Peng Tops Opening Flight of Poker King Cup Macau 2018 Main Event
The opening flight of the Poker King Cup Macau 2018 Main Event is done and dusted, with an impressive 166 players anteing up the HKD$16,500 (~$2,100) entry fee and battling it out at the baize.
A total of 76 players successfully navigated the tournament minefield to bag up chips, with China’s Zhongcai Peng the man to top the counts after concluding play with a stack of 198,200.
Peng began his climb to the top midway through the day after sending Belgium’s Bart Luyckx to the rail after the pair tangled on an ace-high flop, with Peng’s ace-king outkicking Luyckx’s ace-four to take the Chinese player over the six-figure mark.
Peng continued to chip up and claimed another scalp from Italy’s Mauro Francolini when the two clashed in a big pot, Francolini’s flopped nut straight getting rivered by Peng’s backdoor nut flush, with all the chips going in on the river to cement Peng’s pole position.
While Hong Kong’s Winson Yau made a spirited attempt to take the top spot and enjoyed a stint out in front, Peng turned it on during the last level of play to lock up the lead, with Yau finishing in second with a stack of 185,000.
Macau’s Gary Lam (168,700) rounds out the top of the podium. Taiwan's Hsuan Chao Chen (152,500) also finished the day on a high with China’s Liang Tong (143,300) completing the top five.
Despite clashing with Peng, both Francolini (114,300) and Luyckx (32,200) made it though to Day 2. Other notables to make it through include China’s Dongzhe Yang (67,300), Korea's Jeho Lee (49,300), WSOP bracelet winner Preston Lee (47,800) and Thailand’s Phanlert Sukonthachartnant (25,600).
Players who were less fortunate in their endeavors to lock up a Day 2 berth included the USA’s Sam Cohen and Hong Kong’s Ben Lai, though with unlimited reentries allowed for the duration of the three Main Event starting flights, any player who failed to make the cut can try again on Day 1b and Day 1c which run Saturday at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.
As with Day 1a, those flights will feature 11 40-minute levels on the schedule. Come back to PokerNews for the start of Day 1b for more thrilling tournament action.
