Down to only 48,000 in chips, Russia's Artur Akhmetzianov pushed all-in from an early position and was called by chip leader Zhiqiang Meng in the big blind.
Artur Akhmetzianov: K♠10♣
Zhiqiang Meng: 8♠4♦
The A♠9♥4♥A♣Q♠ board reduced the field by one hopeful and the field plummeted to 76 hopefuls.
One table over, Likhitaumpai Kriangkrai was all-in from the cutoff with the 9♠9♦ and Thailand-born Tanupat Punjarojanakul called on the button with the K♥8♥. The A♠9♣5♥ flop gave Kriangkrai a set of nines and he already celebrated vividly. The sweat came with the 3♥ turn but the K♠ river didn't let the bubble burst just yet.
Throughout multiple hands during the extended bubble period, Hen Rosilio clashed in three hands with Japan's Atsunobu Konishi and lost all three of them to become the official bubble boy.
He first came up short in a flip with A♥J♦ versus 3♣3♦ on the Q♥5♣4♦8♥7♥ board.
Rosilio was then behind with A♦J♥ versus A♥Q♠ and couldn't get there either before he was forced all-in from the big blind in the third clash.
Hen Rosilio: 3♠2♠
Atsunobu Konishi: 10♥10♣
The board ran out ace-high without any sweat by the turn and that let the bubble burst. While all players were celebrating already, two contenders had to sweat because they were all-in on different tables and needed to win their showdowns in order to receive the travel fund prize on Day 2.
Vladislav Klepikov flipped with A♠J♣ for 191,000 against the red-hot running Zhiqiang Meng called in the small blind holding the 10♥10♣. The A♥6♠2♠3♦9♦ board paired up Klepikov and he secured the min-cash.
Last but not least, Yu Zhu took on Liang Peng in another preflop clash.
Peng Liang: A♣K♣
Yu Zhu: 7♠7♥
The 6♣3♣3♠Q♣9♠ runout gave Peng the winning flush and he made it through as well.
After the tumultuous end to the penultimate starting day with three all-ins, one elimination and two double-ups, the remaining 75 players have bagged up their chips. In the meanwhile, the registration for Day 1d has closed with an additional 551 entries to bring the total up to 2,337 entries - more than double the initial guarantee. Another 69 players will advance but the conclusion is still a few hours away.
Chip Counts and a recap for Day 1c will be provided once they are published by PokerTalk, while the Day 1d counts and Day 2 Seat Draw may take longer tonight.
Bubble burster Chih-Wei Chen bagged up 190,000 chips, which is fewer than what he advanced with on Day 1a and thus this lower stack will be surrendered in exchange for a min-cash of 60,000 Thai Baht in travel funds. As a result, 68 players advanced from Day 1d and all secured a min-cash including the flag hunter Dominick French.
Two flights remained for the flagship tournament of the first government-approved live poker series in the Kingdom of Thailand and the attendance was more than doubled in the 2025 WPT Prime Exhibition Championship Event. Thanks to 598 and 551 entries respectively, the prize pool in travel funds soared all the way to 75,487,859 Thai Baht (more than $2.3 Million) thanks to 2,337 total entries and made the groundbreaking partnership between PokerTalk Thailand and WPTGlobal a huge success.
Poker enthusiasts from near and far made their way to the Emsphere Mall in the heart of Bangkok with all 70 tables in the spacious UOB LIVE needed to combat the four-figure entries across both final two flights. Day 1c saw another 75 players advance and a new overall first and second in chips were crowned.
Zhiqiang Meng (1,350,000) and Haiyang Zhang (1,205,000) from China soared to the top and will be in the driver's seat for the penultimate tournament day on Monday, August 4, 2025.
Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1c
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Zhiqiang Meng
China
1,350,000
54
2
Haiyang Zhang
China
1,205,000
48
3
Sanket Sanganeria
India
749,000
30
4
Thiyam Singh
India
637,000
25
5
Nan Zhang
China
627,000
25
6
Tanupat Punjarojanakul
United States
612,000
24
7
Liyu Zheng
China
608,000
24
8
Ruiji Xie
China
571,000
23
9
Chuan Yu
China
526,000
21
10
Adrian Chua
Singapore
522,000
21
Meng was involved in bursting the money bubble on Day 1c after notching up several eliminations late on and he would have had even more chips at his disposal if Vladislav Klepikov wouldn't have won the flop with ace-jack against his pocket tens during the final round of all-in showdowns. Instead, it was Israel's Hen Rosilio who lost three preflop all-in showdowns in a row against Atsunobu Konishi to become the last player to leave empty-handed from Day 1c.
Notables to advance with large and playable stacks include Nan Zhang (627,000), Tanupat Punjarojanakul (612,000), Adrian Chua (522,000), Shuang Luo (500,000), Selim Oulmekki (392,000), Lei Wang (323,000), Sungmin Cho (265,000), and 2025 WPT Cambodia champion Artem Vezhenkov (235,000).
The minimum travel fund for all Day 1 survivors is 60,000 Thai Baht while the eventual champion on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, can look forward to 11,477,000 Thai Baht value as travel fund along with an entry to the 2025 WPT World Championship in Las Vegas this upcoming December worth $10,400.
Across all four starting days, a total of 292 players made it through and will be back at 6 p.m. local time on Monday, August 4, 2025 when a maximum of six hours of game play are permitted according to the brand new Thai regulations. Chih Wei Chen was the only participant to bag up chips in multiple flights and was also responsible for bursting the bubble on Day 1d ro secure one min-cash and carry over the larger stack from the opening flight to Day 2.
Tournament Room at UOB LIVE Bangkok
Recommencing blinds in level 20 will be 10,000-20,000 with a big blind ante of 20,000 and the tournament continues with the same 20-minute level clock to comply with the gaming regulations in Thailand. Expect the opening stages of Day 2 to be a very frantic affair, though, the final table may not be reached before the cutoff time due to the gargantuan field size.
As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to try and capture as many of the key hands as possible en route to crowning a champion throughout the next two days. Live stream action in multiple languages will also be available on the social media channels of PokerTalk Thailand with cards-up coverage and commentary on a 30-minute delay.
