Rory Young Leads After Seven Levels
That's all she wrote for Day 1 of the PokerStars.net Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Season 8 Asia Championship of Poker Main Event. A grand total of 286 players came out for the action on the first day, and after seven levels of play the clock read that just 175 remain. When the dust settled, Rory Young bagged up the biggest stack of the night with 150,100 in chips.
Our PokerNews Live Reporting team spied Young holding a remarkably large stack roughly halfway through the fourth level. Young never relinquished that lead as the day progressed, and he finished the day as the man to catch heading into Day 2. Other stacks close to Young include 2013 Asia Player of the Year Jian Yang (147,600), Dong Guo (120,400), and Anson Yan Shing Tsang (101,600).
While the night ended with 286 entries, prize pool information has not yet been tabulated as registration remains open until the start of Day 2. The event offered a guarantee of HK$15,000,000, which has already been smashed through the stellar turnout on the first day.
Daniel Colman also made a big splash during the opening levels of the Main Event, building his starting stack to an impressive 102,900. Colman found a surge late in the evening, eliminating a player with pocket queens against pocket tens. Colman is continuing his legendary 2014 run hot off a seventh-place finish in the 2014 ACOP MBP Super High Roller. Colman's recent six-figure score netted him $373,932 in prize money, and he looks primed to make yet another deep run in the Main Event.
The field remains stacked with notable names heading into Day 2. Some of the players to return for the second day are Connor Drinan (99,000), Joseph Cheong (94,300), Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (91,600), Sam Cohen (78,300), Terrence Chan (77,000), Jack Salter (59,500), Dimitar Danchev (52,500), Joe Hachem (50,200), Dan Smith (48,400), Kitty Kuo (39,500), Eugene Katchalov (39,400), Jonathan Duhamel (33,400), Naoya Kihara (33,000).
Also returning for Day 2 will be recent 2014 ACOP MBP Super High Roller champion, Steve O'Dwyer. While O'Dwyer did not make much progress on the day, bagging up just 30,100, he will return for Day 2 hoping to find a rush and make another deep run here in Macau.
While the aforementioned players survived throughout the day and were able to bag stacks for Day 2, others were not as fortunate. Some of the players to hit the rail before play concluded for the day were Paul Newey, David Steicke, Olivier Busquet, Chane Kampanatsanyakorn, Anatoly Filatov, Chance Kornuth, and Isaac Baron. Team PokerStars also had several casualties throughout the day. Among those to fall wearing the red spade were Isaac Haxton, Liv Boeree, Vivian Im, and Randy Lew.
Play resumes from fabulous Macau at 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday. Players will return to play five 90-minute levels with no dinner break. Afterwards, players are invited to attend the official ACOP welcome party, which will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel poolside area. As always, be sure to return to PokerNews for all of the updates from the tournament felt as this exciting event moves through its second day of play.