Welcome back to the Paradise Walker-Hill Casino in Seoul, South Korea. Today is Day 2 of the APPT Seoul Main Event. 83 out of the original 165 runners survived the slaughter during yesterday's six levels and will return today to see if they have the aptitude, the fortitude and the luck to be one of the nine players to make the final table. Jan Van Dyk of Oman has the pole position, having accumulated 51,375 chips by the close of play yesterday. Hot on his heels is David Saab.
We anticipate that today will be a long day, with play perhaps stretching until close to midnight due to a somewhat abbreviated day yesterday. No matter how long the day goes, PokerNews will be there with live updates direct from the tournament floor.
Action gets underway at 1pm local time, approximately seventy minutes from now. Join us then!
Eivind Leknes, a PokerStars qualifier from Norway is the first to hit the road in Day 2 action. He was unlucky when he got his chips in good holding against the of Japanese player Yoshihiro Tasaka.
The board ran out giving Tasaka the bigger pair and leaving Leknes devastated. Van Marcus was also a little unhappy after he saw the river, saying that he had folded pocket nines!
Leknes was left with only small change and was eliminated a few moments later, again by when his opponent made two pair.
On a flop of Michael Bang bet out for 3,000 before Australian Van Marcus put in a raise of an additional 3,650. Bang moved all in and Marcus made the call.
Marcus held for trip queens but found himself out-kicked by Bang's . The turn was the and river to send Marcus to the rail.
Ayumi Okano was left with 450 chips overnight and obviously didn't believe in the "chip and a chair" theory, as he didn't even bother to show up today. His stack has been blinded out and he has been eliminated from the tournament.
We have been advised that play will now be eight-handed for the remainder of this event. Also because this is not a filmed final table, there is actually no requirement for the tournament to reach the final table today. Instead it has been announced that we will be playing a minimum of six levels today, however play will continue until we have reached the money stage of the tournament (final 16 players) today.
Michael Bang is on fire this morning as he has recently sent two more players to the rail. His latest victim was Nobuyuki Okuda who lost the race holding pocket sevens against Bang's when Bang was able to spike an ace on the turn.
PokerStars professional Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is the latest to join the Seoul shopping tour as he was recently eliminated.
Grospellier, in the small blind, saw a flop of where he checked to Nick Lackovic in the big blind who fired out 2,000. Osawa Masahiro, on the button, then popped it up to 8,000 before Grospellier moved all in for about 16,000. Lackovic tanked and folded before Masahiro snap-called.
Grospellier:
Masahiro:
The turn and river bricked , to send Grospellier crashing out of the tournament.
Jan Van Dyk started the day as the chip leader and he has continued to punish his table. After Larry Pashak opened for 1,600 from under the gun, Van Dyk called out of the small blind and was joined by Tadashi Yachida. Each man checked the flop, although Yachida tank-checked, drawing a laugh from Pashak. On the turn , action again passed to Pashak, who tried a bet of 2,000. No sooner had his chips hit the felt, then Van Dyk announced a raise to 6,000. That brought a snap-muck from Yachida and Pashak.