KKPoker is delighted to officially announce breakout poker star David Dongwoo Ko as our newest ambassador!
2024 has been a year to remember for David, having recently become the newest WPT Main Event champion after besting an 882 player-field in Montreal to earn an incredible $320,000.
23-year-old David has been a KKPoker community member for over a year, and we are delighted to partner with him and further support his poker journey and our combined goals for growing the poker community.
"KKPOKER HAS ALREADY SHOWN ME GREAT SUPPORT"
"I'm very proud to announce my partnership with KKPoker as an ambassador! I've been working alongside KKPoker for a year now, and met so many great people and community members," said David.
"I would like to show the world what KKPoker is about. I invite everyone to join and see what this community offers."
It's been a whirlwind two years for David, who only learned poker after turning 21, going from complete recreational to professional, and has since won over $490,000 in recorded live tournaments.
"I'll be traveling a lot to play live tournaments, and I want to showcase KKPoker to the people, especially those unfamiliar with online poker or people tired of the traditional online sites, who seem to not really care about the players.
"KKPoker has already shown me great support, a really good community, and cares about the players," added David.
A POKER JOURNEY FROM SOUTH KOREA TO CANADA
David grew up in South Korea and now calls Vancouver, Canada, home. At the age of 21, he embarked on his first visit to the home of poker, Las Vegas, where, like many others, he caught the poker bug.
"The first time I ever played poker was two years ago. I traveled to Vegas just for tourism and tried to play every casino game possible, including poker.
"I watched a Brad Owen poker training video to try and get the hang of it, and then I tried it out, playing a $1/$3 cash game.
"I remember I won a little bit, and once back in Vancouver, I played a couple of games in a local casino called Grand Villa in Burnaby. I just got hooked. I was really, really into poker. I really wanted to be a good player. So I went back home and watched 200 videos on Doug Polk's YouTube channel, which was a free resource."
David is a shining example of how a young, open-minded, and determined recreational poker player can take advantage of the available free poker training materials.
"I slowly became a winning player. I was able to make some money and play a little bit higher-stakes cash games. I had great cash game success for the first year or so. I then transitioned to tournament poker and then won a £25K High Roller Triton package online. I went to London to play that.
"I did not have a great result at Triton, but I happened to win a £400 WSOP Colossus event at Dusk Till Dawn Casino in Nottingham for £40,000 and my first WSOP ring!"
THE NEW MAIN EVENT CHAMPION!
With a newly boosted poker tournament bankroll, David set his sights on continuing his momentum. Trips to the Ace Poker League in Seoul, the PokerStars NAPT in Las Vegas, and the WSOP Paradise followed at the end of 2023 before returning to Canada saw David again victorious.
A second WSOP ring came in Calgary in January 2024, followed by a third in May, for a total of $30,000. And just one week later, David was about to further write his name in the poker history books.
With the World Poker Tour coming to town at the Playground Casino, Montreal, it was an opportunity for David to test his skills at another level, requiring a larger CAD$3500 buy-in.
David showed no fear and dominated from the start, becoming the chip leader for three consecutive days and leading the remaining six players at the official final table. David was guaranteed his biggest poker prize yet, of at least $65,000, but his sights were set on the six-figure top prize until a rare occurrence threatened to derail his bid for victory...
"During the WPT final table, there was a power outage in Montreal. The whole casino went dark, every slot machine, every table, all dark. And, to make it worse, the entire area had an outage, which caused not even a phone reception for over 3 hours.
"We did not know if we could continue to play or if we had to come back the next day.
"It's a really high-pressure spot. So I really wanted to be ready whenever they called me back to play. I wanted to go back in and play my A-game right away. So, I tried not to lose focus and to be conscious about what was happening in the tournament. When the power came back, I managed to take it down with the good focus and a great game that I had with the initial game plan."
Despite the uncertainty, David regained his composure to become the newest WPT Main Event champion for $340,000! David used his winner's interview to thank all the support he had, especially from his poker club community.
"Once again, I would like to thank everyone for watching the final table. I want to thank everyone for all the support I got from the KKPoker community and the Canadian poker community."
$1,000,000 BOUNTY CHANCE
David has since made his way to Las Vegas for the 2024 World Series of Poker. He has already made a deep run in one of the newest events, the Mystery Bounty tournament, where he came 43rd out of a massive 18,409 field, and even had several opportunities to draw a prize worth $1,000,000!
"I'm having a great start here at the WSOP. The first event I played was the Mystery Bounty, winning $43,000. I had six bounties. I did not win a big one, like $1M or $500,000, but I won larger ones worth $10k and $15k; the other four were the $1,000 minimum amount.
"Mystery Bounty is a format that's been very popular. It was a fairly new concept a couple of years ago, but now it's one of the most popular.
"During day one, usually before the money places, there's no mystery bounty in the game. So you need to calculate the average bounty value, calculate the bounty EV, and try to make the best decision possible.
"Once all the big bounty prizes are gone, the bounties will not be as valuable as they used to be. But if big mystery bounty prizes remain deep into the tournament, the bounty value will be very high, and you'll have to consider calling all-ins a little bit lighter (with your calling range) than usual.
A FUTURE TRIPLE CROWN WINNER?!
David is among the new generation of poker players taking the online and live poker scene by storm. His goals alongside KKPoker to build the community are clear, but what is his next personal poker goal?
"I'm here in Vegas to win a WSOP bracelet. That's my next goal. After that, if I win the bracelet, I will try to go to EPT and try to win their Main Event, which will complete the Triple Crown in Poker, which is winning a WSOP bracelet, WPT Main Event, and EPT Main Event.
"I really want to do that. There's only a handful of people who've done it. I want to leave my name in poker history. I always want to be the best player in the world.
"I want to compete at the highest level. That will be my next goal, and I hope you guys will join me in this community and this journey.
"I WILL SEE YOU ON KKPOKER"
David is the latest KKPoker ambassador to join in 2024, alongside Isabelle Tremblay and Paul Carr, who aims to help grow both the KKPoker online and live poker community.
"I really love the concept of live poker meeting online poker and vice-versa. KKPoker has successfully adopted this in Canada over the last couple of years. I've been part of similar promotions, and I would like to help in more of these, connecting online events to the live tournaments I love.
"Especially in Canada, there will be many opportunities to do this. I am very excited to participate in promotions and events, including the upcoming KKLIVE tournaments. These are really fun experiences, with great people attending and creating a fantastic vibe. You can have a lot of fun playing in these events and engaging in interactions.
"Thank you very much for your support, and I will see you on KKPoker." said David.
JOIN DAVID KO AT KKPOKER
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