted him into second overall, pushing Edoc down to third by a hair.

Alfie Adam: The Trophy Collector

Alfie Adam takes 2nd at POS

Nobody collected more trophies in Incheon than Alfie Adam.

Four wins across the series, he matched his trophy run at GOP Phnom Penh to push his career total to a jaw-dropping 13 GOP trophies across four festivals. This is the most by any player in the brand's opening season. And the season isn't over yet.

As an avid mix game and Omaha player, Adam opened the series with a victory at the Event #7: 6-Card PL Omaha Hyper Turbo then followed it up with Event #9: Omaha Dealer's Choice.

At Day 7, he won Event #59: 5-Card PL Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot, on Day 8, he captured a rare No Limit Texas Hold'em title at Event #63: Single Day High Roller, then added a Player of the Series 2nd place finish on top.

Gauntlet Wielders

The Gauntlets are the crown jewels of every GOP festival — the most coveted hardware of the brand. All five were on the line in Incheon.

Konosuke Nakajima

The final Gauntlet was claimed on closing day when Japan’s Konosuke Nakajima conquered the GOP High Roller to hoist the Silver Gauntlet. At heads up, Nakajima denied Wenchao Liu what would have been a long-awaited breakthrough.

At the series, Liu finished third at the Super High Roller, runner-up at the Titan Stack High Roller, and now runner-up again.

For the champion Nakajima, he became the second player from Japan to win a gauntlet with Kaoru Kishimoto bringing home the country's first at GOP Phnom Penh.

Kyung Min Lee Wins GOP Main Event

Kyung Min Lee - Main Event champion

The GOP Main Event drew 356 entries with 51 players earning a share of the KRW 700,000,000 prize pool.

Highlighting Kyung Min Lee's victory, he delivered Yi Cheng Lo a crushing blow at three-handed then defeated Chien Te Lee in a quick heads-up to seize the Black-and-Gold Gauntlet and the KRW 148,280,000 (~USD 98,000) top prize — all on his birthday. Lee finished as the festival's largest earner.

Read up on his victory right here.

Multi-Trophy Winners

Ming Yue Wang

Several players made their mark on the trophy table more than once across the series. As mentioned above, Adam claimed the most at four trophies. Another highlight story is Ming Yue Wang who won both of his trophies on the same day. He was the only player to achieve this at the series.

Japan Dominated the Trophy Race

Ryoma Yamamoto

Japan once again proved to be the strongest force at a GOP festival. Of the 79 trophies awarded throughout the series, Japan claimed 34 - more than any other nation by a considerable margin.

From opening day onward, Japanese players poured in and consistently ran deep in events, collecting Shields, Spartans, Mirrors, and highlight titles throughout the festival.

Among the early risers was Ryoma Yamamoto, who opened his series with a victory at the GOP Olympians before adding a second title at the Hyper Turbo High Roller. He was one of Japan’s two-time champions of the festival. Yamamoto’s hot run extended into the Main Event as well, where he finished in 9th place.

On the final day of the series, the lone Kraken trophy was claimed by Kyota Henzan at the Kraken Stack event after he outlasted a field of 53 entries. This was Henzan's career second GOP title having won his first at the brand's launch in Jeju last December at the Hyper Turbo High Roller.

Signature Cronus Structure Highlighted

Main Event Day 2

For the first time, the GOP signature Cronus Structure was being introduced to players at Incheon. In effect at all the tournaments, registration closed at the start of Level 3. For the Main Event, players had five differing time formats to choose from.

The deepest flight, Day 1A, offered nine total hours of registration. That's only one blind increase all day! The flight ran across two days, before closing at 6,000-12,000 blinds. The survivors bagged up with an average of 68 big blinds.

Wei Sun dodges the ultimate bubble

At the opposite end, turbo-style Day 1E - which before it was a turbo ran three hours of registration - finished with an average stack of just 10 big blinds after post-reg 20-minute levels pushed blinds rapidly upward to 40,000-80,000.

Yet when Day 2 began, since the structure rolled all the way back to 6,000-12,000 with 60-minute levels, the average was 69 big blinds that even the shortest stacks had room to maneuver.

No player embodied that better than Yoshiki Shibata.

Yoshiki Shibata

Shibata bagged only five big blinds at the end of Day 1D, equivalent to roughly 12 big blinds entering Day 2 - and he was the absolute shortest of the 51 returnees - then spun it all the way into an 11th place finish - the biggest leap of 40 spots of the entire Main Event! That's also a testament to what the Cronus Structure makes possible.

Up Next: Gods Of Poker Heads to Manila

With Incheon complete, Gods of Poker extends its deepest gratitude to every player who answered the call at The Prophecy Unfolds and to the dedicated staff at Paradise City Casino whose work behind the scenes made every moment possible. Incheon delivered. The prophecy was fulfilled. And the Gods are already looking ahead to what comes next.

The Gods of Poke now heads to Manila, Philippines for Gods of Poker Manila: The Arena of Champions. The festival takes place August 21 to 30 at City of Dreams Manila with 82 scheduled events and PHP 60 million (~USD 1,000,000) in guaranteed prize pools.

The full schedule is now out, click here.

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