2010 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Day 1b: Mike Puno and Richard En Top the Day 1b Leaderboard
Another day in paradise saw the continuation of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Cebu Main Event with the Shangri-La Mactan Resort & Spa playing host to a highly anticipated Day 1b!
For those that had the luxury of relaxing on the white sandy beach or by the beautiful blue pool yesterday, found themselves fronting up to take part as one of the 161 players that would battle it out on the felt over Day 1b.
Six Team PokerStars Pros – four from Team Pro Asia and two from Team Pro Australia – were looking to make their mark in Cebu, but things wouldn’t go according to plan in the early going. Firstly 2005 World Series of Poker Champion Joe Hachem was stuck in bed and didn’t make an appearance until the last level of the day, while Celina Lin was clipped early in a set-over-set encounter. Lin never managed to recover and eventually bowed out late in the day when her overpair couldn’t best an opponent’s flopped set.
APPT Sydney defending champion Aaron Benton took a big tumble when his Q♥Q♠ was unable to improve against the 5♠4♠ of his opponent for flopped trips. Just a few hands later Benton would be forced to spend the remainder of the day outside of the poker room along with Australian tournament veterans Leo Boxell and Joe Cabret, as well as WSOPE Bracelet holder Thomas Bihl.
The late arrival of Tony Hachem was followed by an instantaneous double when holding K♠K♦, he flooped kings-full to crack his opponent’s A♣A♥. From then onwards, Hachem would slowly slide down the leaderboard before finishing the day slightly below average stack.
The majority of the day would central around Bryan Huang, Richard En and John Maklouf who dominated proceedings accumulating chips at will. And as play closed in on the day, it was expected that one of them was going to take the top gong as chip leader. Step in Mike Puno however, who – through a late surge – snatched the chip lead to finish with 85,700; well short of the 124,900 of Andrew Hinrichsen’s yesterday.
Top Ten Chip Counts:
| Mike Puno (PHP) | 85,700 |
| Richard En (CAN) | 85,325 |
| Alexander Beeckx (BEL) | 73,225 |
| Justing Geronimo (PHP) | 69,850 |
| Bryan Huang (SIN) | 68,525 |
| Nathaneel Seet (SIN) | 66,750 |
| Max Bloom (USA) | 65,600 |
| Inwook Choi (KOR) | 62,850 |
| Cho Hsu-fang (TAI) | 59,700 |
| Raymond Lapitan (AUS) | 57,400 |
The leaderboard has a International flavor with En (85,325), Alexander Beeckx (73,225), Justin Geronimo (69,850) and Huang (68,525) rounding out the top five. Huang’s fellow Team PokerStars Pros Tony Hachem (34,275), Joe Hachem (33,600) and Raymond Wu (20,000) are still in contention while Rennie Carnevale (36,500), Van Marcus (30,600) andIvan Tan (27,375) still remain.
With ninety players surviving today, the two day one fields will merge tomorrow to leave 127 players of the original 236 still within a chance of capturing the $132,000 first prize and title of APPT Cebu Champion!
The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will again be on the floor Sunday from 12:15 p.m. local time providing continuous live updates of all the Day 2 action as players spend another day battling it out in paradise in the 2010 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event!
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