Ranno Sootla Wins Baby Dragon for Second RDPT Title as Bowen Yi Leads Red Dragon Classic at JPF
Ranno Sootla won the Baby Dragon at Jeju Poker Festival 2026, topping a 564-entry field for KRW 142,694,000 (~USD 106,330) and his second RDPT title in Jeju this year.
The Red Dragon Poker Tour's Red Dragon Classic Championship drew 294 entries across its first two flights, with two more to come today as the field chases a KRW 1,200,000,000 (~USD 894,190) guarantee.
Sootla Wins Second RDPT Jacket in Baby Dragon
-
Ranno Sootla
Sootla busted Day 1C and bagged in Day 1D before returning as one of 84 players to cash from the KRW 730,944,000 (~USD 544,670) prize pool.
Thi My Phuong Nguyen was among the early stars, knocking out Youfan Zhang and winning a huge side pot with a king-high bluff, before finishing 16th. Aaron Lim (15th) and Florian Duta (17th) also went deep.
Aaron Gao sent out Yilong Wang in 11th, and Sootla set the final table when his ace-nine turned top pair against Tong Mu's pocket eights. Gao was the first to go at the final table when his pocket queens ran into Bizhen Li's set of eights.
-
Aaron Gao
Runbang Shang, who led KPC Main Event Day 1E, provided the comeback of the day. He was down to 75,000 after his pocket jacks ran into Suiyuan Chen's aces, then won four all ins in a row to climb back to 1,500,000.
Yaojie Li sent out Hideyuki Yoshioka in 8th when an ace on the river paired his ace-king against pocket jacks, then eliminated Takashi Yagura in 7th with pocket aces. Shang added Haonan Tian in 6th with a rivered straight.
Bizhen Li took control late on, knocking out Suiyuan Chen in 5th and Yaojie Li in 4th, before running into Sootla in 3rd. Li moved all in with king-four, and Sootla's queen-three filled up to a full house.
-
Sootla closes it out
Sootla took 14,000,000 into heads-up against Shang's 2,300,000, and it lasted three hands. Both players paired eights on the final board, and Sootla's six kicker beat Shang's queen-deuce.
Shang collected KRW 94,000,000 (~USD 70,040) as runner-up.
Sootla Reflects On the Win
Sootla won the Red Dragon Prestige High Roller at RDPT Plus Jeju Summer, and said the much bigger field brought a different challenge.
"The High Roller fields are more professionals, more skilled players. Not that the Baby Dragon doesn't have good players, but it's more recreationals, and I have to navigate different ways."
The Estonian credited online reps for his comfort with shallow stacks, and said he will play the high stakes events for the rest of the series.
"The shallow stacks are something that's very familiar for me, because I played a fair amount of online poker. I've been kind of putting my reps in, and have a pretty good grasp of what I should be doing. And of course you need to run good."
Baby Dragon Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ranno Sootla | Estonia | KRW 142,694,000 (~USD 106,330) |
| 2 | Runbang Shang | China | KRW 94,000,000 (~USD 70,040) |
| 3 | Bizhen Li | China | KRW 63,900,000 (~USD 47,620) |
| 4 | Yaojie Li | China | KRW 44,300,000 (~USD 33,010) |
| 5 | Suiyuan Chen | China | KRW 31,350,000 (~USD 23,360) |
| 6 | Haonan Tian | China | KRW 22,650,000 (~USD 16,880) |
| 7 | Takashi Yagura | Japan | KRW 16,800,000 (~USD 12,520) |
| 8 | Hideyuki Yoshioka | Japan | KRW 12,700,000 (~USD 9,460) |
| 9 | Aaron Gao | United States | KRW 9,800,000 (~USD 7,300) |
Bowen Yi Leads Red Dragon Classic Day 1A
-
Bowen Yi
Day 1A drew 227 entries, and 41 players advanced. Bowen Yi, 9th in the KPC Super High Roller, re-entered and bagged the lead with 662,000, well clear of Bili Chen on 403,000.
KPC Main Event finalists Martin Sedlak and Aleksandras Rusinovas both finished in the top 10.
Petr Rudnev eliminated Seunghyun Nam when his pocket kings flopped a set against queens, and Kaiwen Wei cracked Jing Yang's aces with nine-eight of clubs.
-
Martin Sedlak
Dakota Anderson, Anton Florin, Michel Molenaar and Joseph Cheong are also through, while KPC Main Event runner-up Yifu He, Maxim Lykov and Shiina Okamoto were among those who fell.
