Day 1b Concludes

That wraps up play from Day 1b of the 2008 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event. Today we saw 184 players get a taste of poker in Asia with 77 players surviving the day.

It was a day for the pros with many big name players making it through to see Day 2 action. Alexander Jung, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Johnny Chan, Chris Grigorian, Mansour Matloubi, Thomas Bihl and Dan Schreiber all had a good day at the office and will enjoy a day off tomorrow before returning to the action on Thursday. Chad Brown also made it through it the day but will not be joined by Vanessa Rousso who was a late casualty on one of the final hands of the evening.

They will all be chasing David Steicke, who will be our likely chip leader from flight 1b, after his combination of gutshot straight draws and flopped sets saw him accumulate the most chips today. Steicke finished in 3rd place in the 2007 APPT High Rollers Event in Macau last year and will be looking to emulate that performance here.

We'll have the updated chip counts of the remaining players as soon as they are bagged and tagged.

We'll be back to do it all over again tomorrow with Day 1c of this event. We believe that this will be the largest day of any of the opening flights, with the total number of entrants expected to be well clear of the 500 mark. The action will recommence at 1:30 p.m. local time and we look forward to your company then!