HomeThe APT Korea Incheon 2017 opened today’s festivities with the much-awaited KRW 1,100,000 Main Event on spotlight. 61 players poured in to the tournament area of Paradise City casino and at the time of bagging, only 26 were left with USA’s Jeremy Graves hailing as the overwhelming chip leader with a 322,200 stack.
Main Event Day 1A Chip Leader, Jeremy Graves
But Graves didn’t just climb into the chip lead, he actually catapulted there. The hand that did it was a sick three-way showdown with Graves holding Q-Q up against A-A and K-K. With lady luck giving him some love, a queen graced the flop and the rest is obvious. He eliminated two players simultaneously and shipped in the biggest pot of the day.
Coming in second in chips, though far behind the leader, was Malaysia’s Choong Kian Weng. Players may have noticed Weng’s huge photo up on the wall that’s because he is one of the 2017 APT Main Event champions. He finished the day with a very healthy 230,000 in chips.
Another player also making the cut was Singapore’s Andy Li Xueyan. Xueyan attended the previous APT festival and won three of the side events. He ended Day 1A right in the middle of the pack with a stack of 115,100.
Today’s survivors will have a one day break before they head back for Day 2. The Main Event will resume tomorrow with Day 1B kicking off at exactly 1pm. This is the last starting day to join the action so make sure to head to the tables early and get signed up before registration closes.
Chip counts can be found in the APT facebook page.
Bounty Hunter champion Kwok Luen Kwan
Out of the 78 bounty hunters in the field, it was Hong Kong’s Kwok Luen Kwan who kept his head held high dominating Chono Fumiaki at the final duel to claim the latest event trophy of the festival and KRW 4,410,000 (USD 3,800 approx) in cold hard cash.
Head Hunter Champion, Kwok Luen Kwan
The race for the title began with only 7 players returning from last night’s slaughter. In most cases, it would have been have been the final 8 but Mikio Inoue eliminated two players simultaneously to wrap up the night with one less.
The final day began with Yoshida Masanori entering with the largest artillery. After two hunters met their end early, it was down to five players with Masanori running low and Fumiaki in full command with easily over half of the chips in play.
In Masanori’s attempt to boost his stack, he shoved it all in on A♥ A♦ 6♦ flop and was called by Tan Chinsun who initially tanked for some time. His call with K♠ Q♦ was the right choice, exposing Masanori’s J♣ 4♥ bluff. The turn 5♦ and river K♦ sent Masanori out in 5th place. Not long after, Chinsun scalped Inoue to bring the fight down to the last three hunters.
The round began with numerous orbits without a flop. This led to the discussion of an ICM deal. An agreement was eventually reached; payouts were distributed, leaving KRW 300,000 on the side plus the trophy for the eventual winner.
Action resumed with Chinsun immediately having a lot of trouble. He lost two sizable pots, one each to his opponents Kwok and Fumiaki then fell in 3rd place with a desperate K♥ 2♣ shove that was unable to catch a break against Fumiaki’s A♣ 10♦.
Although the heads up round began with Fumiaki backed by a substantial lead, it was Kwok who steered that ship. Kwok won three huge pots without a showdown to amass 95 percent of the chips. Fumiaki managed to double up a few times, but his stack was still too low to pose any kind of threat and was eventually eliminated. Due to the ICM deal, Fumiaki made out with more cash earnings but Kwok won the spotlight for his victory.
Payouts
1st Kwok Luen Kwan – Hong Kong – KRW 4,410,000 (deal made)
2nd Chono Fumiaki – Japan – KRW 4,570,000 (deal made)
3rd Tan Chinsun – Malaysia – KRW 3,560,000 (deal made)
4th Mikio Inoue – Japan – KRW 2,070,000
5th Yoshida Masanori – Japan – KRW 1,780,000
6th Lei Jichong – China – KRW 1,540,000
7th Soh Yan Dathyronne – KRW 1,330,000
8th Kenji Yamashiza – Japan – KRW 1,170,000
9th Bi Qiang – China – KRW 1,060,000
10th Hirayama Masaki – Japan – KRW 970,000
Masashi Shibata wins the Super Deep Stack Turbo
The Super Deep Stack Turbo, one of the fastest tournaments on offer at the ongoing festival, blew by in top speed with the field going from 66 to 3 in just a blink of an eye. Okay, that’s an exaggeration but we did see the numbers drop pretty fast on the screen.
Super Deep Stack Turbo Champion, Masashi Shibata
The money round was reached when 9 players remained however we only focused on the action at three-handed with Masashi Shibata looking comfortable with a big chip lead. He drove his stack even higher after eliminating Tanaka Masatoshi in 3rd place with his K♣ J♥ spiking trips on a running board of Q♦ 2♥ K♥ K♦ 3♥ to dust A♦ 9♠.
The heads up round had Shibata well fueled with 70 percent of the chips but Shinichi Takenouchi wasn’t going down that easy. In just one hand, Takenouchi doubled up with pocket eights to Shibata’s pocket sevens and the lead switched up. But Shibata battled back, won two slightly charged pots then regained the lead. He finished off Takenouchi with J♣ J♥ over Q♥ 8♠ on a board of 8♦ 6♠ 6♥ 4♠ 5♣ to ship in the KRW 5,320,000 first place purse and the APT event trophy.
Top 3 Payouts
1st Masashi Shibata – Japan – KRW 5,320,000
2nd Shinichi Takenouchi – Japan – KRW 3,280,000
3rd Tanaka Masatoshi – Japan – KRW 2,400,000
Daily video highlights are now up! Watch some of the fun moments of the APT Korea Incheon 2017 in the APT YouTube channel.