APT Main Event - TWD 30,000,000 GTD - Day 3

Punnat Punsri

Day 3 of this historic APT Main Event is a wrap with 17 players bagging up their stack to bring forward into the fourth day of play. At the start of the day, there were 200 fully-focused individuals all with the same intention of building the biggest stack possible in order to have a chance at the TWD 11,210,400 ($365,270) first prize.

After playing eleven 60-minute levels it was two-time APT title winner and high-stakes regular Punnat Punsri bringing through the biggest stack of the day with 8,445,000. Punsri scored several knockouts throughout the day, sending Kaoru Kishimoto and Yoon Koo Kang both to the rail but a big hand against Nishant Sharma early on proved vital as his flopped set managed to fade the outs of Sharma's straight flush draw.

Ben Loo is narrowly behind Punsri in the counts as he bagged up 8,290,000 in his pursuit of a second title this series. Loo took down a huge pot late on Day 3 when his pocket aces came up trumps against the pocket kings of Chih Wei Fan to put him second in the leaderboard. Loo took down the Freezeout event earlier in the week for TWD $786,675 (~USD $25,530).

Ben Loo celebrates as he flops a set of aces against Fan's kings

Fan still managed to take 6,210,000 through despite losing that huge earlier-mentioned hand against Loo and will be returning fourth in the pecking order, with just 20,000 in chips less the Japan's Naoki Masumoto.

Fan's stack has been on the rise since the beginning of the day with the bulk of them coming in a hand where Ting-Yi Tsai four-bet shoved ace-ten into the pocket aces of Taiwanese player to grow his stack to around nine million.

Lester Edoc still has a chance to make history and become the first-ever person to have won three APT Main Events. The Filipino player held the chip lead for a few levels mid-way through the day but ended with 2,100,000 which is good for ninth on the leaderboard. Edoc currently has an impressive sixteen APT titles and boasts over $1,200,000 in career tournament earnings.

Japan's Kazuhiro Shirasawa seemed to be involved in a lot of pots today and brings forward 1,590,000 chips to do battle with on Day 4. Shirasawa already has three cashes here in Taipei that include two final tables in which he finished sixth in both for a combined TWD 885,500 ($28,823).

Local player Kitty Kuo found a bag for Day 4 and brings through 1,195,000 chips as she looks to make a repeat of her triumph two years ago when she took down the Main Event right here in her hometown of Taipei. Kuo's stack has been on a rollercoaster ride throughout the day and at one point was staring elimination in the face when she ran her king-eight into the king-jack of Soo Bum Kim. Kuo would find an eight on the turn to keep her tournament alive but she will come back as one of the short stacks on Day 4.

Kitty Kuo

End of Day 3 chip counts.

And a reminder of the payouts for the final 17 spots.

Day 4 will resume at 12:15pm local time on Saturday, May 6th and we will play down to a winner. Join us tomorrow to find out who will be crowned as the largest-ever APT Main Event champion.

We do apologize for the interruption in our streaming services today as we were faced with some technical difficulties. The stream will be up and running for Day 4 so you can watch all of the latest action by following the links below.

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An enormous pot just played out between two of the big stacks in the room as we approach the end of play here on Day 3.

Chih Wei Fan opened to 160,000 with Joshua Tan making the call. Ben Loo then 3-bet to around 600,000 with Fan putting in a 4-bet to 1,300,000. Tan didn't want to tangle with the big stacks and wisely let his hand go before Loo shoved his 4,000,000 stack into the middle. Fan snapped off the shove and both players tabled their hands in this gigantic pot.

Fan K♥ K♦ Loo A♣ A♦

Fan on the wrong side of the ultimate cooler as his chip lead is now in jeopardy with Loo the man that could take it away from him.

It wouldn't take long for the hand to be practically over as a flop of 2♠ A♥ 9♠ gave Loo top set, leaving Fan needing runner-runner quads to win the hand. No such thing would happen as the Q♥ and J♦ completed the board and Loo's stack was sent to the top of the pack in one of the last hands of Day 3.

