Day 1a of the 2015 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event attracted 207 players, and after eight 60-minute levels of play, 105 remained with China’s Zhifeng Yao leading the way holding 174,700 in chips.
"We were hoping for over 200 on Day 1a and this number puts us well on the way to breaking 500 total players," APPT President Danny McDonagh said. "There is normally a big influx on the final day and I think we are an outside chance to break the all-time record of 575 with 500 obviously our first target. We do certainly have the capacity to cope with a near-record number."
Yao took the lead in the last few hands, overtaking XiaoHua Fu (172,000) as the end-of-day chip leader. Fu looked like he had the lead all to himself when he clashed with Chane Kampanatsanyakorn (133,800) midway through the last level and came out victorious, but Yao had other plans.
Some notables that came out to play on Day 1a were KC Wong, Tom Alner, Percy Yung, Sam Higgs, Yuguang Li, PokerStars Team Pro’s Kosei Ichinose and Aditya Argawal as well defending APPT Macau champion Jiajun Liu. Unfortunately they all failed to make it through the day.
In regards to Agarwal, PokerStars' sole Indian Team Pro, he was eliminated during the sixth level when his couldn't hold up all-in preflop against two over cards. Likewise, Liu fell in the last level of the night when, after being crippled running kings into aces, he shoved his last 4,700 all in with the and was up against an opponent's . The board ran out a clean and that was all she wrote for the defending champ.
Day 1b will kick off on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. local time here in Macau. The magnificent City of Dreams at PokerStars Macau will be the host once again as a field of close to 300 or so players will be out in full force. Be sure to come right back to PokerNews for all the action you can handle.
We arrived at the table to witness the player under the gun call as well as the player in middle position. With the option on Chane Kampanatsanyakorn in the hijack, he raised it up to 1,500 and watched as the original limper called. The player in middle position tanked for a minute before sliding out a raise totalling 5,500.
Kampanatsanyakorn eyed of his opponents stack before bumping it up to 12,000 which was enough to get out the under the gun player. His other opponent then moved all in for just more then the raise and was called before both players then tabled their cards.
Kampanatsanyakorn:
Opponent:
Kampanatsanyakorn then watched as the board ran out to see him hold with the moster pair as he moves up to 70,000 in chips.
The 2015 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour has made its way to the beautiful City of Dreams here in Macau for the premier poker stop in Asia.
Last year saw a record 494 entrants take to the field, with China’s Jiajun Liu emerging the eventual champion, taking home HK$2,776,000 for his efforts.
Even with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) about to commence over in Las Vegas, tournament staff are still hoping for an impressive turnout that could surpass the 500-player mark after overwhelmingly high numbers in all the opening events.
An erray of poker talent will no doubt be in attendance for this event including Team PokerStars Pros Bryan Huang and Celina Lin, who both went agonisingly close to capturing an APPT Main Event title at the last stop in Seoul, where they finished 2nd and 4th respectively. Others include Kosei Ichinose, Aditya Agarwal and 2011 APPT Macau Main Event champion Randy 'nanonoko' Lew.
Play will be kicking off in just over an hour at 2:00 p.m. local time and PokerNews will be on the floor providing all the action form the first of two Day 1 flights!
and was up against an opponent's 
. The board ran out a clean 
and that was all she wrote for the defending champ.
to see him hold with the moster pair as he moves up to 70,000 in chips.
