With another Day 1 in the books, we’re getting ever closer to smashing the guarantee of this year’s APT Incheon Main Event. Another 156 entries were recorded on Day 1c, bringing the total number of entries to 586, excluding online flights, with one day left to go. We saw plenty more big names take their shot at the Main Event again today, so let’s take a look at the action.
Day 1c Action
As with the previous Day 1s, we didn’t see many people enter early on, but as the day progressed, we saw a large influx in entries. One of the notable players who joined us early on was Huidong Gu; the winner of APT and APPT events in Seoul and Jeju, we’re sure that Gu would love to add an APT in Incheon to his list of accomplishments. However, after an early elimination on Day 1c, he’ll have to re-enter on Day 1d if he wants to make a deep run in this year’s Main Event.
Japan’s Daiki Shingae has made a name for himself as something of a Main Event specialist, having topped the chip counts at the end of Day 2 in the last two APT Main Events, eventually finishing 16h in the APT Hanoi Main Event and 3rd in the APT Da Nang Main Event. However, he’s got a bit of work to do if he wants to be the chip leader at the end of this year’s Day 2, as he only took through 72,200 at the end of Day 1c.
High Roller Entries
Notable Hong Kong high roller Winfred Yu also made an appearance in Day 1c, the winner of two Triton titles managed to bag a respectable 52,000 chips to bring forward to Day 2. We also saw APT high roller regulars Daniel Brugman and Darko Svesko enter on Day 1c, but neither were able to bag chips for Day 2.
A late entry to the action was Singapore’s Jun Hao Wu. Wu has already recorded three cashes at this year’s APT Incheon, including a victory in the Superstar Challenge event where he took home over KRW 177,000,000 for his efforts. After a short Day 1, Wu managed to bag 138,700 to take through to Day 2, putting him 6th in the standings for Day 1c.
Three-Way Action
We also saw a sick three-way all-in in the penultimate level of the day, resulting in a 150,000 chip pot going the way of Japan’s Tuyoshi Ota. Joseph Talamayan kicked off the action by raising to 2,500 chips. He received a call from Jiagu Liu before getting 3bet to 11,000 by Ota.
Waku Harako put in the min 4bet to 20,000, which Talamayan called after a considerable tank. Ota also made the call, and the three saw a flop of KK8 - gin for Ota. Harako shoved his 70,000 chip stack into the middle, Talamayan threw his last 25,000 in too, and Ota snap called the rest of his stack, and he was thrilled when he saw his opponents’ hands.
Neither the 3 nor the 2 could help Talamayan or Harako, so Tuyoshi Ota scooped a 150,000 pot, eliminating Talamayan and leaving Harako with a lot of work to do. Despite winning this huge pot, Ota would only bag 95,300 for Day 2, while Harako bounced back to bag 47,100 chips.
Natural8 Qualifiers
It was a good day for the Natural8 qualifiers, with six of the ten players who qualified online making it through to Day 2. Of the six remaining players, Hongjie Wang bagged the most chips with 117,800, but Hong Kong’s Yun Lam Kevin Choi and Chi Ho King Lai are right behind him with 115,000 each.
Russia’s Aleksei Varashev and China’s Xuefeng Cao had solid days, bagging 93,800 and 89,400, but Japan’s Fumitaka Ikeda has a lot of work to do if they want to make a deep run, as they only bagged 33,000 chips.
Chip Leaders
The chip leader at the end of Day 1c was China’s Zhanghui Yu, who made his first recorded cash a few days ago in the APT Kickoff event. He’ll bring through 184,100 to Day 2 and will be hoping to make a deep run and get another cash on the board. Just behind him in second place is Thailand’s Peerathat Sukpaisarn who bagged 180,300. Japan’s Yuya Omoda rounds out the top three, bagging 148,300 for Day 2.
We’ve only got one flight remaining in this year’s APT Incheon, and we’re all excited to see just how many players we’re going to receive once we’ve tallied up all the live and online entries. So, make sure you subscribe and follow along here at Natural8 for all of the latest action from APT Incheon.
Image Source: The Asian Poker Tour
