Chou Chien Fa Leads Last 32 Players After Day 2 of the Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event
In what proved to be a short but action-packed day, play concluded for Day 2 of the 2019 Poker King Cup Taiwan Main Event after six 60-minute levels with 32 of the 114 returning survivors from the three starting flights bagging up chips.
It is Taiwan's Chou Chien Fa the man who leads the pack after concluding play with a massive 762,000 in chips. Fa seemed extremely comfortable in the chip leader's position for a man with only four live cashes on his poker resume — a spot he occupied for the majority of play before briefly being usurped by South Korea's Jae Wook Shin.
However, Fa finished with a flourish, chopping a gigantic three-way pot with the Philippines' David Erquiaga with the duo railing the unfortunate Jun Zhu Huang not long after the money bubble had burst.
It was Fa the man who lit the fuse on a hand that would have explosive results, picking up two callers in button Erquiaga and big blind Huang. The trio got all the chips in on a king-queen-four flop with two hearts on the board, Fa and Erquiaga both holding ace-king and Huang drawing extremely live with ace-jack of hearts.
Blanks on the turn and river saw Huang depart in 35th place, becoming the second paying casualty, while Fa and Erquiaga divvied up Huang's chips, with that pot putting Fa squarely at the top of the counts, where he would remain.
Shin was the only other player to bag over 700,000 in chips after crippling the unfortunate Jia Tang in another huge pot that saw the South Korean player briefly flirt with the chip lead before Fa reclaimed the top spot.
Tang was the architect of his own demise after getting frisky on the button and bubble with six-four offsuit, and while that dominated big blind Shin's five-four offsuit, the later check-raised the flop with the same bottom pair as Tang, who made two pair on the turn.
Unfortunately for Tang, that gave Shin a straight draw, which he played aggressively and got there on the river to leave the former short, departing at the hands of Kun Han Lee shortly afterward on the last level of the day when his ace-queen lost a race to the Taiwanese player's pocket jacks to guarantee all 36 remaining players a TWD 50,500 (~$1,610) payday.
Other notables still in contention for the title include Taiwan's Terry Fan (460,000), Hong Kong's Howard Sun (321,000), the UK's Alex Lindop (302,000), Hong Kong's Wing Kei Chan (194,000), Singapore's Richard Lim (169,000) and the USA's Edwin Gerard (154,000).
With 114 player returning for Day 2 and only 36 of them making the money, the action was frantic from the get-go. Notables to come up short of the cash spots included Hong Kong's Sparrow Cheung, Ireland's Mark Gruendemann, the UK's Ben Andrews, current Taiwan No. #1 on the GPI Taiwan List, Pete Chen, and Taiwan All Time Money List No. #1 James Chen.
Of these, Pete Chen came the closest to the cash, departing one off the bubble after coming out on the wrong side of a blind on blind battle against fellow countryman Zong-Ping Yang, who woke up with jacks when Chen shoved with king-six from the small blind.
In addition to the aforementioned Huang, three other players busted in the cash spots before play concluded, with Taiwan's Li-Kuwang Ma, and Hong Kong's Ming Sang Chung and Wei Fan the other players in question, all earning themselves a min-cash of TWD 50,500.
The 32 survivors will return for the penultimate third day at 1:00 p.m. local time (GMT+8) to determine who will earn their place at the final table, with blinds recommencing at 4,000/8,000 with and 8,000 running ante, so join us then.
Day 3 Seat Draw
| Name | Country/Region | Table | Seat | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lee Kuan Wee | Malaysia | 19 | 1 | 222000 | 28 |
| Alex Lindop | United Kingdom | 19 | 2 | 302000 | 38 |
| Chunsan Fan | China | 19 | 3 | 139000 | 17 |
| Lin Yu Sheng | Taiwan | 19 | 4 | 319000 | 40 |
| Dicky Tsang | Hong Kong | 19 | 5 | 278000 | 35 |
| Edwin Gerard | United States | 19 | 6 | 154000 | 19 |
| Terry Fan | Taiwan | 19 | 7 | 460000 | 58 |
| David Erguiaga | Philippines | 19 | 8 | 338000 | 42 |
| Wai King Cheung | Hong Kong | 20 | 1 | 575000 | 72 |
| Howard Sun | Hong Kong | 20 | 2 | 321000 | 40 |
| Bing Chang Feng | Taiwan | 20 | 3 | 364000 | 46 |
| Chou Chien Fa | Taiwan | 20 | 4 | 762000 | 95 |
| Ling He | China | 20 | 5 | 322000 | 40 |
| Alejandria Argyle | United States | 20 | 6 | 97000 | 12 |
| Kun Han Lee | Taiwan | 20 | 7 | 290000 | 36 |
| Michael Huang | Taiwan | 20 | 8 | 163000 | 20 |
| Jae Wook Shin | South Korea | 21 | 1 | 729000 | 91 |
| Shih Wei En | Taiwan | 21 | 2 | 320000 | 40 |
| Kuang Hung Lee | Taiwan | 21 | 3 | 260000 | 33 |
| Henry Hou | Singapore | 21 | 4 | 129000 | 16 |
| Ping Hsien Chan | Taiwan | 21 | 5 | 313000 | 39 |
| Tsai Yu You Ci | Taiwan | 21 | 6 | 472000 | 59 |
| Chia-Hui Tu | Taiwan | 21 | 7 | 68000 | 9 |
| Cliff Chow | Hong Kong | 21 | 8 | 185000 | 23 |
| Sheng-Chien Cheng | Taiwan | 23 | 1 | 109000 | 14 |
| Chi Hang | Taiwan | 23 | 2 | 468000 | 59 |
| Richard Lim | Singapore | 23 | 3 | 169000 | 21 |
| Wing Kei Chan | Hong Kong | 23 | 4 | 194000 | 24 |
| Shao-Hung Lee | Taiwan | 23 | 5 | 287000 | 36 |
| Toh Soon Lee | Singapore | 23 | 6 | 116000 | 15 |
| Zong-Ping Yang | Taiwan | 23 | 7 | 103000 | 13 |
| Chen-An Lin | Taiwan | 23 | 8 | 118000 | 15 |