Siyuan Wang Tops Day 1b; Shawn Busse is the Leader of Day 1c
The final day of registration in the 2019 PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Jeju Main Event was a busy one, with two starting flights taking place, as the poker room of Shinhwa World's Landing Casino was full of poker enthusiasts. Only a couple of levels into Day 1b and the guarantee prize pool was surpassed with the number of total entries after the end of all three flights being 362.
Day 1b attracted a field of 159, and was the biggest starting flight, while turbo Day 1c had 76 entries throughout its nine levels of registration. After all the players have put their chips in the respective bags, there were 43 hopefuls from Day 1b and 24 from Day 1c. In total, 97 players will return in Wednesday, June 26th, at 12 p.m. local time (GMT+9), to fight their way through Day 2.
The official prize pool after all three flights stands at KRW 790,065,000 (~$684,620) and the winner will receive KRW 183,695,000 (~$159,190) prize plus the trophy of 2019 APPT Jeju Main Event. Play will commence on Day 2 at Level 14: 1,500/3,000 with a big blind ante of 3,000, and all players who advanced from the starting flights will take their seats in Landing Casino's poker room.
Siyuan Wang was the player who emerged as chip leader after Day 1b, and it was a close affair, with five players having more than 200,000 chips. In the second place of Day 1b's chip counts was Jun Li with 231,000, only 6,000 chips less than the chip leader. Either way, they are both looking at the back of New Zealand's Tae Hoon Han who was the chip leader of Day 1a, with 296,500 in chips. Siyuan Wang's accomplishments include only four cashes, according to The Hendon Mob database, and they all came from 2017 Asia Championship of Poker - Platinum Series XVIII, in Macau. His biggest cash was a second place in Event #8 of that series for $1,581, something that he will definitely surpass if he manages to finish in the money in this event. The financial consultant from Jiangsu, China, said also that he deliberately chose this PokerStars event, instead of the WSOP, when asked about his appearance here. "I think PokerStars events have always been the most comfortable and professional," is what he said.
Other notables that are still in the field include India's Sahil Chuttani (229,500), 2019 APPT Jeju High Roller winner Jiang Chen (122,000), and 2019 APPT Jeju National winner Liang Song (54,000).
Day 1c had half the duration in blind levels, ending in just around 7 hours, with 24 players added to Day 2's field. Chip leader of Day 1c was Shawn Busse with 263,500, who already has a final table in 2019 APPT Jeju, after finishing fifth in the first High Roller of the festival. Except this accomplishment, Busse has also a huge win in 2010 World Series of Poker, where he emerged victorious in a $1,000 event for a gold bracelet, and $485,791 in prize money.
The first step for Day 2 will be to reach the payouts of the Main Event. For tomorrow it is scheduled to play ten 60-minute levels. As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor to provide all the action until a champion is crowned.