2013 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Asia Championship of Poker Day 3: Money Bubble Bursts
On Thursday, the 2013 PokerStars.net Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Macau Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) HK$100,000 Main Event continued with Day 3 action at the PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams. Just 72 of the original 203 players returned for six 90-minute levels of play, during which time the money was reached at the top 25. While all of the remaining players are guaranteed a minimum HK$198,000 payday, Jonathan Depa with his stack of 662,000 is best positioned to make a run at the HK$4,752,000 first-place prize, as he finished as the chip leader.
End-of-Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Depa | 662,000 |
| 2 | Peter Ping San Chan | 615,000 |
| 3 | Chenxiang Miao | 471,500 |
| 4 | Randy Lew | 420,500 |
| 5 | Ro Woong Park | 353,500 |
| 6 | Yat Wai Cheng | 351,000 |
| 7 | Aidan Tam | 289,000 |
| 8 | Ling Tong | 272,000 |
| 9 | Devan Tang | 259,500 |
| 10 | Andrew Kinwai Lam | 246,000 |
Throughout the day, 47 players would hit the rail empty handed. One of the first to go was Michael Tureniec, who fell in Level 10 (600/1,200/100). It happened when Yuanji Dai opened for 2,600 from early position only to have Tureniec three-bet to 5,800 from middle position. Action folded back to Dai, he called, and the flop came down K♠6♥9♣. Dai was first to act and checked, which inspired Tureniec to bet 4,400. Dai then sprung to life with a check-raise to 10,400, and Tureniec moved all in for 20,500 total. Dai called and discovered he was in dire straits.
Tureniec: Q♣Q♦
Dai: 7♥7♦
The J♦ turn was of no consequence, and all Tureniec needed to do was dodge a seven on the river to stay alive. "Seven," Dai requested, and right on cue the dealer burned and put out the 7♣.
"Wow," another player at the table said. Tureniec's face dropped a bit, but he remained silent. He slowly took off his sunglasses, packed them up, and then took his leave.
While Tureniec was clearly miserable, he soon had company on the rail. Billy “The Croc” Argyros, Yujung Choi, Anson Yan Shing Tsang, Jack Salter, Dennis Huntly, Mervin Chan, David Ewing, and Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov all fell over the next few hours.
Katchalov was just one of three Team PokerStars Pros returning for Day 3, but he ended up being the first to go after two bad experiences with pocket kings.
Ran pretty sour today, first lost KK to JT then KK to JJ to bust...both on the river :(. Time to regroup then High roller in couple days
— Eugene Katchalov (@EugeneKatchalov)
From there, Akira Ohyama, Andy Chan, Ioannis Apostolidis, Liang Shi, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, and Yang Xi joined those eliminated.
Xi was ousted in Level 13 (1,000/2,000/300) after a back-and-forth preflop raising war resulted in her getting her last 65,000 or so all in against Chenxiang Miao.
Miao: A♣A♠
Xi: A♥K♥
Xi was left shaking her head upon discovering that her big hand was crushed. According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Miao was an 87.23% favorite while Xi would get lucky just 11.51% of the time.
The 7♥6♠7♣ flop provided little help for Xi, meaning she needed to catch either running hearts, kings or sevens to stay alive — something that would happen just 4.84% of the time. The 6♥ turn was actually a good card as it gave her a flush draw and a 20.45% of hitting on the river. Unfortunately for her, this was not one of those times as the 9♠ blanked.
The last hand of the day also saw the money bubble burst. It happened in Level 15 (1,500/3,000/500) when Depa opened to 6,000 from under the gun and both Kevin Schulz and Yat Wai Cheng called before David Martirosyan moved all in for 55,500. Depa and Schulz folded, but Cheng made the call.
Martirosyan: A♣J♦
Cheng: 2♥2♦
The flop of 9♠3♦8♦ changed little, but the 10♠ on the turn gave Martirosyan outs to a straight along with his ace and jack. Unfortunately for the Russian, the river landed the K♠ to send Martirosyan to the rail.
While dozens of players fell, some familiar names are still in contention for the title. They include PokerStars Team Online’s Randy Lew and Naoya Kihara; World Series of Poker bracelet winner and APPT Seoul champ Aaron Lim; and European Poker Tour Season 9 Player of the Year Jan Bendik.
The final 25 players will look to play down to the final table of nine on Friday. Click here to see the seating draw. Action will get underway at 3 p.m. local time, so join the PokerNews Live Reporting team then for all the live updates from PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams.
Until then, check out Sarah Grant's special Halloween video from Macau. It’s spooky scary:
*Photos by Kenneth Lim Photography and courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau.
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PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.
