HomeDay 1B of the APT Main Event smashed all expectations with 124 entries, which is just over double the numbers of Day 1A. The huge turnout filled up all the tables at the APT Korea Incheon 2017 festival in Paradise City, eventually pushing back one of the side events an extra hour. At the end of the scheduled eight rounds, several players sealed up some fairly heavy duty bags with past APT Main Event champion Iori Yogo earning the title of chip leader.
Main Event Day 1B Chip Leader, Iori Yogo
To give you an idea on how close the battle for the top really was, here were the four front runners out of the 69 that survived the day.
Iori Yogo 223,400
Koji Tanizawa 218,900
Hyatt 209,900
Mitsuru Sano 209,600
Out of the four, it was Sano who held the chip lead the longest. He was already sporting the largest stack midway through the tournament before the others caught up in the last round. At one point, he even climbed to over 300K, a mark no other player had reached in Day 1B.
In addition to Yogo, past APT Main Event champion HIsashi Ogi was also on the felt, doubling up his starting stack to close with a slightly above average stack of 103,400.
Another notable player making it through was Yoichi Uesugi, though he had to spend another dime to get back in the running. He is currently second in the APT Player of the Year 2017 leaderboard. Female pro Yuri Ishida also made the lineup along with Kwok Luen Kwan who won the Head Hunter event.
Today’s survivors will return tomorrow, Thursday August 17th for Day 2 starting promptly at 1pm. They will merge with the 26 remaining players of Day 1A for a 95 strong field to kick off the action.
We will have a live reporting team on the premises so make sure to follow the action in the Live Updates page of the website.
Noda Hiroyuki champions the NLH One Day event
Shortly after the main bagged up, Noda Hiroyuki staged a successful comeback at the No Limit Hold’em One Day event to capture the KRW 5,120,000 first place purse and the APT event trophy.
NLH 1 Day Event Champion, Noda Hiroyuki
The first side dish of the day kicked off with 33 players pooled in for a total pot of KRW 12,800,000. Only five players were guaranteed a piece of the pie with the bottom two slices eventually going to Nawa Ichiyo and Le Evgeniy.
The next portion almost went to Hiroyuki however he avoided elimination after catching a lucky break with his Q♥ J♠ all in. The board filled up to 10♣ J♣ 6♦ 2♠ Q♠, improving him to two pair to overtake Saika Sho’s K♣ K♠. With Sho now on the short end, he was a goner in 3rd place with Junichi Nakagiri delivering the axe.
Yet despite Nakagiri’s 2:1 chip lead at heads up, he was unable to put away Hiroyuki. Instead, it was quite the opposite with Hiroyuki shipping in a double up with Q-Q over K-8 then winning a big pot with his pocket jacks to cripple down Nakagiri and send him out in 2nd place.
Payouts
1st Noda Hiroyuki – Japan – KRW 5,120,000
2nd Junichi Nakagiri – Japan – KRW 3,200,000
3rd Saika Sho – Japan – KRW 1,920,000
4th Le Evgeniy – Uzbekistan – KRW 1,410,000
5th Nawa Ichiyo – Japan – KRW 1,150,000
Taehoon Han wins the WeLoveSport.com Deep Stack Turbo
The WeLoveSport.com Deep Stack Turbo event got started an hour later than schedule with the room filled up and all the tables accounted for. By the time it ran, there were 46 players raring to go for a prize pool that grew to KRW 6,690,000.
WLS Deep Stack Turbo Champion, Taehoon Han
After the bubble burst, leaving the last five players to slug it out, the biggest pot came ka-booming down sending two players out and one soaring to a monstrous chip lead. The three-way showdown was between New Zealand’s Taehoon Han, Japan’s Mitsumori Nobuaki, and a familiar face at the final table these days, USA’s Jeremy Graves. In the aftermath, Han’s A♠ Q♥ scooped it all up outdrawing Graves’s J♥ J♣ and Nobuaki’s 5♥ 5♠ on a board landing A♦ 7♦ 8♣ K♣ 3♥. While Nobuaki was well covered, Graves was only 2K behind Han and had to settle for a 4th place payout.
With a massive massive lead, and yes it was massive, Han proceeded to eliminate the next two players to win the KRW 2,680,000 first place purse and the APT event trophy.
Payouts
1st Taehoon Han – New Zealand – KRW 2,680,000
2nd Jung Kelvin Hyunki – Canada – KRW 1,670,000
3rd Izutsu Shojiro – Japan – KRW 1,000,000
4th Jeremy Graves – USA – KRW 740,000
5th Mitsumori Nobuaki – Japan – KRW 600,000