It’s midnight in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, a rustic the place poker is sort of totally unlawful for residents. In reality, gaming legal guidelines are so restrictive that residents are technically not even allowed to gamble internationally (although loads of individuals do it and no one makes a secret of committing what could be an unenforceable infraction).
On condition that, you’d by no means guess simply how standard the sport has develop into. Whereas the tradition nonetheless focuses totally on e-sports, avid gamers can’t get sufficient of Texas maintain’em, Omaha, and even the extra obscure variants like Badugi, which was performed in Korea lengthy earlier than it reached American card tables.
On this specific evening, underground golf equipment are in full swing (discreetly, in fact), personal video games with native celebrities and rich businessmen run in secret places, and grinders hearth up VPNs to avoid detection and play on-line. (Their post-play homework is finished by obsessing over solvers as they as soon as did for high-consequence math finals.)
There’s one authorized possibility for poker gamers, so long as they don’t care about profitable cash. Plenty of overground poker pubs dot Seoul, however there you primarily pay to play, incomes foods and drinks offers, or tickets that may get you into real-money tournaments elsewhere.
Playing For Thee, However Not For Me
Regardless of the strict playing rules, Korea continues to be dwelling to just about 20 brick-and-mortar casinos. These properties, together with the Paradise and Seven Luck manufacturers, are solely open to vacationers. Gaming income jumped virtually 15% in 2025 to ₩70 trillion ($2.52 billion), placing it on par with states like Maryland and Louisiana for market measurement.
The one exception is Kangwon Land On line casino, situated 93 miles from Seoul on the base of a ski resort. In 1995, authorities officers opened the positioning to locals in an effort to revitalize what was as soon as a mining city. Consequently, the property has grown into the most important on line casino within the nation, with gamblers filling the 675-room lodge nightly regardless of the distant location.
Kangwon operates with the motto “paving the best way for wholesome gaming tradition,” however it could be somewhat too wholesome. The place appears to draw few severe poker gamers from the town.
“It’s too far-off and too loud,” one participant in Seoul tells me. “I’d reasonably take my possibilities taking part in illegally right here.”
The sentiment matches that of poker gamers in New York Metropolis, circa 1990, when there was a surfeit of unlawful golf equipment. Future Corridor of Famers resembling Erik Seidel, Dan Harrington, and Howard Lederer reduce their enamel at spots like The Mayfair or The Diamond Membership, reasonably than make the 125-mile trek to Atlantic Metropolis.
It’s twice that distance from Seoul to Jeju, which is taken into account the Hawaii of Korea. The island is a part of a self-governing province that has eight casinos, and has develop into a hub for large buy-in poker tournaments. The Asian Poker Tour, World Poker Tour, and Triton Poker Sequence have added stops to their excursions. Gamers journey from everywhere in the globe to compete, besides Koreans, who’re pressured to look at from the sidelines.
However canny high-stakes execs have some alternate options. Seoul is dwelling to some actually huge, actually personal video games. A supply, who requested to not be named, tells me I’d by no means get to see these video games on my fast journey to Seoul. Briefly, they’re the closest factor to a Molly’s Sport set-up that one will encounter.
“They’re not open to the general public. You get launched by somebody, stroll in, and can most likely see some acquainted faces there, like celebrities,” says the supply. “The buy-in may be as much as $100,000. It’s a really huge sport. In all probability the largest sport you’ll ever discover in Korea. And the host will get to determine every part. Like whether or not you’re in, or whether or not you’re out.”
Dwelling The Excessive-Stakes Excessive Life
Steve Yea has no shot at taking part in in these juicy nosebleed video games. As one in every of South Korea’s prime execs, the buy-in isn’t the issue. He’s simply too good.
“For those who’re too good, they don’t need you,” mentioned the supply. “Why would they? These are individuals who don’t care concerning the cash, amateurs. It’s not like you’re a professional in a on line casino who can stroll in and play no matter pleases you.”
“I want I might play within the personal video games,” Yea confirms with a decent smile.
Yea has combined it up at each degree. He even performs within the pub video games, both as a social pursuit with pals or in trade for look charges. (He’ll generally receives a commission as a lot as $2,000 for exhibiting up and taking part.)
He is aware of the scene effectively, and poker has paid off handsomely. Taking pictures on the tables for 20 years, Yea lives in a classy a part of city, instruments round in a pristine white Mercedes, and reveals off his trend bonafides with a hat bearing an enormous C emblem.
I ask him if it stands for Chanel. He explains that it’s Celine, a premier French luxurious model that doesn’t have a presence in my closet.
