From a starting field of 306 entrants, just 114 players remaining in contention in the TWD 27,500 (~$875) Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event, playing out at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association in Taipei, Taiwan.
It is Taiwan’s Chi Hang the man out in pole position after topping the Day 1B counts with a stack of 277,800, overtaking Day 1A frontrunner Edwin Gerard at the top of the counts, with the US player returning second in the overall counts with a stack of 267,900. Taiwan’s Wei En Shih rounds out the top three stacks after a stellar run on Day 1B.
Other notables in contention include Hong Kong's Sparrow Cheung (95,500) current Taiwan No. #1 on the GPI Taiwan List, Pete Chen (73,400), Chen An Lin (45,000) and current No. #1 on the Taiwanese All Time Money List James Chen, though the latter is one of the short stacks with 22,600.
Of the 114 remaining players, just 36 of them will make the hallowed money spots, with a min-cash coming in at TWD 50,500 (~$1,610). A seat at the official nine-handed final table is good for TWD 164,000 (~$5,230), with the eventual winner walking away with a TWD 1,639,000 (~$52,300) top prize in addition to something much more valuable than money — the accolade of becoming the inaugural Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event Champion!
Poker King Cup Taiwan Payouts
Place
Payout (TWD)
Payout (US$)
1st
1,639,000
52,300
2nd
1,150,100
36,670
3rd
739,700
23,600
4th
547,500
17,470
5th
411,000
13,115
6th
328,600
10,485
7th
273,000
8,710
8th
218,800
6,980
9th
164,000
5,230
10th-12th
119,500
3,810
13th-15th
98,000
3,125
16th-18th
83,900
2,675
19th-21st
73,500
2,345
22nd-24th
65,300
2,080
25th-27th
57,900
1,845
28th-36th
50,500
1,610
Blinds will resume at 1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 big blind ante when cards are back in the air at 1:00 p.m. sharp, with level length increasing from 40 to 60-minutes, with the plan for the day to play six levels. However, according to Tournament Director Bryan Lo, the money bubble will be reached and breached today, and play will continue until it does so, even if this takes longer than the scheduled six levels.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action, so let’s see who has what it takes to make the money as the tournament approaches the business end.
The third of the ten series events scheduled at the Poker King Cup Taiwan concluded in the early hours of Sunday morning, with Taiwan's Lee Kung Hung defeating a 37-strong field in the TWD 11,000 Head Hunter for a TWD 113,900 (~$3,635) payday.
According to the Hendonmob.com, this is Hung's first registered live cash, making it one to remember, with a total of 4 players cashing for a share of the TWD 284,900 prize pool.
An absolutely huge hand has gone down between Jieming Xu, Chang Yu Chung and Lee Kuan Wee that saw the latter shoot straight to the top of the chip counts.
It was Chung who lit the fuse with an open to 7,000 from middle position, with a short-stacked Xu moving all-in for ~45,000 or so from the button. Sitting in the small blind, Wee announced raise and cut out a sizable stack of blue 5k chips for another 100,000 on top and action was back on Chung, who wasted little time in moving all-in for over 160,000. Wee tossed in the extras and the trio revealed their hands, with all of them holding premium pairs.
Jieming Xu:
Lee Kuan Wee:
Chang Yu Chung:
While Xu looked to be in great shape for a triple up, the window card was the , which brought an anguished cry of "Oh my god!" from Xu.
The rest of the runout came down to give Wee a boat and the monster pot, while Xu and Chung took some pictures of the board to commemorate the occasion before heading for the rail, while Wee stacked up to 445,000, which is good for the chip lead presently.
The bubble has burst, guaranteeing all 36 remaining players a TWD 50,500 (~$1,610) payday. The last man to depart empty-handed was the unfortunate Jia Tang, who was unable to recover from losing that huge pot to Jae Wook Shin just minutes earlier.
Although Tang found with which to make a stand, he was unable to best the of Kun Han Lee, with Tang's final board in the Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event running out .
Tang hit the rail, Lee stacked up to 375,000 and the rest of the field congratulated themselves on their good fortune at making the money.
In what proved to be a short but action-packed day, play concluded for Day 2 of the 2019 Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event after six 60-minute levels with 32 of the 114 returning survivors from the three starting flights bagging up chips.
It is Taiwan's Chou Chien Fa the man who leads the pack after concluding play with a massive 762,000 in chips. Fa seemed extremely comfortable in the chip leader's position for a man with only four live cashes on his poker resume — a spot he occupied for the majority of play before briefly being usurped by South Korea's Jae Wook Shin.
However, Fa finished with a flourish, chopping a gigantic three-way pot with the Philippines' David Erquiaga with the duo railing the unfortunate Jun Zhu Huang not long after the money bubble had burst.
It was Fa the man who lit the fuse on a hand that would have explosive results, picking up two callers in button Erquiaga and big blind Huang. The trio got all the chips in on a king-queen-four flop with two hearts on the board, Fa and Erquiaga both holding ace-king and Huang drawing extremely live with ace-jack of hearts.
Blanks on the turn and river saw Huang depart in 35th place, becoming the second paying casualty, while Fa and Erquiaga divvied up Huang's chips, with that pot putting Fa squarely at the top of the counts, where he would remain.
Shin was the only other player to bag over 700,000 in chips after crippling the unfortunate Jia Tang in another huge pot that saw the South Korean player briefly flirt with the chip lead before Fa reclaimed the top spot.
Tang was the architect of his own demise after getting frisky on the button and bubble with six-four offsuit, and while that dominated big blind Shin's five-four offsuit, the later check-raised the flop with the same bottom pair as Tang, who made two pair on the turn.
Unfortunately for Tang, that gave Shin a straight draw, which he played aggressively and got there on the river to leave the former short, departing at the hands of Kun Han Lee shortly afterward on the last level of the day when his ace-queen lost a race to the Taiwanese player's pocket jacks to guarantee all 36 remaining players a TWD 50,500 (~$1,610) payday.
Other notables still in contention for the title include Taiwan's Terry Fan (460,000), Hong Kong's Howard Sun (321,000), the UK's Alex Lindop (302,000), Hong Kong's Wing Kei Chan (194,000), Singapore's Richard Lim (169,000) and the USA's Edwin Gerard (154,000).
With 114 player returning for Day 2 and only 36 of them making the money, the action was frantic from the get-go. Notables to come up short of the cash spots included Hong Kong's Sparrow Cheung, Ireland's Mark Gruendemann, the UK's Ben Andrews, current Taiwan No. #1 on the GPI Taiwan List, Pete Chen, and Taiwan All Time Money List No. #1 James Chen.
Of these, Pete Chen came the closest to the cash, departing one off the bubble after coming out on the wrong side of a blind on blind battle against fellow countryman Zong-Ping Yang, who woke up with jacks when Chen shoved with king-six from the small blind.
In addition to the aforementioned Huang, three other players busted in the cash spots before play concluded, with Taiwan's Li-Kuwang Ma, and Hong Kong's Ming Sang Chung and Wei Fan the other players in question, all earning themselves a min-cash of TWD 50,500.
The 32 survivors will return for the penultimate third day at 1:00 p.m. local time (GMT+8) to determine who will earn their place at the final table, with blinds recommencing at 4,000/8,000 with and 8,000 running ante, so join us then.