The APT Incheon Main Event has officially begun, and we’ve already seen 223 entrants on Day 1a, with plenty of big names and familiar faces entering the field. A total of 80 players made it through to Day 2, all still in with a shot of claiming their share of the KRW 1.3 billion prize pool. Let’s take a look at how the day unfolded.
Day 1a Action
Only 27 players registered for the start of Day 1a, but as the tournament got going, many more took their seats to take their shot at the Main Event title. One of the biggest names amongst the early entrants was Tsz Him Chan, the runner-up of the APT High Roller 8-Max (Event #43) event in Taipei was also our first casualty of the tournament, immediately rebuying after losing a chunk of his stack at Table 36.
As the levels ticked by, we saw more and more people pony up the KRW 2,300,000 entry fee, including the winner of the Mystery Bounty Hunter Event – Sponsored by Natural8, Dicky Siu Hang "Tricky Dicky" Tsang. He made waves early on at Table 41, riveting the nut flush against the two pair of last year’s Main Event champ Farhad Aghayev to eliminate him from the tournament and take his stack to 80,000 chips. Tsang continued that momentum through the rest of the day, bagging over 136,000 chips.
We also saw the Natural8 Team Hot power couple Hua-Wei Lin and Yu-Chung Chang make their entrance and both bag chips for Day 2, bringing forward 101,500 and 147,100 chips respectively. Chang is coming off the back of a 4th place finish in the Super High Roller event and will be looking to improve on his 4th place finish in the last Main Event at APT Da Nang.
They weren’t the only Natural8 Team Hot pro to make it through to Day 2, as Danny Tang bagged 90,000 chips after initiating a 5-way all-in at his table. While he didn’t win, he managed to rebound and bag a stack for Day 2.
Other big names who managed to bring a stack forward to Day 2 include Azerbaijan’s Farhad Aghayev who won last year’s APT Incheon Main Event - he bounced back from his early setback to bag 147,800 for Day 2. Three-time APPT winner Xixiang Luo brought forward 140,500 into Day 2, Malaysia’s Wai Kiat Lee took through 153,100, and Park Yu “Sparrow” Cheung, spurred on by his 4th place finish at APT Incheon’s Midnight Tick Tock event, bagged 130,400 after a productive Day 1a.
Topping the leaderboards after Day 1a is Taiwan’s Yu Sheng Lin, who bagged an impressive 246,500 chips. Just behind them in second place is China’s Nan Zhu who will bring forward 229,400, followed by Singapore’s Adrian Boon Chye Chua who bagged a stack of 223,000 chips.
After such an impressive Day 1a turnout, we’re expecting this Main Event to be one of the biggest in APT Incheon history, so make sure to follow along here at Natural8.
Image Source: The Asian Poker Tour
