Chris Backhouse check-called a bet worth 32,000 on the turn and then checked the river while in the blinds. Zhao Feng checked it back this time and Backhouse tabled the for a flopped straight. Feng briefly flashed his cards and the were exposed to the entire table.
Nam Hyung Kim restored his lead after winning a pot with for a pair of kings on an ace-high board against Alexander Puchalski and then drew for the final hands of the night. A four was revealed and that's how many hands will still be played for tonight.
In a preflop all-in contest, Ceesvin Abdulla was all.in with the and had two overcards at his disposal. Jean-Robert Autran had looked him up with the and remained ahead on a board of to reduce the Day 1a field to the last 22 contenders.
Lars Madsen on the button checked back the turn and then faced a bet worth 35,000 by Tzai Wei Phua in the under-the-gun position when the appeared on the river.
Madsen carefully counted his remaining stack and eventually called to get shown the . The Dane sighed, exposed the first and then also flipped over the river as well.
The first of three starting days of the inaugural PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Cambodia $1,500 Main Event has concluded with 21 hopefuls out of 113 entries advancing after 14 levels of 40 minutes each. It took ten hours to wrap up the proceedings at the five-star NagaWorld Integrated Resort in Phnom Penh and the run good of Nam Hyung Kim during the series so far has continued.
The South Korean already reached four final tables in Side Events without earning a spadie trophy and finished the night with 410,000 in chips. Renniel Galvez from the Philippines follows in second place with 347,000 while the UK's Chris Backhouse (289,000) and Tzai Wei Phua (279,000) from Singapore are separated by a few big blinds only.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1a
Position
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds Day 2
1
Nam Hyung Kim
South Korea
410,000
103
2
Renniel Galvez
Philippines
347,000
87
3
Chris Backhouse
United Kingdom
289,000
72
4
Tzai Wei Phua
Singapore
279,000
70
5
Masamichi Hayashi
Japan
246,000
62
6
Jean-Robert Autran
France
238,000
60
7
Markus Garberg
Norway
220,000
55
8
Robbie Schiffbauer
United States
165,000
41
9
Daniel Smiljkovic
Austria
155,000
39
10
Zhao Feng
Singapore
155,000
39
Among the bigger stacks in the first heat are also Frenchman Jean-Robert Autran (238,000), Markus Garberg (220,000), Robbie Schiffbauer (165,000), and WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Smiljkovic (155,000). Vincent Huang (108,000) and Eric Wasylenko (41,000) advanced with stacks in the bottom half.
Especially during the final stages, the eliminations came at a rapid pace and Day 1a all but reached the top 15% of its 113 entries, which consisted of 93 unique players and 20 re-entries. All participants are allowed to purchase one re-entry in each starting day and among those to do so but come up short of bagging up chips were Harry Ross, Victor Chong, Nang Quang Nguyen, Hwany Lee and Hoyt Corkins.
The rise to the top of the leaderboard for Kim started with the elimination of the always dangerous Florencio Campomanes when he four-bet five-four suited from an early position and turned a straight. Campomanes could not get away from top pair and top kicker and Kim remained near the top of the chip counts ever since.
Other notables to bow out on Day 1a included Sofia Lovgren, Natalie Teh, Akshay Kapoor, Koen Breed, Pete Chen, Paul Newey, Ori Elul, Zurvan Tumboli, and Vincent Chauve. Elul was involved in one of the most memorable hands of the day when he hit a one-outer to eliminate Corkins but didn't keep up the momentum to bust in the final level of the night.
All those who didn't bag up chips have another two chances to jump back into the action and battle for a slice of the $400,000 guaranteed prize pool, which is likely to be surpassed. Day 1b with levels of 40 minutes kicks off on Friday, November 11, at 1pm local time. The final turbo heat with a 20-minute level duration then follows as of 9pm local time.
Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to follow all the action from the Kingdom of Cambodia, which has become one of the up and coming destinations for live poker in the Asia-Pacific region.