Raiden Kan Grabs The Day 1 Chip Lead
The second and last starting day of the PokerStars.net Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Main Event in Seoul concluded with Raiden Kan as the chip leader, and he bagged up 156,400. A total of 138 players entered Day 1b, but just 50 managed to last throughout the eight levels that were played.
Many notables showed up for this event, but for most of them, including Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, things didn't go so well.
At the start of the day, we immediately spotted former Aussie Millions Main Event finalist, Sam Cohen who had quite a profitable day. Right off the bat, Cohen found aces to win her a big pot, and things never slowed down as she bagged up 104,000 in chips. Things didn't go so well for former ANZPT Sydney winner Michael Kanaan, who grinded the entire day only to get knocked out in the final level of play.
Online grinder Jae Kim, a U.S. native living in Seoul due to Black Friday, looked to make an impact in this live tournament. Kim held on for quite a long time, but eventually he hit the rail. Chip-stacking champ Ang Lin left the cash games today to try his best in the Main Event, but unfortunately the ever-smiling gentleman was soon sent back to play some more cash games. That's right where he went, too, and was seen creating more chip stack castles right away.
Another player that we will not see on Day 2 is ANZPT Melbourne winner Paul Hockin. The Kiwi, who's known as "KingPaulie" online, did not see his stack increase by much, and his bad day ultimately ended in a quiet exit. Jimmy Pan, a former APPT Macau runner-up, battled hard all day as well, but ultimately he fell to last year's runner-up Chane Kampanatsanyakorn's when he moved all in with a straight and flush draw against the Thai's flopped full house. In the end, Kampanatsanyakorn ended the day with 50,200, and he kept his hopes alive for back-to-back final tables.
Ryan "piggysnipz" Pignatelli showed up for Day 1b as well and the online grinder had quite a tough seat. Pignatelli was seated in between Juicy Li, who finished sixth in this event last year, and online star Dylan "WhiteRabbito" Honeyman. All three players made it through to Day 2 with Pignatelli bagging up 59,200, Honeyman 19,000 and Li 52,400. Andy Chan, runner-up in the first-ever ACOP Macau, had a great day and he finished the day with 95,300 after playing against Kanaan and Grospellier for most of the duration.
As mentioned, Grospellier was also among the players that did not make Day 2, as the Frenchman was short for most of the day before busting in a big pot against Toshiyuki Onda. Grospellier check-raised all in holding a flush draw, but that was not enough versus Onda's second pair. Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu was knocked out on Day 1b as well. He ran his top pair of aces into two pair after being in control for most of the day.
Tomorrow, on Day 2, the money will be reached when the field gets down to the final 28, and here's what the likes of Grospellier, Wu, Kanaan and Hockin will not be winning in Seoul this week.
| Place | Payout (KRW) | Payout (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ?185,000,000 | $175,565 |
| 2 | ?116,500,000 | $110,558 |
| 3 | ?65,110,000 | $61,789 |
| 4 | ?49,69,0000 | $47,155 |
| 5 | ?41,120,000 | $39,022 |
| 6 | ?32,550,000 | $30,889 |
| 7 | ?25,700,000 | $24,389 |
| 8 | ?20,560,000 | $19,511 |
| 9 | ?15,433,200 | $14,646 |
| 10-12 | ?10,280,000 | $9,755 |
| 13-16 | ?8,570,000 | $8,132 |
| 17-20 | ?6,860,000 | $6,510 |
| 21-24 | ?5,485,000 | $5,205 |
| 25-28 | ?4,800,000 | $4,555 |
Join us again tomorrow when overall chip leader Kan will face a field of 92 competitors that will try to prevent him from going wire-to-wire in this event. Play will resume at 12 noon local time, and another eight levels of 60 minutes will be played.