Dong Il Kim Takes Overall Lead After Day 1b of APPT9 Manila
As expected, Day 1b of the PHP 50,000 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour stop at the City of Dreams in Manila turned out to be even bigger as the first starting flight. Once registration was officially closed at the start of level six, the screens showed 325 entries for Day 1b to create an overall field of 585 entries. Out of those, 417 were unique players and the rest consisted of multiple bullets throughout the two starting days.
The largest international Main Event ever held in the Philippines was created after besting the previous record of 430 back in 2010, which was also set by the APPT stop in Manila. Expectations for the event were shattered and overall the poker festival boasted incredibly satisfying numbers.
"This is going to change the way people perceive poker in the Philippines." said Gerardo 'Hill' Alim, the PokerStars LIVE Manila Poker Room Manager. "I'm blown away by the turnout in the Main Event which was truly international with 41 countries represented."
"But the preliminary side events also had more than a thousand players and there are still more side events over the weekend. The City of Dreams Manila has been an amazing supporter of PokerStars and the feedback from players has been outstanding."
The top 72 spots are rewarded with at least PHP 89,800 whereas the winner will be walking home with impressive PHP 6,016,250 on Sunday evening, the payday also includes a 2015 ACOP Main Event entry worth HKD 100,000 as well.
A total of 41 different countries participated in the event with the local heroes representing the most (92) followed by Japan (82) and Korea (58). Meanwhile, 196 of the 585 entrants are PokerStars players who either bought into the event or qualified online. Leading the field of 100 survivors after nine levels of Day 1b is Dong Il Kim of Korea with 242,700 followed by Australian poker pro Aaron Lim (201,800) and Shinobu Tanaka (178,700). Similar to the previous starting day, a Norwegian made a run for the headlines and Svein Jorgen Kristensen peaked at more than 200,000 before bagging up 168,300.
Kim was already among the bigger stacks when his top pair and flush draw cracked the pocket kings of Weiyie Zhang, yet another flush made him the top dog and eventually the overall chip leader.
Lim on the other hand arrived toward the top of the counts just prior to the first break and then consistently ran up his stack before going on a heater late in the day. Winfred Yu fell victim to that run in one of the last hands of the day and will come back on Saturday with his Day 1a stack.
Two PokerStars Team Pros participated on Day 1b after failing to bag up chips the previous night. Aditya Agarwal fired two bullets and was sent to the rail by Jose Drilon, while Keisuke Hikosaka took care of Team Pro Kosei Ichinose. APPT9 Macau finalist Florencio Campomanes, Marcuss Liow, David Steicke, Henrik Tollefsen and Gab Yong Kim were also among the more well known casualties.
Notables that made it through on the second starting day include defending champion Thanh Ha Duong (99,500); Manuel Blaschke (90,500), who dominated the first five levels; APPT8 Seoul champion Chane Kampanatsanyakorn (83,200); Lester Edoc (81,000); Filipino poker godfather Wally Sombero (62,900); APPT8 Manila finalist Rajeev Kanjani (52,800); and Yaxi Zhu (36,100).
Top 10 Day 1b Chip Counts:
| Place | Player | County | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dong Il Kim | Korea | 242,700 |
| 2 | Aaron Lim | Australia | 201,800 |
| 3 | Shinobu Tanaka | Japan | 178,700 |
| 4 | Svein Jorgen Kristensen | Norway | 168,300 |
| 5 | Hsein Ching Feng | Chinese Taipei | 157,400 |
| 6 | Seung Soo Jeon | Korea | 153,000 |
| 7 | Seonghwan Ahn | Korea | 152,100 |
| 8 | Seokchan Hwang | Korea | 147,400 |
| 9 | Heng Mun Lua | Malaysia | 136,200 |
| 10 | Shaobo Ye | China | 135,000 |
No survivors bagged twice, meaning a combined field of 175 hopefuls will return to the tables at 2 p.m. local time on Saturday for Level 10 with blinds at 700/1,400/200. More than 100 of them will leave the tournament empty handed while the field works it way to the money. Tune back then to find out who makes the cut as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be back to provide all key situations until a new champion is crowned.