2012 PokerStars.net APPT Seoul Day 1b: Jhana Hale Snags Overall Lead
Day 1b of the 2012 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Seoul Main Event concluded on Friday after the second starting flight played through eight 60-minute levels. The field size for Day 1b grew to 139 players and the tournament room was at capacity. Combining that number with the 129 players from Day 1a put the field size at a record 268 runners.
Topping the 53 players from Day 1b who advanced to Saturday's Day 2 was Jhana Hale from Australia. Hale, who bagged 173,800 in chips, assumed the overall chip lead as he surpassed Christopher Park's 119,800 chip count from Day 1a. Hale and Park are joined by Daisuke Endo, Vincent Rubianes, Clayton Chang and Hong Yan Bian with at least 100,000 in chips moving into Day 2.
During Level 6 with the blinds at 300/600/75, Hale raised to 1,300 from the cutoff seat. Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen called on the button and then action fell on Dong Kyu Kim in the small blind. Kim reraised all in for 14,850 and the big blind folded. Hale thought for a minute before calling Kim's shove. Guillen had other things in mind, though, and reraised all in for 47,500.
Hale was faced with a big decision. He had already invested 14,850 into the hand and was faced with calling another 32,650. After thinking for a couple of minutes, Hale made the call to have both Guillen and Kim on the ropes. He held the 10♥10♣ and was up against Guillen's A♦K♥ and Kim's A♠9♣.
The flop came down A♥10♦2♣ and both Guillen and Kim smacked their ace. However, the ace was accompanied by a ten and Hale held the lead with a set. The turn was the 9♦ and that left Guillen drawing dead while Kim could still hit the case ace to stay alive. Guillen was already up and out of his seat when the 5♣ hit the river to send Kim out the door behind him. Hale collected the pot — and a massive one at that — to move into a commanding lead.
The other Team PokerStars Pro playing on Day 1b was Bryan Huang. He was also unable to make it through the day, falling during Level 4 with the blinds at 150/300/25.
The hand began with an open to 625 from the under-the-gun player. Guillen and Huang called and the dealer ran out the Q♠8♣6♣ flop. Play was checked to Huang on the button and he bet 1,525. The under-the-gun player then check-raised to 5,500 and Guillen folded. Huang tanked for quite some time before shoving for an extra 8,725. His opponent called and they turned their hands over.
Huang held the A♠Q♦ for top pair, top kicker while his opponent held the A♣K♣ for a flush draw and an over card. The 8♠ on the turn changed nothing, but the K♦ on the river meant that Huang would be heading home as his opponent made a winning pair of kings.
Some of the other notables also advancing from Day 1b were Kenneth Wong, Andrew Scott and Michael Mariakis. Kenny Shih, Masa Kagawa and Shaq Lin were some of the casualties of the day.
The 268 entrants generated a prize pool of ₩717,489,600 and first place will get the lion's share of ₩194,000,000 (USD $173,555). The top 28 spots will be paid out and everyone who cashes will get back at least ₩5,000,000. Day 2 will surely see the money bubble break as the tournament moves toward reaching a final table.
2012 APPT Seoul Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jhana Hale | 173,800 |
| 2 | Clayton Chang | 133,000 |
| 3 | Daisuke Endo | 110,300 |
| 4 | Vincent Rubianes | 104,500 |
| 5 | Hong Yan Bian | 100,000 |
| 6 | Dmitry Pak | 93,800 |
| 7 | Tsuyoshi Ishibashi | 81,800 |
| 8 | Jae Sung Lee | 81,300 |
| 9 | Jeffrey Holbrook | 79,300 |
| 10 | Elton Tsang | 70,600 |
Day 2 will see 109 players still in contention and the cards will be in the air on Saturday at 1215 KST (1915 PST Friday). The blinds will be at 600/1,200/100. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be back to provide all of the live updates from the floor, and we hope to have you joining us then.
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