HomeAfter eight hours of tournament play, the Asian Poker Tour Finale Main Event ended its final day one flight with 38 players surviving out 90 total entries. Leading the crew was Korea’s Jae Chul Chang with 99,800 chips, followed closely behind by Japan’s Kota Nakano with 95,100 chips.
Main Event Day 1B Chip Leader, Jae Chang
Day 1b was a nutty day filled with big hands gracing the felt. For chip leader Chang, he catapulted into the big stack zone when his pocket sevens went from a set on the flop into a full house on the river. Not only did this earn him a big pot, it also crushed a player’s pocket kings. For Nakano, he claimed a hefty pot late in the day with his pocket aces getting some good pay.
Another player who survived the day with a heavy-weight stack was APT Asian Series Cebu 2015 Main Event champion, John Tech from the Philippines. Tech had to re-enter the tournament after getting badly crippled by Tan Shi Jie’s pocket kings that sent him to the rail shortly after. He returned with new fervor, winning a slew of sizable pots, including a mountain of chips when he eliminated India’s Dhaval Mudgal with his full house. Tech bagged up 83,775 chips.
Other notable players who also kept their seats warm throughout the day were India’s Kunal Patni with 76,850 chips. Patni was on fire in the middle of the day and was the chip leader just before the dinner break. Japan player Kosei Ichinose survived with 57,150 chips, some of which he got on a double up with his ace-queen outdrawing pocket kings. His fellow countryman Azusa Maeda was the bane of Ahn Seong Hwan who cradled a nice stack for some time until Maeda stole most of it on a nut flush. Maeda ended the day with 43,425 chips. Additional players to mention are poker pro Dennis Philips from USA with 45,050 chips, Korea’s SJ Kim with 33,375 chips, and Malaysia’s Alex Lee with a short stack of 13,300.
Unfortunately, quite a number of notable players also fell to the wayside such as Japan’s Gerard Bringley, Filipino pro Lester Edoc, and Germany’s Sebastian Benz. For Benz, he got hit hard when his attempt to trap with his set of ducks only led to a big drop in chips against Greek player Sotiris Axiotiadis who connected with a higher set. Incidentally, Axiotiadis survived both day one flights with a larger stack of 32,650 bagged at day 1b.
Congratulations to all the players who survived the grueling day of day 1b! We will return tomorrow at 1pm for day 2 of the Main Event. For a read on some of the action of the day, head to the Live Reporting section of the website.