Yuan Li won the USD 8,000 Super U Challenge at Jeju Poker Festival 2026, taking USD 120,700 after needing just four hands of heads-up to beat Takashi Ogura at LES A Casino.

The Red Dragon Poker Tour's Red Dragon Plus Championship also played Day 1B, with Weiyong Zeng bagging the lead, while Liangqiang Pang won two side events in the same night.

The Super U Challenge finished with 54 entries, including 19 re-entries, building a USD 387,600 prize pool with nine places paid.

Day 1 leader Toru Wakamatsu fell in 19th, and Hugues Girard went out in 18th when his eights full were beaten by Michel Molenaar's queens full on the river in a gruesome runout. Fabian Gumz finished 13th.

Matas Cimbolas led the charge to the money. He rivered a flush with ace-nine to send out Iulian Blebea in 12th, before Shuai Li's river flush beat Jianfeng Sun's turned set of jacks in 11th.

Cimbolas then burst the bubble himself. His eight-six made two pair on the river against KPC High Roller runner-up Xu Wang's ace-nine, leaving Wang with nothing in 10th.

Cimbolas started the final table as chip leader with 3,900,000. Dongwen Liu was the first player out when Ogura's ace-jack hit an ace on the river to win the main pot, with Cimbolas' pocket nines taking the side pot.

Li made his move when his pocket kings held against Jieming Xu's nines in a four-bet pot. Xu went out in 8th the very next hand, and Molenaar followed in 7th when his king-jack failed to catch up with Yuhan Liu's ace-nine.

Cimbolas lost a couple of big pots and fell in 6th when Li's pocket fives made a flush against his sevens. Li, champion of the Prestige High Roller two days earlier, finished 5th after his ten-high flush ran into Liu's queen-high flush.

Seunghyun Nam led with 5,100,000 at one stage. Li then doubled through him with king-ten against pocket sevens, and Nam went out in 4th when Liu's ten-nine paired against his nine-seven.

Liu led three-handed, but Ogura doubled through him with pocket queens. Moments later, Liu shoved for around 6,000,000 over Li's button open with ten-nine of spades, and Li's pocket sixes held to send him out in 3rd.

Li took around 11,000,000 into heads-up against Ogura's 5,200,000. On the fourth hand, Ogura got his chips in with ace-queen against Li's queen-jack, and the jack on the turn gave Li trips to win the title.

Ogura collected USD 76,800 as runner-up.

Li won the ACOP Super High Roller in 2016 and a WSOP bracelet in 2023, but he said every title still feels special.

"As a poker enthusiast, I feel that winning a championship is a tremendous honor every single time, so I'm very excited."

He had finished runner-up heads-up just 48 hours earlier, and said conviction was the biggest factor in his win.

"Coming into today's final table, my conviction was simply to play every single hand diligently and contest every single pot with complete focus."

Li played patiently early on while studying his opponents, then ramped up the aggression once the table got down to five or six players. He said his game has changed a lot since he was known as a very aggressive player ten years ago.

"As poker theory has evolved, overall strategies have become much more balanced. So my strategy today isn't just about aggression. It's much more balanced, adapting different approaches across different tournament stages."

Li is not a professional player, and with a busy day job, he said he cherishes every chance to travel and compete. He has been to Jeju seven or eight times for KPC and Red Dragon events.

"Every time I arrive here and enter the venue, it feels very warm and familiar, yet it's constantly improving and updating."

He has no set plans for his next event and will fit tournaments around his work schedule.

Day 1B of the KRW 4,000,000 Red Dragon Plus Championship drew 74 entries, taking the field to 209 across the first two flights. Weiyong Zeng leads the 26 players who advanced with 534,500.

Naohiro Arita, winner of the #70 NL Hold'em earlier in the festival, sent out Aaron Gao when his ace-king flopped trips and turned a full house against pocket fives.

Haonan Tian won two big pots against Zhihua Yang, the second when he shoved the river with a rivered straight and Yang called with top pair. Hyung Tai Kim made the nut flush on the turn to knock out Wenjie Sun's pocket tens.

Girard bounced back from his Super U exit by sending out Shengyong Wang, and he is through along with Weiran Pu, Aaron Lim, George Tomescu and KPC Main Event runner-up Yifu He.

Gumz, Maxim Lykov, Ranno Sootla, Ryoya Enomoto, Hyunyeong Kang, Khanh Duy Ta and Red Dragon Classic champion Yichen Wu all fell.

Liangqiang Pang won the NLH Atomic Pineapple Hyper Turbo and the NL Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo on the same night. Zhi Ye, the Red Dragon Plus Day 1A chip leader, took the High Roller Hyper Turbo for the biggest side event prize of the day.

Wenwen Chen topped a 55-entry field in the NL Hold'em Bounty, and Fufu Hu won the PLO Championship. 3rd Anniversary Event champion Anh Tai Do kept up his form with 3rd in the NL Hold'em.

The Red Dragon Poker Tour heads to Taiwan next year, with RDPT Taiwan running from 27 February to 7 March 2027.

The headline Red Dragon Championship has a buy-in of TWD 38,000. Keep an eye on Somuchpoker for the full schedule as it's announced.

The Red Dragon Plus Championship runs its final two starting flights, chasing a KRW 1,800,000,000 (~USD 1,341,280) guarantee, while the Dragon's Hoard PKO starts at 13:00 and the KRW 5,000,000 Single Day High Roller begins at 17:00. Follow the full schedule on the Jeju Poker Festival 2026 page.

Follow Somuchpoker on Facebook and Instagram for updates throughout the festival.

Images and data courtesy of RDPT and KPC.

Source: SOMUCHPOKER
Original article: SoMuchPoker