HomeIt was a wicked day of poker! That’s probably the best way to describe the thrilling action at Main Event Day 2 of the Asian Poker Tour Macau 2016 held at the Crystal Palace in the Casino Lisboa. With nonstop heated battles happening at every table, the pros were in full control, clearly dominating the felt and dusting those unable to keep up. By the end of the day’s scheduled eight hours of play, 29 remained with the largest stack owned by one of Spain’s top pros, Sergio Aido.
Main Event Day 2 Chip Leader, Sergio Aido
Aido entered the day sitting on a healthy stack well above average. For most of the tournament, he was in a table with the day’s entering chip leader, Hong Kong’s Kevin Tse Chi Ho. With Tse continuing to run well, eliminating players and even landing a rare royal flush, it wasn’t until the final two hours did Aido challenge for the top dog spot. His rise was undoubtedly set in motion after earning a massive pot with quads that got full pay from Tse. Click here for the hand report.
Several hands later, Aido landed another big double up, this time with his A♦ K♥ running a better spread than Macau’s Gu Hui Dong’s A♣ Q♥ on a board of 3♥ A♥ 10♦ 9♥ A♠. With a monster artillery backing him up, Aido took charge of the table, putting the heat on with raises and re-raises that were difficult for players to call. Aido finished the day with a commanding stack of 476,000.
Second in chips going into Day 3, Daniel Tang
Also seated at Aido’s table was UK’s Daniel Tang. If there was anyone clearly gunning for the chip leader’s status, it was Tang. He was on a mission today, charging like a bull and unforgiving at the felt. Tang grinded his tablemates hard, tanking them with big bets and often making the big calls to claim multiple pots. Among his many successful moments during the last round of play was exposing Tse’s bluff and eliminating Korea’s Steve Yea to secure the second spot in the chip rung with 415,000 in chips.
At the third spot is Terry Fan of Taiwan
Before the last two levels of play, Taiwanese pro Terry Fan was nowhere near the leader’s berth. He sat on a mid-ranged stack, one that he earned after winning a big showdown. During the hand, Fan called for his tournament life on the river holding just ace high. That turned out to be the best hand and from there he coasted until the last two hours where he attacked player’s stacks and outdueled his opponents. He proceeded to eliminate three players at his table, two of them well known pros, Russia’s Vladimir Dobrovolskii and Korea’s SJ Kim, and the other by cracking aces. Fan bagged up 380,500 in chips for the top third spot in the rung.
Among those who also made it through the day’s onslaught were Filipino Ian Brion, Hong Kong players David Douglas and Kevin Tse, Korea’s Lim Yo Hwan, Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, England’s Tom Alner, New Zealand’s Thomas Ward, and defending champion Norway’s Henrik Tollefsen.
Main Event action will resume at 1pm on Monday, October 24th for Day 3. They will play down to the Final 8 players. The money round begins at 18 players. The Main Event attracted a total of 108 entries for a total prize pool of HKD 2,074,000. The eventual winner will take home HKD 530,000 and the APT Championship Ring.
You can read up on the action of Day 2 and view the Chip Counts in the Live Updates section of the website.