Day 1B drew 67 entries, with 14 players advancing. Hyunyeong Kang bagged the lead with 504,000, ahead of Zhi Ye on 317,000, while Aaron Gao, Aaron Lim and Gerardo Rodriguez all fell. The event has 294 entries so far, with 55 players through to Day 2.
Red Dragon Classic Top 10 Stacks
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bowen Yi | China | 662,000 | 1A |
| 2 | Hyunyeong Kang | South Korea | 504,000 | 1B |
| 3 | Bili Chen | China | 403,000 | 1A |
| 4 | Shiqi Zhang | China | 386,000 | 1A |
| 5 | Woliang Ji | China | 371,000 | 1A |
| 6 | Zeyan Liu | China | 355,000 | 1A |
| 7 | Bien Mai | Vietnam | 350,000 | 1A |
| 8 | Hanyu Shao | China | 342,000 | 1A |
| 9 | Martin Sedlak | Germany | 323,000 | 1A |
| 10 | Aleksandras Rusinovas | Lithuania | 318,000 | 1A |
Side Event Winners
-
Tomoyuki Maeda
Tomoyuki Maeda won the KPC Poker Jeju Cup on a re-entry, his trip deuces holding against Xin Yan's pocket threes on the final hand, with Daisuke Nakagawa 3rd for his third podium of the festival.
Yao Liu picked up a second title in the Dealer's Choice, and Siyuan Lu, who led Baby Dragon Day 1D, took the 5 Card PLO Bounty Hyper Turbo hours after finishing 13th in the Baby Dragon.
| Event | Buy-in | Entries | Winner | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #42 Dealer's Choice (18 Games) | KRW 1,000,000 | 8 | Yao Liu | China | KRW 4,059,000 |
| #43 KPC Jeju Cup | KRW 1,000,000 | 41 | Tomoyuki Maeda | Japan | KRW 11,837,000 |
| #45 NL Hold'em Bounty | KRW 800,000 + 200,000 | 35 | Wenwen Chen | China | KRW 8,058,000 |
| #46 NL 2-7 Single Draw Mix (2-7, A-5) | KRW 600,000 | 12 | Shingo Hoshiai | Japan | KRW 2,973,000 |
| #47 NL Super Hold'em Hyper Turbo | KRW 700,000 | 38 | Chen Wu | China | KRW 7,851,000 |
| #48 5 Card PLO Bounty Hyper Turbo | KRW 300,000 + 100,000 | 23 | Siyuan Lu | China | KRW 2,118,000 |
| #49 NL Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo | KRW 400,000 | 58 | Junjie Tao | China | KRW 5,902,000 |
Schedule: Tuesday, 3 November
| Start | Event | Buy-in |
|---|---|---|
| 12:00 | #41 Red Dragon Classic Championship Day 1C | KRW 2,500,000 |
| 13:00 | #44 Dragon's Gate High Roller Day 2 | KRW 5,000,000 |
| 13:00 | #51 PLO Double Board Bomb Pot | KRW 1,000,000 |
| 13:00 | #52 NL Hold'em Ultra Stack | KRW 1,000,000 |
| 15:00 | #53 NL Hold'em Lady Dragon | KRW 1,000,000 |
| 17:00 | #54 5 Card PLO High Noah's Ark (2x2x2) | KRW 800,000 |
| 18:30 | #55 FL 2-7 Razz | KRW 500,000 |
| 19:00 | #41 Red Dragon Classic Championship Day 1D | KRW 2,500,000 |
| 20:00 | #56 NL Hold'em Hyper Turbo | KRW 700,000 |
| 21:00 | MS10 Milestone Satellite to JPF 3rd Anniversary Event | KRW 350,000 |
| 21:30 | #57 NL 6 Card Archie Single Draw Hyper Turbo | KRW 400,000 |
| 22:00 | #58 NL Hold'em Super Hyper Turbo | KRW 400,000 |
| 23:59 | #59 NL Hold'em Pineapple Super Hyper Turbo | KRW 300,000 |
The Red Dragon Classic continues with Day 1C and Day 1D, the KRW 5,000,000 Dragon's Gate High Roller plays Day 2, and the Lady Dragon starts at 15:00. 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.
-
QR Codes
Source: SOMUCHPOKER
Original article: SoMuchPoker