Yao Finishes as the APPT Macau Day 1a Chip Leader
Day 1a of the 2015 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event attracted 207 players, and after eight 60-minute levels of play, 105 remained with China’s Zhifeng Yao leading the way holding 174,700 in chips.
"We were hoping for over 200 on Day 1a and this number puts us well on the way to breaking 500 total players," APPT President Danny McDonagh said. "There is normally a big influx on the final day and I think we are an outside chance to break the all-time record of 575 with 500 obviously our first target. We do certainly have the capacity to cope with a near-record number."
Yao took the lead in the last few hands, overtaking XiaoHua Fu (172,000) as the end-of-day chip leader. Fu looked like he had the lead all to himself when he clashed with Chane Kampanatsanyakorn (133,800) midway through the last level and came out victorious, but Yao had other plans.
Some notables that came out to play on Day 1a were KC Wong, Tom Alner, Percy Yung, Sam Higgs, Yuguang Li, PokerStars Team Pro’s Kosei Ichinose and Aditya Argawal as well defending APPT Macau champion Jiajun Liu. Unfortunately they all failed to make it through the day.
In regards to Agarwal, PokerStars' sole Indian Team Pro, he was eliminated during the sixth level when his 
couldn't hold up all-in preflop against two over cards. Likewise, Liu fell in the last level of the night when, after being crippled running kings into aces, he shoved his last 4,700 all in with the 
and was up against an opponent's 
. The board ran out a clean 
and that was all she wrote for the defending champ.
Day 1b will kick off on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. local time here in Macau. The magnificent City of Dreams at PokerStars Macau will be the host once again as a field of close to 300 or so players will be out in full force. Be sure to come right back to PokerNews for all the action you can handle.
While you wait, take a day trip to Hong Kong: