Day 2 of RDPT Plus Jeju 2026 at LES A Casino saw China orchestrate a total takeover of the tournament floor. Headlined by major victories from Weijue Cai and Jianting Cai , the Chinese contingent locked down every single trophy available on Sunday. This flawless sweep of the Day 2 schedule established an unprecedented level of dominance as the series moves into its featured High Roller events.

Day 2 of The Dragon Awakening saw 41 players return to the field, each aiming for the opening event glory. After a session of intense play, it was China’s Weijue Cai who stood alone at the top. The tournament drew 269 entries across two starting flights on Day 1, creating a total prize pool of KRW 348,624,000 (~USD 234,665).

Cai earned the right to wear the RDPT champion’s jacket along with a KRW 76,484,000 (~USD 51,495) prize. He secured the victory after a quick heads-up match against Shuang Qiu , who took home KRW 50,900,000 (~USD 34,270) for his runner-up finish.

The story of the final table initially centered on Qiu, who held the chip lead and immense momentum. His surge began during the final 16, where he stacked Weihong Liu in fifteenth place with a rivered flush. Qiu followed that by eliminating Hongwei Yang in fourteenth and Tingjia Cao in thirteenth in back-to-back hands. He showed no signs of slowing down as he ruthlessly cracked Chuan Shu Chen’s pocket tens with pocket kings to send Chen out in twelfth place and boosted his stack toward the 2 million mark.

The official final table began with the exit of Naohiro Matsuda in ninth place. In a brutal hand, Matsuda’s ace-king dominated Wenqing Dong’s ace-queen, but Dong managed to find a three-outer queen on the flop. Vietnam’s Quang Huy Nguyen followed in eighth place after he lost back-to-back hands, the final blow coming when Dong’s ace-two found an ace on the turn to beat Nguyen’s pocket nines. Qiu then resumed his path of destruction, collecting two more eliminations by sending Yang Yang to the rail in seventh with king-high and Tenglong Chen in sixth with rivered quad sevens.

The field narrowed further when Ting Pong Cheung was eliminated in fifth place. Cheung held king-queen but failed to find any help against the ace-jack of the last Vietnamese player remaining, Tien Thanh Nguyen. However, the tide turned when Qiu met his match in a massive confrontation with Cai. Cai caught Qiu’s river bluff shove with a flopped flush and snapped up the chip lead. From that point on, Qiu’s momentum stalled entirely, and Cai never looked back.

Cai’s victory was a testament to a relentless grind. He began the final table with the second-shortest stack but managed two crucial double-ups to stay alive. First, his pocket sixes held against Dong’s jack-high, and later his ace-high bested Chen’s queen-high. Once he seized the lead from Qiu, Cai continued his streak by eliminating Nguyen in fourth place in a dominated hand. Dong, left with only two big blinds, shoved with nine-two of spades but was eliminated in third place by Qiu’s pocket jacks.

Heads-up play began with Cai holding a commanding 4-to-1 chip lead. While Qiu managed to find one double-up, the match only lasted seven hands. In the final act, Cai’s ace-king was well ahead of Qiu’s king-nine. This victory represented the biggest cash of Cai’s career and his first win in a live tournament.

The RDPT Plus Jeju 2026 crowned a new high-stakes champion as China’s Jianting Cai navigated a 117-entry field to secure the Dragon’s Gate High Roller title. Displaying remarkable composure and a steady accumulation of chips, Cai dominated the final stages of the tournament, punctuating his performance by ending the heads-up match against Ivan Karatayeu on the very first hand. For his efforts, he walked away with the top prize of KRW 131,615,000 (~USD 88,610).

This victory added another prestigious trophy to Cai’s growing resume. He was already a celebrated figure in the region, having famously won the Red Dragon Championship at the Jeju Poker Festival in 2024. That triumph remains the largest score of his career, where he earned a massive KRW 243,800,000 (~USD 174,470).

The journey to the money was fraught with narrow escapes and tough exits. Notable players such as Abhijith Cheruku and Yita Choong fell short of the payout window, while Yayun Liu endured the misfortune of bubbling the final 20. The official bubble burst when Ranno Sootla’s pocket eights failed to hold against Minh Thang Tran’s pocket kings.

As the field compressed toward the final table, Dinesh Alt suffered a particularly cruel exit in eleventh place, seeing his flopped two-pair counterfeited by a superior full house on the river. Immediately after, Zhili Zhou was eliminated in tenth place after his straight-draw semi-bluff failed to improve against Tran’s kings.

Huu Dung Nguyen was the first casualty of the final nine, falling to Karatayeu’s pocket kings. He was followed by Congya Zhang in eighth, whose dominated ace-four could not overcome Tran’s ace-queen. Guo Liang Wei, a former chip leader, saw his run end in seventh place when his pocket fives were overtaken by Karatayeu’s ace-queen on the flop.

The eliminations continued as Xugang Zhang exited in sixth place against Anton Lu’s pocket sevens. Wenchao Liu then fell in fifth place, despite flopping a flush draw, he was drawing dead by the turn against Tran’s full house. Lu’s impressive run ended in fourth place when his king-queen collided with Karatayeu’s pocket queens, leaving the trio of Cai, Karatayeu, and Tran to battle for the title.

Cai effectively ended Tran’s aggressive run in third place. Tran flopped top pair with ace-ten, but Cai’s king-jack turned a straight, sending the tournament into a lopsided heads-up match.

Cai entered the final duel with a substantial lead of 24,000,000 chips to Karatayeu’s 11,000,000. Any expectations of a prolonged battle were quickly dispelled on the opening hand. Cai’s king-eight found an eight on the flop, leaving Karatayeu’s king-ten in desperate need of help. Despite picking up a flush draw on the turn, the river bricked for the Belarusian, confirming Cai as the Dragon’s Gate champion.

Following the conclusion of two action-packed starting flights, the THE DRAGON’S HOARD (PKO) has whittled its massive field down to the final 40 contenders. All eyes will turn to 12:00 local time, when Day 2 kicks off to determine the champion.

Colombia’s Andres Vasquez emerged as the definitive man to beat, bagging a staggering 1,023,000 chips, the only player to cross the million-chip milestone. Vasquez didn’t just collect plastic; he was a terror on the felt, accumulating KRW 3,100,000 in bounties along the way. His total knockout value now stands at KRW 3,500,000, giving him a massive head start in the hunt for the lion’s share of the prize pool.

While Weijue Cai and Jianting Cai commanded the spotlight by clinching the featured event titles, their fellow countrymen ensured the dominance was absolute by sweeping every side event on the schedule. In a rare and relentless display of skill across multiple disciplines, players from China captured all six side event trophies available on April 12. From the split-pot complexities of Big O to the pure adrenaline of the Super Hyper Turbo, the “Plus” in RDPT Plus clearly stood for a massive addition to China’s trophy cabinet.

The schedule at RDPT Plus Jeju 2026 continues to move forward as the afternoon session prepares for one of the most significant events of the series.

At 15:00 local time, the field will begin Event #22: RED DRAGON PRESTIGE HIGH ROLLER (Day 1) . Carrying an 8,000,000 KRW (~$5,400) buy-in, this tournament is expected to draw a competitive field of players vying for the title. Participants will start with a 300,000 chip stack and play through 40-minute levels.

The structure for the opening flight is set for 12 levels of play on Day 1. For those still looking to join the action, the late registration window remains generous: players can still register during the first two levels of Day 2 before registration officially closes at the start of Level 14.

Source: SOMUCHPOKER
Original article: So Much Poker