Veteran journalist Michael Kaplan recently published an ambitious piece on CardPlayer that provides “An Inside Look At The (Mostly Illegal) South Korea Poker Scene” in Seoul.
Kaplan writes, On this particular night, underground clubs are in full swing (discreetly, of course), private games with local celebrities and wealthy businessmen run in secret locations, and grinders fire up VPNs to circumvent detection and play online.
There are 20 brick-and-mortar casinos in Korea that are only available to tourists. The one exception is Kangwon Land, located 93 miles away from Seoul, which doesn’t attract serious players.
“It’s too far away, and too loud,” one player in Seoul tells Kaplan. “I’d rather take my chances playing illegally here.”
Another source noted that Seoul “is home to some really big, really private games.”
“They’re not open to the public,” says the source. “You get introduced by someone, walk in, and will probably see some familiar faces there, like celebrities. The buy-in can be up to $100,000. It’s a very big game. Probably the biggest game you’ll ever find in Korea. And the host gets to decide everything. Like whether you’re in, or whether you’re out.”
Steve Yea’s Rise Makes Games Hard to Find
You won’t find Steve Yea, one of Korea’s top professional poker players, at those games.
“If you’re too good, they don’t want you,” the source says. “Why would they? These are people who don’t care about the money, amateurs. It’s not like you are a pro in a casino who can walk in and play whatever pleases you.”
“I wish I could play in the private games,” Yea concedes.
Yea plays in pub games and commands as much as $2,000 in appearance fees. He was among those who successfully transitioned from pro-gamer to professional poker player.
“I saw the pro gamers starting to play cards and figured it was something I could do,” Yea recalls.
Top StarCraft pro Jin-ho ‘YellOw’ Hong, a reality TV star who also made the transition to poker, won a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2022.
“When grinding on online poker platforms, the multi-tasking skills I established as a pro-gamer allowed me to manage multiple tables simultaneously,” Hong says. “Additionally, [by recognizing subtleties that are only slightly evident on the computer screen], I can read an opponent’s psychology, infer their thoughts, and calculate optimal moves to insure wins. That aspect felt very familiar to me.”
For Yea’s part, travel is often required to find available games. Yea has amassed nearly $3.4 million in prize money after playing in Macau, Manila, Las Vegas, Southern California, and the European circuit.
“Grinding online is first, then you study and play the undergrounds,” Yea says about his trajectory. “After that, you go overseas. For me, Macau has the best games and Southern California” – with proximity to Vegas and the Commerce Casino – “is the best lifestyle.”
Kaplan also chronicles the rise of Daehyung Lee, South Korea’s latest breakout star, who made the final table at last year’s WSOP main event. He ends his piece with reflections from Lad Park, a player and a well-known poker commentator in Korea.
“Someone local who aspires to be a poker player? I tell them don’t,” Lad explains. “You probably won’t make it. It’s one in 10,000 people who succeed, going beyond earning just enough to pay the rent here.”
What does it take to make it in Seoul?
“It requires a very rare talent,” says Lad.
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Veteran journalist Michael Kaplan recently published an ambitious piece on CardPlayer that provides “An Inside Look At The (Mostly Illegal) South Korea Poker Scene” in Seoul. Kaplan writes, On this particular night, underground clubs are in full swing (discreetly, of course), private games with local celebrities and wealthy businessmen run in secret locations, and grinders
The post CardPlayer Reporter Provides Rare Look Into Seoul’s (Mostly Illegal) Poker Scene appeared first on CasinoBeats.