I bemoaned my luck that I used to be unable to snag reservations for my spouse and I at both Born and Bred or Mingles, two of Seoul’s prime eating places. Yea, an avowed foodie, casually talks about having eaten at each quite a few instances.
He’s simply ordered steak for 2, together with a pair of pasta aspect dishes at Osteria Eden, a done-up Italian restaurant in a ritzy stretch of Seoul. We’re there for a chat and a chew, washing all of it down with glasses of soda.
The Making Of A Korean Poker Professional
Whereas ready for dinner, the very first thing I’m wondering is how a participant will get sharp in a metropolis the place poker is verboten. For Yea, it began with the pc sport StarCraft.
“I used to be an excellent newbie gamer and knew many gamers who turned to poker,” he tells Card Participant, rattling off examples like ‘ElkY’ (Bertrand Grospellier), ‘Rekrul’ (Dan Schreiber), and a man he calls ‘Spunky’ (Kyu-Hoon Hwang). There was additionally Jin-ho ‘YellOw’ Hong, a prime StarCraft professional and actuality TV star who efficiently made the transition to poker and even received a World Sequence of Poker bracelet in 2022.
“I noticed the professional avid gamers beginning to play playing cards and figured it was one thing I might do,” Yea recollects.
His StarCraft expertise had been surprisingly transferable to poker, which explains why different Korean avid gamers, together with Lim “BoxeR” Yo-hwan and Guillame “Grrrr…” Patry (a Canadian who relocated to South Korea for computer-gaming functions) additionally made the bounce.
“When grinding on on-line poker platforms, the multi-tasking expertise I established as a pro-gamer allowed me to handle a number of tables concurrently,” Hong explains to Card Participant. “Moreover, [by recognizing subtleties that are only slightly evident on the computer screen], I can learn an opponent’s psychology, infer their ideas, and calculate optimum strikes to insure wins. That side felt very acquainted to me.”
Yea was on monitor to develop into a physician round 2006. He recollects that because the time when the Moneymaker impact hit Seoul and poker started to blossom, federal legal guidelines be damned.
Criminals leveraged alternatives. Underground poker dens with names like Bugsy, Rounders, and Chips Take pleasure in had been launched. Neophyte gamers flocked. Yea began slacking off on his med-school courses, bought poker recommendation from Schreiber and Spunky (he says ElkY by no means had time) and purchased in. He attributes a propensity to not tilt and pure math expertise for giving him an instantaneous leg up towards the not-very-good arrivistes.
“I began profitable immediately,” he says. “I by no means went broke from poker, however I used to be up tens of millions and down tens of millions at crypto. [Comparatively] talking, poker is definitely a secure job.”
Risking A Experience On The Seoul Underground
Comparatively secure. There was that one evening when 20 gangsters started preventing one another within the membership earlier than the melee spilled out onto the road.
Poker is just not seen positively in South Korea, much like how the sport was seen in America a long time in the past. However the unhealthy rap creates an upside for sharp execs.
“Many individuals in Korea consider poker as [pure] playing,” explains Yea. That mindset retains underground competitors tender and permits proficient gamers to beat the egregiously excessive rakes. “They know they need to examine, however as a substitute they simply play. It’s an enormous drawback for them.”
Regardless of excessive rakes and a few operator funds going lacking, the police raids, and spontaneous brawls that sound worthy of a Tarantino chop-socky tribute, Yea overcame all of it to earn a dwelling within the sport’s illicit quarters.
“I give up medical faculty to play poker full time,” he admitted. “I liked poker a lot that there was one time the place I performed for 5 days straight, barely slept, and received $20,000, which was some huge cash for me again then.”
Yea has since performed in big-time tournaments world wide, racking up practically $3.4 million in prize cash, however he primarily focuses on money video games. His travels have taken him to Macau, Manila, Las Vegas, Southern California, and the European circuit in pursuit of motion.
“You need to journey,” he says, explaining the truth that one can solely go up to now in Seoul. He’s outgrown the underground golf equipment, stakes-wise, received’t get invited to the juicy personal video games, and restricts his on-line play to CoinPoker the place he has a sponsorship deal.
“Grinding on-line is first, then you definately examine and play the undergrounds,” he says when requested to disclose the trail to the highest. “After that, you go abroad. For me, Macau has the most effective video games and Southern California” – with proximity to Vegas and the Commerce On line casino – “is the most effective life-style.”
Why not transfer to a type of extra poker-centric locales?
