The poker couple from Australia and China both had seen an upward trend to their chip count in the last two levels and Aaron Lim is in fact a contender for a top 10 stack at the end of Day 1b. Yaxi Zhu had been maneuvering a short stack for some time after getting into the tournament around level four, but the Chinese is only one
Less than 60 minutes remain and the field has been cut into one third. The clock works out almost perfectly with the start of the players party at 11 pm local time, roughly 100 meters away from the Grand Ballroom at the "Chaos". From the bagging and tagging most of the players can head directly to the buffet and drinking part to end the day in style.
So far it looks like a two-horse race for the chip lead with Svein-Jorgen Kristensen and Dong Il Kim as biggest stacks.
The action started with a raise by Dong Il Kim from under the gun for 2,300 just before the end of the penultimate level. Weiyi Zhang three-bet to 6,000 out of middle position and Kim asked the Chinese if he had any yellow 5,000 chips left. That was denied and then the Korean opted for the call.
On the flop, Kim check-raised all in and Zhang called quickly after having made a continuation bet of 6,000 with a stack of around 25,000. Zhang flipped over the while Kim held top pair and the flush draw in . The turn brought exactly said flush, but the win wasn't guaranteed yet as the Chinese had the higher heart in his hand.
The dealer burned and turned the river and Zhang quickly left the table. Kim was congratulated to "feel the rush" and complained that he had been rather card dead before and his best hand had been ace-queen.
Thanh Ha Duong raised to 2,300 and the action folded around to Ben White, who moved all in for 13 big blinds out of the small blind. From one seat over, Wally Sombero reraised and the 2014 APPT Manila champion mucked his cards. White's got there against on a board of and both players changed their roles on the table as mid and short stack.
One hand later, Duong opened again to 2,300 and chip leader Svein-Jorgen Kristensen flat-called. Sombero shoved for 15,400 out of the small blind, which Duong called and Kristensen folded. The Norwegian said in table chat he folded pocket fours and that would have been another juicy pot for him:
Sombero:
Duong:
The board ran out and again, the player at risk survived.
Svein-Jorgen Kristensen made an opening raise that only Filipino poker legend Wally Sombero called.
The flop fell and both players checked. Sombero fired 3,000 at the turn, but could not shake Kristensen.
Finally, the river came the and after Sombero checked, Kristensen made it 6,000. Somebero folded, but Kristensen showed regardless, pushing past the 200,000 mark as he stacked the chips.
Manuel Blaschke had just busted an opponent to get back up to 90,000 but the profit didn't last long. The Austrian got involved in yet another pot shortly after and tried to buy the hand with a bet of 11,500 on the river of a board. The player to his left however made the call with for two pair and the Austrian had only rivered top pair.
Manuel Blaschke lost about one third of his stack in the new level and Min Soon Lim also got cut off from a similar portion as well after losing a pot with kings against the of Robert Nguyen. The latter had previously mostly taken care of short stacks such as versus preflop to build up his ammunition at the table.
Now, Nguyen is the only player on table 20 with a six-digit amount of chips.
Keisuke Hikosaka won two early pots in the penultimate level and one of them came off a massive shove preflop. The overbet was supposed to attract customers simply based on the size, but that plan didn't work out. However, the Japanese flashed the just in case and is very close to six digits.
With registration now officially closed prizepool information for this event has been released.
With 585 entries a PHP 25,535,250 ($557,471.26 USD) prizepool was created that will pay 72 spots. A min-cash is worth PHP 89,800 ($1,960.46 USD) while PHP 6,016,250 ($131,343.40 USD), including a seat in the 2015 Asia Championship of Poker Main Event, is reserved for first.
flop, Kim check-raised all in and Zhang called quickly after having made a continuation bet of 6,000 with a stack of around 25,000. Zhang flipped over the 
while Kim held top pair and the flush draw in 
. The 
turn brought exactly said flush, but the win wasn't guaranteed yet as the Chinese had the higher heart in his hand.
river and Zhang quickly left the table. Kim was congratulated to "feel the rush" and complained that he had been rather card dead before and his best hand had been ace-queen.
got there against 
on a board of 
and both players changed their roles on the table as mid and short stack.
and again, the player at risk survived.
and both players checked. Sombero fired 3,000 at the 
and after Sombero checked, Kristensen made it 6,000. Somebero folded, but Kristensen showed 
board. The player to his left however made the call with 
of Robert Nguyen. The latter had previously mostly taken care of short stacks such as 
