Zhang Chao Leads Day 1b of the Poker King Cup Macau Main Event
The second flight of the Poker King Cup Macau 2018 Main Event has concluded, with a total of 268 runners ponying up the HKD 16,500 entry fee and fighting it out at the felt, with 130 of them making it through to Day 2. Combined with the 166 Day 1a runners, this brings the total number of Main Event entries up to 434 with the third Turbo flight, Day 1c, still left to play out.
The action was fast-paced from the start, and chips were tossed around like confetti at a wedding with several players duking it out for the top spot as play progressed.
It was China’s Zhang Chao who finished atop the counts, however, bagging up a stack of 181,700. Chao started strong after winning a huge pre-flop coinflip with pocket queens to beat Junxiang Tan's ace king and climb to double the average stack before the day had even reached the halfway point.
A misstep from Yi Fan Yang gifted Chao the chip lead shortly afterward when the former moved all-in pre-flop with ace-eight offsuit for a little over 30-big blinds and Chao woke up one seat over with pocket jacks, which held to catapult her into the chip lead.
Chao did not get to enjoy the view from on high for long, with fellow countryman Hua Huan Feng ousting her from the top spot just before the dinner break after hitting a set of fives against an opponent’s ace-king.
However, Chao remained near the top of the leaderboard and after Feng took a backward step after the dinner break, Chao edged back in front, where she remained for the rest of the day’s play. Feng halted his fall to conclude play with a stack of 88,200.
The other top two stacks also belonged to Chinese players with Yue Wang (165,700) and Jiaxian Lu (132,000) rounding out the top three.
Other sizable stacks include Thailand’s Pakinai Lisawad (122,000) and Macau’s Eddie Lo (107,000), with Ireland’s Mark Gruendemann also enjoying a great day at the tables.
The Irish player was in the thick of the action for a large portion of the day, sitting on the most action-packed table in the room by far. Gruendemann rose to prominence after a set over set over set confrontation, his flopped set of jacks winning him a gigantic pot against Eric Tsai’s flopped set of three’s and another opponent’s flopped set of deuces and Gruendemann concluded play with a stack of 103,000.
Other notables to find a bag included High Roller finalist Wenling Gao who followed up her sixth place final table finish with a decent showing in the Main, finishing up with a stack of 91,100.
After failing to make the Day 1a cut, Hong Kong’s Ben Lai ran a great deal better on 1b to make it through with a stack of 48,000, with Portugal’s Antonio Martins (40,000) and China’s Yazhou Chen (28,400) also making the cut.
Not everyone was as fortunate though, and while High Roller specialist Quan Zhou started strong, a misstep against tablemate Bin Xu saw Zhou dust off the majority of his chips, exiting shortly afterward while Xu finished the day with a stack of 80,100.
Sparrow Cheung was another casualty, entering late and busting not long after, departing to try his luck in the third Turbo flight, which got up and running at 6pm.
In total, 130 players managed to earn their Day 2 berth and the 206 combined Day 1a and 1b survivors will unite for the first time on Sunday, 23 September for Day 2a – which kicks off at 1pm local time.
Level length will increase to 60-minutes and these survivors will play a single level before taking a 60-minute break so the Day 1c Turbo survivors can play their first Day 2 level with the two Day 2 flights combining for the second level of the day.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action as it happens so join us then as we see who has what it takes to make it through to Day 3.