2013 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Asia Championship of Poker Day 2: Schulz Leads Final 72
The 2013 PokerStars.net Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Macau Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) HK$100,000 Main Event continued on Wednesday at the PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams. Day 2 saw 169 of the original 203 players return for five 90-minute levels of play. By the end of that time, the field was whittled down to 72 with Kevin Schulz and his stack of 311,600 leading the way.
Schulz vaulted into the chip lead in the last level of the night thanks to two hands. In the first, he flopped a set of deuces to win a massive pot worth more than 200,000. Then, about ten minutes later, he flopped another set of deuces to eliminate 2011 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Ben Lamb.
End-of-Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Schulz | 311,600 |
| 2 | Jonathan Depa | 254,200 |
| 3 | Yoshitaka Okawa | 194,400 |
| 4 | Chane Kampanatsanyakorn | 186,100 |
| 5 | Aidan Tam | 184,000 |
| 6 | Edward Chun Ho Yam | 179,700 |
| 7 | Peter Ping San Chan | 174,700 |
| 8 | Chenxiang Miao | 162,400 |
| 9 | Yat Wai Cheng | 158,000 |
| 10 | Tore Lukashaugen | 157,000 |
The day was characterized by eliminations as more than half the field would hit the rail. One of them was Australia's Didier Guerin, who found himself all in preflop Level 6 (250/500/50) and watching a side pot brew. With roughly 18,000 already in the main pot, Edison Nguyen moved all in over the top for 12,475 more and put the pressure on Guangfu Ye. Eventually a call was made and all three hands were tabled.
Ye: A♥Q♣
Guerin: 8♦8♣
Nguyen: 9♦9♠
According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Guerin was in the worst spot with just a 16.72% chance of winning the hand while Nguyen and Ye would win 38% and 45% of the time respectively. Guerin was poised to exit, but the K♣7♥8♠ flop gave him pause as he took the lead with a set. Just like that Guerin went from the last to being an 85.38% favorite.
Guerin let a little smile cross his face, but in heartbreaking fashion, it turned into disbelief after the dealer burned and turned the 9♣ to give Nguyen a bigger set! The 5♣ river blanked on the river, which sent Guerin to the rail, gave Nguyen more than a double, and left Ye on a short stack.
One level later, Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin was sent packing. It happened after a preflop raising war resulted in Lin getting her stack in with AxQx only to run into the KxKx of Norway's Tore Lukashaugen. The 9x10xQx flop paired Lin's queen, but she needed a little more help to stay alive. The 4♣ turn didn't do it, and neither did the Kx river.
Others who failed to make it through the day were Kahle Burns, Ping Lin, Patrick Crivell, Kitson Kho, Bryan Huang, Kai Paulsen, Craig Cockburn, Tom Alner, Vivian Im, Jonathan Karamalikis, Lee Nelson, and the defending champ, Xing Zhou.
Zhou’s elimination came in Level 9 (500/1,000/100) when he limped in from under the gun only to have the player two seats to his left bump it up to 6,500. The next player made the call, Zhou did too, and the flop fell 3♣8♠3♦. Zhou checked before the original raiser bet 15,500. The other unknown player folded but Zhou called all-in for his last 12,600.
Zhou: 8♣7♥
Opponent: K♠K♣
The turn and river blanked out with the A♣ and 5♠ to see Zhou hit the rail, which ensured a new champion will be crowned in this year's ACOP Main Event.
While many fell, there are still plenty of notables in contention including Jonathan Depa (254,200), Day 1 chip leader Keith Ferrera (122,800), David Ewing (100,600), Keith Gipson (78,500), Jan Bendik (78,300), Tom "hitthehole" Middleton (45,100), Mervin Chan (37,300), and Michael Tureniec (22,300). In addition, Team PokerStars is well represented as Eugene Katchalov, Randy Lew and Naoya Kihara all survived the night.
Day 3 will see 72 players return to the felt at 3 p.m. local time on Thursday. Of course the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on hand to bring you live updates from PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams. Until then, check out Sarah Grant's video of the Macau Player's Party:
*Lead photo by Kenneth Lim Photography and courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau.
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