It was just two years ago that Sungwoon Yoo (above) took home his first ever live cash in a poker tournament. It was for the amount of $1,431 and over the past two years, he has acquired $31,889 in lifetime earnings including a title here at National Harbor for a career best score of $4,843.
He now can add a second title to his collection as he multiplied his Hendon Mob life-time earnings by more than five times with victory in the Opener at the Potomac Poker Open. He defeated Dustin Batterberry to claim a career best score of $139,986 as well as two trophies to take home.
"I think the trophies are more important," Yoo said looking down at his two sizable statuettes. "Money does matter, but the trophies will come with me to my house while the money goes into the bank."
For the majority of the final table, Yoo hung around as one of the shorter stacks. When four-handed play rolled around, he dropped to the shortest stack while the other three circled him.
"I wasn't looking for a chop, even though I was the shortest stack" Yoo mentioned as far as his mindset at the time. "I was looking to double up and wasn't afraid to gamble, still tried to get my chips in good to double. Then I would play good poker after that."
A turning point came later in the day as he doubled up with jacks against fives into the chip lead and never looked back.
"My biggest score was already guaranteed when there were eight players left," the recreational player looked back upon the table. "Now that I have this score, it just gives me a better bankroll to play more events. I'll play the rest of this series and I'm looking forward to the Main Event."
A total of 1,687 entrants over the course of the starting flights to generate a prize pool of $851,935. 167 players returned and, after 13 levels of play, a winner was crowned.
Potomac Poker Open - The Opener final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sungwoon Yoo |
$139,986 |
| 2 | Dustin Batterberry |
$94,580 |
| 3 | Frayser Flores |
$61,256 |
| 4 | Matt Riebel |
$45,398 |
| 5 | Italo Etkin |
$34,290 |
| 6 | Kyle Janisse |
$27,690 |
| 7 | Mike Robinson |
$22,860 |
| 8 | Jared Ward |
$18,031 |
| 9 | Joel Lanning |
$13,442 |
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