Seven levels ago, 84 players turned out for the second of three start days of the PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event. Less than 40 of them survived to return on Friday for Day 2. Leading the pack is Henrik Gwinner with 140,700 chips, followed by David Steicke with 124,950 and Ramon Cserei with 118,250. All three are ahead of Day 1a's chip leader, Alexandre Chieng, who finished with 113,100.
JC Tran, Terrence Chan, and John "the Razor" Phan all played today, but all three found themselves short-stacked early on and busto soon after. Team PokerStars Pro Australia member Eric Assadourian fared slightly better. He doesn't have many chips, but he made it through the day.
Day 1c begins tomorrow at 12:15 pm local time, and the Grand Lisboa is expecting a full house. Pros Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Tony Hachem, and Nam Le will make their appearances along with plenty of other big names. Don't miss any of the action live from Macau.
Late in the day, all eyes are on the race for the chip lead. Henrik Gwinner currently has the top spot. He busted a player in a huge pot when his aces held up against pocket jacks, shooting up to 136,000 in the process.
One table over, Ramon Cserei has been using his new stack to bully everyone else. He has raised several hands and been three-bet in response. He then snap moves all in and earns tortured folds from opponents who know they have the best hands. He showed a bluff after taking down a large pot on the turn (as if anyone didn't know he was shoving light), and padded his stack even further. He's up to 130,000.
There's a little over 20 minutes of play left for the day and things have slowed significantly. There hasn't been much action when in the couple levels before the last break, all ins were springing up everywhere we turned. As always with the end of the day, players are trying their best to hold on to their stacks and make it to the next day. Also keep in mind that everyone's been playing for hours and they're tired, making actions slower and decision longer. That said, any action that arises we'll surely bring it to you, but we can't force the players to play hands, even as much as we'd like them to.
After a player raised to 2,025, Eric Assadourian moved all in for 8,250. One by one, each player behind Assadourian took their time as if they had a difficult decision to make. Assadourian began commenting about how amazing it was that every single player had a tough decision in front of them after someone raised and someone else reraised. "You guys are amazing!" he yelled out.
Eventually, they all folded and then the original raiser made the call. She thought about calling for a minute or two herself before actually tossing in the chips holding the . Assadourian tabled the .
"One-hundred percent you're winning this hand." claimed Assadourian as the cards were turned face up.
The flop came down and Assadourian was still out of luck. He needed some help on the turn or river to keep his hopes alive in the APPT Macau Main Event. The turn was able to fulfill those hopes when the peeled off, springing him to the lead. The river completed the board with the and Assadourian's opponent pounded her hand on the felt after losing. Assadourian doubled with about a half an hour left in the day.
Chih Yen Chen opened to 1,700 under the gun, and Emanuel Seal three-bet to 4,800 in the next seat over. Across the table, Cuong Van Tran put in the call, and Chen came along for a three-handed flop.
The dealer spread out a slot-machine flop of , and Chen tapped the table. Seal continued out with a smallish bet of 6,000, and that was enough to earn him the pot. He and Chen bantered back and forth for a few seconds with Chen claiming he had folded a pocket pair. Seal let him flip over one of his cards, the , and Chen said, "Ahhh, pocket aces, very nice hand!"
Ramon Cserei raised on the button, and Roger Spets in the big blind moved all in. Cserei made the call with , and Spets was behind and at risk with . The flop brought Spets a pair and some additional outs, but the on the turn and the on the river were no help to the Swede, sending him home one level early. Cserei jumped to the top tier of the leader board with around 95,000.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Assadourian tabled the 
.
and Assadourian was still out of luck. He needed some help on the turn or river to keep his hopes alive in the APPT Macau Main Event. The turn was able to fulfill those hopes when the 
peeled off, springing him to the lead. The river completed the board with the 
and Assadourian's opponent pounded her hand on the felt after losing. Assadourian doubled with about a half an hour left in the day.
, and Chen tapped the table. Seal continued out with a smallish bet of 6,000, and that was enough to earn him the pot. He and Chen bantered back and forth for a few seconds with Chen claiming he had folded a pocket pair. Seal let him flip over one of his cards, the 
, and Chen said, "Ahhh, pocket aces, very nice hand!"
. The 
flop brought Spets a pair and some additional outs, but the 
on the river were no help to the Swede, sending him home one level early. Cserei jumped to the top tier of the leader board with around 95,000.