“Korea is my dwelling,” Yea affirms. (He already commented to me that US {dollars} go farther in Korea.) “I even have pals right here who will not be concerned in poker. However I do find yourself spending extra time abroad than in Seoul.”
Such is the lifetime of a Korean grinder who wants to search out locations to ply his commerce.
Korea’s Important Occasion Finalist
Extra publicly, final 12 months Daehyung Lee grew to become the breakout participant from South Korea, closing tabling the WSOP major occasion.
“That is my first closing desk of my poker profession,” he mentioned on the time. “Normally, Korean individuals can’t distinguish money video games and tournaments. So, the picture of poker is just not good in Korea. If I make an excellent outcome, I wish to assist enhance the poker surroundings and picture in Korea.”
With out that means to, Lee made a press release that runs parallel to Yea’s commentary about Korea’s rec gamers equating poker with customary on line casino playing.
Days after Lee revealed excessive hopes, nonetheless, issues ran counter to plan. Lee was not solely first to bust out, however he lasted only one hand. He raised under-the-gun with A-Q offsuit and was known as by John Wasnock with pocket fives. The flop got here queen excessive, but additionally with a 5, and that was all she wrote.
Within the wake of his elimination, wanting somewhat whiplashed and hopefully salved by the million-dollar take-home, Lee informed the WSOP, “It might be a lie if I mentioned I wasn’t upset.” Then, in traditional Korean trend, he added, “I’m very honored” and vowed to social gathering with a posse of pals who had flown in to look at him play his single hand.
Yea acknowledges that he was rooting for Lee. He provides a bit cryptically, “If he received, it will have been good for me.”
Extra Than One Approach To Be A Professional In Seoul
Not all of Korea’s profitable gamers are within the highlight. Some carve out under-the-radar specializations which are as Korean as kimchi. The native insider who speaks with me on the sly, recounts the story of a former enterprise government who misplaced his job over his poker obsession.
“I informed him he must grind within the golf equipment,” my supply recollects. “I knew he was adequate to do it, however to not go far past that. So, he needed to play as many golf equipment as he might, put in as many hours as he might.”
Now the man is making a dwelling as a poker professional, working as much as 10 hours a day – which makes the sport as life-consuming as a fulltime job. However he loves stay poker and doesn’t care.
“He rents a pleasant residence however can’t purchase one, as a result of he can’t clarify the place the cash comes from,” continues the supply. “In reality, he doesn’t need anybody to know [what he does for a living]. So, he doesn’t spend some huge cash on his automobile or his garments.”
In a metropolis the place poker is seen as something however glamorous, the grinder appears the half.
“He’s very quiet, by no means will get beneath individuals’s pores and skin and is at all times the man they name when a fifth participant is required,” says the supply, explaining that staying in line is a part of his job. “He’s a pure: very likable and low-key.”
Canines, Espresso, And Poker
On one in every of my nights in Seoul, I get a name from Lad Park. He’s a participant and a well known poker commentator in Korea. He does every part on the up and up, is educated concerning the sport (regionally and globally), and maintains severe discretion. I might see him sooner or later turning into the Korean equal of Mike Sexton.
Park asks me if I’m comfy round canine. Unsure what’s coming subsequent, I inform him that I’m.
We find yourself sipping espresso in an offbeat café that encourages individuals to carry their pets. Contemplating the distinction towards America – the place you may play poker wherever however canine aren’t welcome – I can’t assist however ask him what he makes of Koreans who wish to be the subsequent Steve Yea.
“Somebody native who aspires to be a poker participant? I inform them don’t,” Lad explains to me. “You most likely received’t make it. It’s one in 10,000 individuals who succeed, going past incomes simply sufficient to pay the hire right here.”
Then he mentioned six phrases that just about salute individuals like Yea, Hong, and Lee. On the identical time, these phrases would make an up-and-coming gambler – who has ego, a perception in his personal future, and the belief that you’re going to get higher – resolute to do the very factor he cautions towards.
“It requires a really uncommon expertise.”
Michael Kaplan is a journalist based mostly in New York Metropolis. He’s the writer of six books together with Benefit Gamers. Kaplan has written for Wired, GQ, and the New York Put up, the place he’s at present a senior options author. He has targeted extensively on know-how, playing, and enterprise — with a specific curiosity in spots the place all three intersect. His article on Kelly “Baccarat Machine” Solar and Phil Ivey is at present in growth as a function movie.
Pictures by PokerGO (Antonio Abrego, Miguel Cortes) — Shutterstock (Sayan Uranan, f11photo) — Card Participant (Erik Quick)
