The first flight of the 2008 APPT Macau Main Event saw 125 eager participants hit the felt and after seven levels of play, 45 players will see the light of Day 2 action on Thursday.
Many big name players were eliminated during the day's play with Jonny Vincent, Barry Greenstein, Grant Levy, Tony Dunst, Eric Assadourian, Celina Lin and Liz Lieu all biting the dust.
Those who survived include John Juanda, Wooka Kim, Mike "Timex" McDonald, Guray Turkay and Harry Demetriou. They will be led overnight by Andre Wagner, who appeared to slip into the chip lead on the final hand of play. We'll have the updated chip counts for you as soon as they come in.
Tomorrow, a fresh batch of warriors will enter the fray of the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino for Day 1b. We are expecting a larger turnout with the action kicking off at 1:30 p.m. local time. We hope you will join us once again for all the live action!
Andre Wagner has won a race on the final hand of the day to steal the overnight chip lead and in the process end the tournament for Anthony Rivera.
In a preflop confrontation, Wagner held against Rivera's but when the board fell , Wagner made a full house to leave Rivera without any chips to bag up.
Wagner will stand atop the chip count leaderboard with around 105,000.
We may have spoken too soon in predicting that Michael "Timex" McDonald would make it through to Day 2. He wound up all in holding against Veerachai Vongxaiburana's pocket sevens. Vongxaiburana promptly flopped a set. McDonald was not able to overtake him by the river, crippling his chip stack to just 3,500. Vongxaiburana now has about 40,000.
Daisy Wain has run well and played well today. She ended her day by raising to 3,000 from under the gun and was called by Paul Siu. On a flop of , Wain came out firing for 6,500. Siu wanted no part of the hand any longer and quickly folded. Wain showed for a set of eights as she collected the pot.
Some players see the last five hands of the day as a chance to sit back and make sure they book their seat into Day 2. For others, like Mike "Timex" McDonald, it's an opportunity to "gamble or bust"!
After McDonald's opening raise was re-raised, he decided to push his last chips into the middle with and found himself up against an opponent's .
The board fell , giving McDonald a pair of aces and the double up to 27,000, ensuring that he will see Day 2 action.
With fifteen minutes left in the day, the tournament staff have instructed the dealers to deal exactly five more hands at each table. This is a counter-measure intended to thwart players from trying to slowplay their way to Day 2. At the completion of five hands at each table, we will be done for the day.
Harry Demetriou's pleas for his table to cooperate by doubling him up have finally been answered. He has doubled twice in short order, both times with ace-queen. First, he was all in preflop with against an opponent's and flopped a queen. That hand increased his stack to 13,500. A bit later, Demetriou called a raise to 2,000 holding against a single opponent. The action checked all the way to the river, with the board showing . Demetriou's opponent then moved all in. With the nuts, it was an easy call for Demetriou.
In a battle of the big names of poker, Veerachai Vongxaiburana and Xu Xinzheng went to the river on a board of . Vongxaiburana fired out 10,000 and Xinzheng tanked before making the call.
Vongxaiburana instanly mucked, knowing he was beat as Xinzheng showed for the flush.
Vongxaiburana slips to 17,000 with Xinzheng now up to 54,000.
Daisy Wain continues to play well, although her results hav been a bit mixed. First she got all in against two opponents on the turn of a board, having both covered. Her two pair made with was the best hand and stayed that way after the river came . That pot propelled her chip stack to 63,000.
Shortly thereafter, a short stack at her table raised all in to 7,000. She called with and was in a dominating position to eliminate her opponent, who showed . Things looked relatively safe for Wain when the flop fell , but Wain's opponent made a running straight with the turn and the river. It wasn't the biggest hit -- she still retains 56,000 chips.