Peter Chan Performs Best on Day 1B of APPT Macau Main Event

Peter Chan emerged from Day 1B of the APPT Macau Main Event with the biggest stack of chips, but not enough to give him the overall lead in the tournament.

A further 7½ levels of play in the APPT Macau Main Event took place yesterday at PokerStars Live Poker Room in Macau´s City of Dreams, with a further 282 players ponying up the HK$25,000 ($3,225) buy-in to swell the prize pool to HK$11,021,140 ($1,421,000).

Of those 282 players, only 119 survived another hard day at the tables, and they will join the 87 players who safely negotiated Day 1A when play resumes this afternoon mid-way through Level 8 (blinds 500/1,000 – ante 100) with the average chip stack a modest 47,960.

Chan Leads on Day Marred by Controversy

Add the end of the night, high-stakes cash game player Peter Chan bagged up the biggest stack – 141,000 chips – fifteen big blinds ahead of Shivan Abdine (124,800 chips) and Haifeng Xue (121,000), but significantly behind Day 1A chip leader Bo Xie (166,000 chips) and only good enough for fifth place overall.

Sadly much of the action on the tables was overshadowed by accusations of cheating between the players for chip stealing and card marking, and Tournament DirectorDanny McDonagh was kept busy throughout the day – at one point checking each players´ fingernails to identify who had been tampering with the cards.

In respect of the card marking accusations, the review of a security tape is still ongoing and we could see the field reduced by one or two players when Day 2 gets underway this afternoon.

Famous Names Fail to Leave a Mark

Amid all the allegations of card marking, three very successful poker players made their entrances but failed to leave a mark on the tournament. APPT Seoul champion Chane Kampanatsanyakorn, 2013 WSOP ACOP bracelet winner Aaron Lim and reigning APPT Macau champion Alexandre Chieng all entered the APPT Macau Main Event with high hopes of a deep run, but all three were to depart before the end of the day.

Those who did perform a little better, but who failed to make it into the top ten chip counts (below) included PokerStars Team Pros Raymond Wu (28,600 chips) and Celina Lin (25,900 chips), ANZPT Pert High Roller Champion Michael Kanaan (54,000 chips), Ivan Zalac (49,700 chips), and top Malaysian poker player Darian Tan (45,700 chips).

Looking Ahead to Day 2 of the APPT Macau Main Event

With 206 players returning to the City of Dreams, and only 60 players scheduled to get paid, Day 2 of the APPT Macau Main Event is likely to be another tough one. A further 7½ levels are scheduled to be played after which we will have a better idea of who the primary contenders will be for the APPT title. Hopefully the action will be more focused on the poker skills of the players rather than their less savoury skills!