Gab Yong Kim Leads Day 1D of the 2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau
In what proved to be an action-packed day, the fourth of the 2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau starting flights is now in the books. Day 1D saw 51 runners ante up the HK$6,600 buy-in and with the format offering unlimited re-entry 21 players fired extra bullets to bring the total number of entries up to 72.
With 15 percent of the field securing themselves a Day 2 seat it took thirteen 40-minute levels to thin the field down to the last eleven. The man who bagged up the most was Korea’s Gab Yong Kim, although it took him until his second bullet to find the form he needed.
Kim was in the thick of the action for the majority of the day and climbed up to the top of the chip counts after winning a huge three-way all-in against the pocket aces of Hong Kong’s Hazel Chui and the nut flush draw of Malaysia’s Victor Chong. The Korean player had flopped bottom two pair, which held to shoot him to the top of the leaderboard, bust Chui and cripple Chong, all in one blow.
As it was, Kim still found himself one of the shorter stacks as the bubble approached, with just under 15 big blinds. However, he managed to catch the cards he needed at just the right time and earned two quick back-to-back double ups to power into the chip lead.
The first came at the expense of then-frontrunner Yu Dong when Kim shoved with pocket twos and Dong looked him up with ace-nine suited. Kim’s ducks held to bring him out of the danger zone before he woke up with pocket aces a scant few hands later and moved all-in again.
This time it was fellow countryman Youngee Park who looked Kim up, though Park’s queen-jack suited was unable to crack Kim’s aces and he finished the day with a monstrous 185,500 in chips.
Dong finished a close second, bagging up an impressive 179,000 with Hong Kong’s Felix Lee rounding out the top three with a stack of 147,000 with the final eleven finishing as follows:
2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau Day 1D Survivors and Day 2 Draw
| Position | Name | Country | Chip Count | 2A Table/Seat | 2B Table/Seat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gab Yong Kim | Korea | 185,500 | - | 2-3 |
| 2 | Yu Dong | China | 179,000 | - | 4-7 |
| 3 | Felix Lee | Hong Kong | 147,800 | 4-2 | - |
| 4 | Andrew An | USA | 139,700 | 2-5 | - |
| 5 | Canlin Chen | China | 112,300 | - | 9-9 |
| 6 | Jack Wu | Taiwan | 76,500 | - | 3-3 |
| 7 | Ye Wang | China | 61,900 | 9-5 | - |
| 8 | Ping Cheong Fung | China | 55,800 | - | 7-1 |
| 9 | Youngee Park | Korea | 46,000 | - | 9-6 |
| 10 | Guangrui Meng | China | 45,900 | 7-5 | - |
| 11 | Hei Yong Ma | China | 33,300 | 5-7 | - |
Notables who ran deep but came up short included Hong Kong’s Justin Chan, and Carson Wong and 2014 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific bracelet winner Junzhong Loo.
HK$1M GTD Side Event champion Bobby Zhang was another who could not go the distance, though not for want of trying. Zhang flirted with the chip lead for the latter part of the day before losing a huge pot against Dong when play was down to 13-handed.
Zhang and Dong got all the chips in on a jack-high double diamond flop with both players looking to make a flush, though it was Zhang who had the better draw with king-deuce suited against Dong’s speculative four-five suited. Unfortunately for Zhang, while both players missed the flush Dong paired his five to send Zhang to the rail and climb into a lead he only lost when Kim powered into pole position at the close of the day.
Dong was the man to conclude the Day 1D action, waking up with pocket aces when the short-stacked Jianfeng Xu moved all-in pre-flop with king-queen. Dong’s bullets shot down Xu’s Day 2 dreams to guarantee the remaining players a Day 2 seat worth HK$38,000, in addition to HK$6,000 in cash.
Day 2A begins at 1pm on Wednesday, 29 November, with Day 2B playing out at the same time on Thursday, 30 November and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to cover all the Main Event tournament thrills and spills.
Day 1E kicks off at 1pm local time (GMT+8) on Monday, 27 November so join us then as we see who else has what it takes to secure a Day 2 seat.