The third and final Day 1 flight is officially in the books. The tournament clock currently shows 86 players remaining, but that'll likely drop to 80-ish once the dust from the bag and tag process settles.
Big names stole the show here on Day 1c, as the likes of Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Joe and Tony Hachem, David's Plastik and Chiu, Andrew Scott, Theo Tran, Amnon Filippi, Bryan Huang, David Saab, Celina Lin, David 'Chino' Rheem, Liv Boeree, J.C. Tran and Yevgeniy Timoshenko all took to the felt. Of those, it appears ElkY finished the day with the most chips, coming in at just over 60,000.
Unofficial Day 1c chip leader status belongs to Wei Cheng 'Jacko' Chiang of Taipei, who finished the day with 124,800 in chips.
Tomorrow afternoon, survivors from Day 1 flights A, B and C will reconvene here at the PokerStars Macau Poker Room to form one final group that will run the last leg of the race to the final table together. Day 2 starting stacks and seat assignments will be posted as soon as they are made available to us by the tournament staff.
Play is scheduled to recommence at 12:15 p.m. local time (GMT +8). Do join us then for our continued coverage of the 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event.
Theo Tran just took a major hit and slipped to 48,700 with about 18 minutes left to go in the day.
In what was a four-way limped pot with the board showing , Andrew Scott opened for 2,700 from the big blind. One limper folded before the action reached Tran on the button, who raised to 7,700. Much to his surprise, the fourth player in the hand -- seated in the small blind -- cold called Theo's raise and Scott eventually mucked.
The action then went heads-up to the turn, which was the . A pair of checks sent the action to the river, which delivered the .
The small blind quickly counted out 15,000 worth of chips and dropped them into the middle.
"This is pretty sick," said Tran, before making an equally quick call.
The small blind turned over , good for an ace-high flush, and Tran, shaking his head, flashed the before tossing his cards into the muck.
With just thirteen minutes left to go in the day, the tournament staff have paused the clock and allowed Celina Lin to draw for how many ore hands will be played. Lin drew a five. Tournament staff therefore instructed the dealers to deal five more hands at each table before the chips are bagged.
After a three-way all in about an hour ago, Tom Hall has been the chip leader. He's using his chips to exert pressure on this table and is also playing excellent poker. He was in the big blind for a hand in which the button raised to 2,400. Hall was the only caller.
He led out for 5,000 on a flop of . His opponent cautiously called to see the hit the turn. Hall fired another bet, this time for 12,500. His opponent was undeterred and called again.
The river a second ace, . Hall checked and his opponent checked behind. Hall showed for trip aces. He won the pot and drew a giggle from David Plastik.
"Nice check," Plastik said. "I thought you were going to get him to bite."
Despite playing a bold, aggressive style, Chong Wing Cheong is limping towards the home stretch here on Day 1c. His standard preflop raise was re-raised by an additional 4,300 from the small blind. Cheong called that raise, taking a flop of . His opponent led out for 8,500. Cheong thoughtfully cut the chips off of his stack and slid them across the betting line.
When the turn fell , Cheong's opponent stopped messing around. He moved in for his last 15,300 Cheong asked the dealer to count it down, but once she confirmed the total he mucked his hand.
The board showed and Michael Woo's opponent was all in for 30,100 chips. It was a big decision pot for Woo, the kind of hand that can really cement a player's chances of going deep by building a big stack. Woo elected to call with , but was up against . He never improved as the turn was a blank and the river also missed, . Counting down the chips needed to pay off his opponent cut Woo's stack in half.
"Muck your hand, muck your hand!" Quinn Do jokingly encouraged his opponent. But that opponent was already all in. "I'm all in," he said, and that was when Do realized he was in trouble. His needed to improve in a big way against his opponent , but Do was basically drawing dead after a flop of . He needed running tens to avoid elimination but they didn't come. Do is out.