Defending Champion Michael Soyza Bags Big on APPT Korea Main Event Day 1A
The 2019 PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Korea has a had an exciting week leading up to the much anticipated ₩1,800,000 APPT Main Event, and a lot of that excitement has come from the 2018 APPT Korea Main Event champion Michael Soyza who just won the Super High Roller.
After taking down the Super High Roller, Soyza took a quick break to eat and jumped into flight Day 1A of the main immediately after. It took him just a matter of hands before he found his first double up with big slick against his opponent's king queen. Soyza seemed to have plenty of rungood left in the tank as he was continually adding chips to his stack throughout the day.
During the last round of the night, the Malaysian woke up with a gift from Evgeniy Khvan, when Soyza limp-raised aces and found a caller in Khvan. The flop came down jack-high, Soyza bet out, Khvan moved all in, and Soyza called. Khvan tabled king-high with no draw, and Soyza scooped in the large pot at the end of the night, catapulting him near the top of the pack.
The first of two starting flights in the main saw a total of 222 slips sold, shattering last years total of 182 for the Day 1A. Only 59 of those slips found a bag by the end of the night, and it was Takao Shimizu of Japan taking the reign as the end of day chipleader with 281,000 in chips.
Shimizu took down a pot earlier in the day on a three-way flop where he had a straight draw to split or two kings to scoop. The turn came down one of the exact kings he needed, winning a massive pot early in the day. He continued his aggressive play to the end of the night, letting everyone know he was not afraid to gamble, and it worked out as he bagged the biggest of Day 1A.
Some other stacks on the larger side include Daisuke Ogita (231,000), Mengdian Peng (207,000), Tetsuro Tomita (198,000), Ken Okada (189,000), and Lok Kin Yeung (179,000).
There were plenty of notable players to take a shot at Day 1A but failed to find a bag and that list includes 2018 APPT Manila Main Event champion Wilson Lim, well-known Chinese pro Dong Guo, Tian Jin, German Kilian Loeffler, Online specialist Randy Lew, 2016 Asian Player of the Year Jack Wu, and Malaysia's Natalie Teh.
There is still one more flight that begins Friday at 6 p.m. All remaining players to make it through Day 1B will combine with Day 1A's survivors, returning on Saturday for Day 2 at 1 p.m. local time.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing you full coverage of this event throughout the duration, so stay tuned for all the APPT Korea Live Updates as the action unfolds.
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