Bag the Chips - Day 1a is Done | 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu

Seven one-hour levels of poker were played today on Day 1a of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Cebu Main Event. We started with a trim field of 105 players; by the end of the night the big board said 50 remained.

The light turnout included a field light of well-known notables. The notables that did turn out didn't fare well. David Steicke, PokerStars Team Asia Pro Dan Schreiber, 2009 APPT Macau final tablist Daoxing "Bobo" Chen, and well-known local Wally Sombero all hit the rail.

The story of the day in the tournament room was a crew of Mongolian players that were encouraged to attend the tournament by 2009 APPT Macau runner-up Mike Kim. They provided a spark in the room with their antics and unorthodox style of poker player. One of them, Meenelai Bold, was among the chip leaders at the end of the day with roughly 110,000 chips.

But despite increasing his stack more than five-fold, Bold was not the chip leader at the end of the day. That honor went to Terry Fan, who scored an early double-up and then used his chips to continue to pummel his opponents. By the end of the day he had amassed a tournament-leading 140,000 in chips.

Tomorrow the rest of the field will join the fray. Tournament organizer are expecting upwards of 200 players for the noon start, ensuring that the day will be more frenzied than it was today. See you then!