Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event Draws 306 Entrants; Day 1B Frontrunner Chi Hang Leads Overall
The final two starting flights of the TWD 27,500 (~$875) 2019 Poker King Cup Taiwan played out concurrently at the poker tables of the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association in Taipei, Taiwan, and drew a total of 189 (107 unique) and 62 (54 unique) entrants respectively, to bring the total tally for the tournament up to 306 entrants in total, easily besting the TWD 5 million (~US$160,000) guarantee, with payouts yet to be confirmed.
It was Taiwan's Chi Hang the man to top the Day 1B counts after twelve 40-minute levels, shooting into pole position of the second starting flight's counts during the last five hands played, bagging up a sizable 277,800 in chips, which gives him the overall lead going into Day 2.
The only other player to bag over 200k in chips was Taiwan's Wei En Shih, who finished second in the overall counts with a stack of 241,200 at the close of play. Other notables to bag big include South Korea's Jae Wook Shin (172,100), the UK's Alex Lindop (167,700), and Hong Kong's Tsz Fai Tong (164,400).
A total of 67 players managed to successfully circumnavigate the Day 1B tournament minefield to lock up a Day 2 berth, with other notables to make it though including Hong Kong's Ray Chiu (119,400) and Wing Kei Chan (96,300), Germany's Max Menzel (115,700), Singapore's Richard Lim (98,000) and current Taiwan No. 1 on the GPI Taiwan List, Pete Chen (73,400).
Of course, poker being a zero-sum game, that means several players were unsuccessful in their Day 1B endeavors, with China's Jingzhi Wang, former Asia Player of the Year Jack Wu, Taiwan All Time Money List #1 James Chen and Hong Kong's Sparrow Cheung all falling by the wayside as play progressed.
However, with the format offering unlimited re-entry, those unable to make it though on Day 1B were able to try their luck once more for Day 1C. Of those previously mentioned above, only Cheung (95,500) and Chen (22,600) were able to make it though on the third and final starting flight, with both Wu and Wang falling by the wayside as play progressed. Of the two, Wang came the closest, busting to Ireland's Mark Gruendemann with just two hands from the close of Day 1C.
Gruendemann was one of only two players to make it through twice, bagging up on both Day 1B and Day 1C, though it was the latter that saw him bag the best stack, with the Irishman closing the day with 87,600 after railing Wang. The other player to make it through twice was Taiwan's Hsin Hui Peng, who qualified on both Day 1A and Day 1C, and Peng will be bringing through his best stack of 26,300 forward from Day 1B.
A total of 29 players out of the 62 Day 1C entrants survived the final flight, with Taiwan's Chou Chien Fa the man to bag biggest, concluding play with 202,000 in chips — the only player from the third flight to bag over 200,000.
The next best Day 1C stack is that of Taiwan's Justin Chu, who chipped up at the expense of Cheung late into the day's action, before a huge cooler of a hand against the unfortunate Deng Dan Kai saw the latter leave just minutes after the last four hands were announced after running pocket kings into Chu's pocket aces, with all the chips going in preflop. That timely catch shot Chu up to second in the Day 1C counts, and he will be returning for Day 2 with an extremely playable 143,900.
It is another Taiwanese player who rounded out the top three, with 'David' Ta-Wei Tou bagging up a stack of 129,500 with which to return for Day 2.
Both sets of survivors from the final two starting flight will unite for the first time with the 20 Day 1A survivors, minus the two stacks of Gruendemann and Peng, meaning 114 players will be returning to action when Day 2 gets underway at 1:00 p.m. local time (GMT+8) on Sunday, August 18.
Level length will increase from 40-minutes to 60, and the plan is to play six 60-minute levels, although this may change as, according to tournament director Bryan Lo, the money bubble will be definitely be reached and breached on Day 2 and play will not conclude until it does so. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action, so catch you then.