Haisheng Qiu Leads GOP Incheon Main Event Final 9

The GOP Incheon Main Event lit up Paradise City Casino with Day 2 delivering on all fronts — hero calls, brutal bad beats, spectacular comebacks, and a chip leader who emerged from low in the counts to the largest stack heading into the final table.

From 51 survivors, only nine players remain, each one just one step closer to the title, the KRW 148,280,000 (~USD 98,000) top prize, and the Black-and-Gold Gauntlet.

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Lester Edoc: The Hero and the Heartbreak

Lester Edoc eliminated on the FT bubble

No player embodied the drama of Day 2 more than Lester Edoc. Running red-hot at the series, he entered Day 2 as chip leader with a towering 249 big blinds.

Early on, Edoc sniffed out a bluff from Seiji Sasaki, hero-calling with pocket tens on a queen-high board against ace-king.

He then made one of the hardest calls of the day against Richard Flach, who fired every street on a 5 ♣️ 6 ♣️ 4 ♣️ 10 ♥️ 7 ♠️ board. Edoc burned through six time banks - the maximum allowed at one-go - then hero-called with 5 ♥️ 6 ♥️ to send Flach crashing out holding pocket jacks.

The momentum continued, winning a big pot with aces against Yi Cheng Lo, then the tide quickly shifted. Edoc suffered numerous hard hits to his stack to plunge to just one big blind after Lo's ace-queen spiked a queen to crush his ace-king. Edoc ended his run in 10th place, just one spot short of the final table.

"Never easy," Edoc had said. He was not wrong.

The Final 9 Players

The Rise of Haisheng Qiu

Haisheng Qiu

While Edoc was absorbing punishment, Haisheng Qiu was on the other end of the story. His ace-jack survived against Edoc's pocket jacks with an ace on the river. From there Qiu continued to rise.

He scooped a three-way pot with a set to take the chip lead for the first time, then eliminated Sascha Manns in 13th place with pocket tens over ace-ten. Qiu bagged 9,670,000 chips worth 96 big blinds — the largest stack entering the final table by twenty big blinds!

Flight Leaders Still In the Hunt

Kyung Min Lee

Two flight leaders powered through Day 2.

Day 1B's Kyung Min Lee and Day 1C's Yi Cheng Lo both made it to the final table.

Lee's biggest moment came at Edoc's expense. His pocket tens flopped a set to crack pocket aces. He closed Day 2 with a solid 76 big blinds.

Yi Cheng Lo

For Lo, he held the chip lead for a large stretch of the day, looking every bit the frontrunner but as the field trimmed to three tables, his momentum stalled — he even folded a full house to a bluff.

At the final two tables, Lo lost a large chunk to Edoc then was saved from elimination with ace-queen pairing the queen against Edoc's ace-king. Lo enters the final table with 31 big blinds.

On a side note, Lo nearly had his hands on a Gold Gauntlet at the GOP Super High Roller but fell in runner-up to Edoc. He now has a second chance.

Ryoma Yamamoto Looking for the Hat Trick

Ryoma Yamamoto

The GOP Olympians & High Roller Hyper Turbo champion arrives at the final table as the shortest stack with 10 big blinds, but Ryoma Yamamoto has already proven at this festival that he does not need a big stack to make things happen.

One of Yamamoto's biggest hands was the knockout of Gleb Ershov with five-six flush draw connecting on the river to smash aces.

Other Contenders To Watch

Woo Hyon Shin

Woo Hyon Shin was one card away from falling in 12th place before rivering two pair to survive. From that moment, he ramped up the aggression then eliminated Wei Sun in 12th place to bag up 56 big bilnds.

Evgenii Chzhen

To reach Day 2, Evgenii Chzhen had a swingy Flight E and it was much of the same at Day 2. Among his highlight hands was the elimination of Boris Sun with the nut flush.

Dong Yan

Dong Yan was one of the biggest movers of Day 2, coming from behind on multiple occasions to accumulate chips. He first cracked Kohei Suzuki's pocket aces with pocket-eights set on the river, then outran Hyuga Nishiguchi's ace-ten with king-queen to send him to the rail. He will enter the final table with 50 big blinds.

Chien Te Lee

Chien Te Lee had one of the luckiest moments of the day when his pocket queens landed a one-outer to crack pocket aces. He also eliminated Yoshiki Shibata in 11th place and will enter the final table with an arsenal of 34 big blinds.

On a side note, for 11th placer Shibata, he entered Day 2 as the shortest with just 12 big blinds and played the patience game to finish deep in 11th place. He was the biggest leaper of the day, charging up 40 spots in the ITM rung.

Hiroki Karatsu

At 12 players remaining, Hiroki Karatsu landed back-to-back reloads from just four big blinds to bag up 15 big blinds. He also folded pocket jacks just before the final table bubble with two shoves before him.

The Final Table gets underway on Saturday, May 23 at 12:30pm Livestream begins at 1:00PM on the GOP YouTube channel. Blinds resume at 50,000/100,000 with a 100,000 big blind ante.

The Black-and-Gold Gauntlet awaits. Who will rise and become the first ever GOP Incheon Main Event champion?