HKD$100,000 ACOP Main Event Day 3 | 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asia Championship of Poker

11-10-2012 03:00 UTC+8

Day 3 Ends with Final 22 Players in the Money; Kanaan Leads

donpeters

Level 16 : 2,000/4,000, 500 ante

Day 3 of the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asia Championship of Poker Main Event has concluded with the bubble bursting on the very last hand of the day.

Just 22 players remain, and all of them are officially in the money here in Macau. With each player guaranteed HKD$173,000, Michael Kanaan leads the way by a narrow margin. His finishing stack of 627,500 just barely eclipses the 626,500 for Andrew Gaw.

Other notables still remaining are Mike Watson, Day 1 chip leader Gary Lam and Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu. Wu finished the day with 227,000.

The penultimate Day 4 will kick off tomorrow at 3:10 p.m. local time here at the Grand Waldo Hotel in Macau, and the goal will be to reach the final table. However long that may take, PokerNews will be right here with the coverage, so don't miss out. Until then, enjoy your night, but don't party too hard. We've got that taken care of.

Tags: Michael Kanaan

11-10-2012 02:42 UTC+8

Linh Tran Bubbles ACOP Main Event

donpeters

On the very next hand after James McCarty doubled through him, Aaron Lim finished off the day by bursting the bubble. In order to send everyone into the money, Lim eliminated Linh Tran on the following hand.

Action folded to Tran in the cutoff seat, and he raised all in for 38,000. Lim reraised all in from the button, and everyone else folded. Lim held the , and Tran the . Tran was the player at risk and looking to double up.

The flop came down and just about closed the door completely for Tran. He now needed running aces, kings or threes to double up.

After the hit the turn, Tran was officially drawing dead. The river completed the board with the , and the day was over.

Player	Chips	Progress
Linh Tran	Busted

Tags: Aaron Lim Linh Tran

11-09-2012 20:16 UTC+8

Another Big Clash Between Sass and Gaw

donpeters

Alan Sass and Andrew Gaw have been doing their fair share of battling with one another here on Day 3. It all began early in the day with a big, big clash between the two that was an aces-versus-kings confrontation where Sass spiked a king to double up in a big way. In the following hand, the two collided again in what turned out to be a massive pot worth nearly 340,000 in chips.

From the cutoff seat, Gaw opened with a raise to 4,500 before play folded over to Sass in the big blind. Sass put in a reraise and made it 15,000 to go. With the action back on Gaw, he took his time, then reraised to 41,500. Immediately, Sass announced that he was all in. Gaw seemed very surprised by the move at first and looked as though he didn't like it. He kind of shook his head and then called after a couple of seconds.

When the cards were turned up, it was another war between two big pairs with Sass' behind the for Gaw. Gaw was the player at risk in the hand, and his entire stack of 167,700 in chips was on the line.

On the flop, the fell, and Gaw's kings stayed in front. The turn brought the , and now Sass was down to just the river card to spike a queen and win the hand.

In the aforementioned hand from earlier in the day, Sass was able to hit his two-outer king to crack Gaw's aces, but it wouldn't be this time when the landed on the river. Gaw's kings held up, and he won the pot to move back to a massive stack with very solid position in the tournament as the field approaches the money. Sass was left with just under 200,000 in chips.

Player	Chips	Progress
Andrew Gaw	340,000	208,000
Alan Sass	193,000	-167,000

Tags: Alan Sass Andrew Gaw

11-09-2012 18:23 UTC+8

Tan Knocked Out

Happy_Freaked

Jay Tan did not have a good level, and it ended up resulting in her elimination. We heard that she moved all in over a raise and Marcus Lau called her shove with . Tan turned over and failed to dodge both the ace and the king. The ace popped up on the flop, and the king on the river sealed the deal.

Player	Chips	Progress
Marcus Lau	100,000	5,000
Jay Tan	Busted

Tags: Jay Tan Marcus Lau

11-09-2012 11:20 UTC+8

ACOP Day 3: Onward To the Money

donpeters

We've reached "hump day" of the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asia Championship of Poker Main Event as today is Day 3 of the five-day event. Of the original 184 runners who entered the tournament, just 56 of them remain, and it's Andrew Gaw who tops them all with 329,200 in chips.

Gaw is trailed fairly closely by the first end-of-day chip leader of the event from Day 1, Yue Hin Lam. Lam bagged up 303,900 in chips last night. Behind him is Xing Zhou with 298,000 before the field sees a decent drop off to Tsugunari Toma and Edmund Lee with right around 215,000. That rounds out the top five, but there's plenty of other notables still in contention.

Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu sits just outside the top 10 with a stack of 144,900, Tom Marchese has 131,200 and Kenny Shih has 91,000. Wu isn't the only Team Pro still left in the field, either. He's joined by teammates Vivian Im, Celina Lin and Angel Guillen, although all three of them have less than 35,000 in chips. Guillen lost a pretty big pot right at the end of the night last night for most of his chips and will be returning today as the second shortest stack remaining. He has 10,700 in chips.

What's bad news for Guillen is that the blinds will be 600/1,200/100, giving him just about nine big blinds to start. But, the structure for this event is very slow and player friendly, so if Guillen can double early, he'll have a great shot and getting himself right back into the mix. For example, the structure includes two rarely-seen levels on the tournament circuit with the 700/1,400/200 and 900/1,800/200 levels.

While Guillen's hopes of a comeback create a good story for the day, it'd be a shame not to mention the 2010 champion of this event, Victorino Torres, who is still in the mix. Torres bagged 45,000 to end the day and will be looking to make another deep run here in one of the biggest and most prestigious events in Macau.

The action kicks off today at 3:10 p.m. local time, and that's when PokerNews will have the updates flowing. The goal will be to play down to the money, or until the end of the 16th level, whichever comes first. The top 22 spots will be paid out, and the tournament staff predicts that the money will be reached first.

Be sure to stay tuned right here for all of the action coming to you shortly!

Tags: Andrew Gaw