HomeIt was another brutal day at the Main Event of the Asian Poker Tour Kickoff 2016 with a very tough field of 67 players returning to the felt. By the end of the scheduled eight levels, there were 20 players left, just two places shy of the money. Out of those remaining, ten of them have Main Event Bubble Protection.
Main Event Day 3 Chip Leader, Jeon Seung Soo
Ending day 2 as the chip leader was Korea’s Jeon Seung Soo with 269,500 chips. Jeon came in as the overall chip leader from the qualifying day one flights and held on to the torch for most of the day, grinding his way consistently upwards. He landed a big pot against Germany’s Harold Sonnenberg with his A♣ K♥ on a board of 4♣ 8♠ 9♠ 10♦ K♦ which brought him over the 300k range, practically sealing the chip leader’s status even after giving up a small chunk to a short stack late in the day.
Right at Jeon’s coattails was Germany’s Julius Malzanini with 264,000 chips. Malzanini entered the day as one of the chip leaders but unlike Jeon, his rise to the leader’s bracket was quite different. He experienced some major swings throughout the day, going up and down within the 100k-200k range. During the last level of the day, he earned a big pot against Dong Hyun Kim that brought him to where he ended the day. Impressively, Jeon and Malzanini are both previous APT Main Event titleholders.
Coming in third-in-chips was Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa with 241,000 chips. Tsuchikawa was one of the big stories of the day. At one point, he was in critical condition with a very short stack after losing with his pocket queens against Kwangsuk Yuh’s pocket aces. As a seasoned player, Tsuchikawa bounced back, earning multiple double ups until his stack was good enough to successfully claim sizable pots by shoving. One of the last big pots that he won was against Sonnenberg, winning 140K without a showdown.
Also within the 200k range of chips were Jim Bonanno (Guam) and Korea’s Dong Hyun Kim. Bonanno ended the day with 233,000 chips and Kim with 225,500 chips.
Among the players who also survived the day were Korea’s Sim Jae Kyung, Korea’s SJ Kim, USA’s Gerald Casey, and Hong Kong’s Kwan Kit Kwok. Alike Jeon and Malzanini, Kwok is also a previous APT Main Event titleholder. Kwok briefly held the chip lead today when he railed Russia’s Vladimir Geshkenbein with a set over set situation. He ended the day with 124,500 chips, just slightly below the average stack. Filipino player Lester Edoc, Japan’s Jun Saito, and Korea’s Lim Yo Hwan also made the list however with very short stacks.
Day 3 will begin promptly at 1pm tomorrow. They will be playing down to the final table of 8 players. For a read on the exciting action at day 2 and the Chip Counts of the remaining 20 players, head to the Live Reporting section of the website.