Summary:
- Jin Hoon Lee won the first event at the 2023 WSOP Paradise poker festival
- Lee had to get through tough competition which included Phil Hellmuth and Sam Greenwood
- Lee ended up winning his first WSOP bracelet and a nice cashout for $420,000
The first ever WSOP Paradise poker festival kicked-off in the Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
The 2023 WSOP Paradise festival started on Dec 3 and will run till Dec 14 with over $50 million in prize money up for grabs and 15 coveted WSOP gold bracelets.
Event #1: $1,500 Mystery Millions
The opening event at the 2023 WSOP Paradise was Event #1: $1,500 Mystery Millions which saw a strong turnout that included a number of top poker pros from around the world. A total of 5 starting flights brought in as many as 3,446 registrations to bring the total prize pool to $5,169,000.
Some of the top poker pros who were part of Event 1 included Phil Hellmuth who leads the WSOP all-time bracelet list with 17 bracelets, Canadian Sam Greenwood who has over $34 million in prize money, Belarusian Mikita Badziakouski who has over $43.5 million in prize money and top female poker pro Maria Ho who has over $4.5 million in prize money based on the Hendon Mob.
After the first day’s play, most of the big names were eliminated and only 34 players made it to the second day. South Korea’s Jin Hoon Lee entered Day 2 in a commanding position as he had the most chips at the table and made the best use of it to be one of the 9 players to make it to the final table.
Jin Hoon Lee Wins First WSOP Bracelet
There was a lot of pressure on Jin Hoon Lee at the final table but he continued to play well and hold his nerve. As the final table played out, the three remaining players were Jin Hoon Lee, Maria Ho and American Max Pinnola.
Maria Ho got eliminated in 3rd place and took home $200,000. Max Pinnola had it tough against Lee as the chip count ratio was around 1:3 in favour of Lee but Pinnola fought hard to stay in the game. However, in the end Lee came up with a dominant poker hand to win his first ever WSOP bracelet and collect a cool $$420,000.