And we lost another player at table 2 after a preflop all-in Jae Wook Shin just jammed his last big blinds into the middle with A♠ J♣ and he was called by Naoki Matsumoto's Q♥ Q♦.

The board ran out nine high what meant that Shin is eliminated from the Main Event in 18th place.

Several all-ins going on at the same time so we missed the bust out of Michael Lech from the Main Event. The American online qualifier was grinding his short stack for the last two levels and his run has just come to an end.

The action is fierce the last hour of play. At table 2 we saw an open of Ben Loo, Akira Takasugi jammed it over the top. Long Lam Kim in seat 7 however woke up with a hand and re-jammed. Loo went out of the way.

Takasugi showed A♣ J♦ while Kim indeed woke up with a monster as he tabled K♣ K♥. The Japanese has to try and hit a three outer to stay alive.

The board ran out 9♥ 5♠ Q♣ 2♥ 4♠.

The Main Event ended for Akira Takasugi in 19th place.

In a sudden flurry of action, we have seen a lot of eliminations and big pots being played out and our fingers are furiously typing to try and get all the latest updates to you.

In the latest hand, we saw Ben Loo eliminating Chien Hao on a board of 2♠ 8♥ 7♥ 3♦ 4♠ with Hao holding J♥ 8♦ but Loo having him crushed with 8♣ 8♠.

With that hand, Loo was up to around 3,500,000 as Hao finished in 21st for TWD 359,900.

Chih Wei Fan

Ting-Yi Tsai opened to 160,000 and big stack Chih Wei Fan 3-bet to 500,000. Tsai came back over the top with a shove which Fan snapped off.

Tsai A♥ T♥ Fan A♦ A♣

Fan immediately tabled his pocket aces while dancing with delight around the poker table. Perhaps someone needs to remind him the hand isn't over just yet.

The dealer put out a flop of 5♥ 8♦ 7♥ suddenly caught the attention of Fan as the dancing came to an abrupt halt seeing that his opponent had flopped a flush draw.

When the T♦ was dealt on the turn it gave Tsai a few more outs as now any ten would give him trips to steal the pot away from Fan.

A black 7♣ fell on the river and Fan could continue dancing as his stack swelled to 9,000,000 and he took the chip lead.

Tsai out in 22nd for TWD 359,900.

We picked up the action preflop with when Zhao Feng raised to 175,000 from the hijack and got called by Chien Hao from the big blind.

The flop brought A♦ K♣ Q♠, Hao decided to lead into Feng with a bet of 200,000. The Singaporean pro called, and checked behind on the 2♦ turn.

A big pot is brewing and the 9♣ again was the signal for Hao to bet again 200,000. This time Feng tank shoved for a total of 1,000,000. Hao now in the tank but he pretty quickly decided to call. At the showdown Feng tabled K♦ T♣ while Hao called A♣ 3♣. Hao can you call must have gone through Feng's mind.

Feng was left with only 15,000 and two hands later he is all-in with A♥ 8♥ and runs into the A♦ K♦ of Hao. Feng flopped an 8 but the king on the river busted Feng from the Main Event.

Kitty Kuo shoved her last 745,000 into the middle from the small blind and big blind Soo Bum Kim made the call.

Kuo K♣ 8♦ Kim K♠ J♠

Kim had Kuo crushed and was looking to eliminate the local player from the Main Event. Just like Kang moments ago, Kuo would need to find an eight to stay alive or she would suffer the same fate as the Australian.

The flop of 3♣ 5♠ 4♥ offered no help to Kuo as Kim took a big step closer to claiming the pot.

However, the turn changed things as an 8♣ delivered a care package that Kuo was desperately in need of. She was now just a card away from doubling up and keeping her quest to become a two-time APT Main Event champion alive.

A river 7♥ did just that as she snatched the pot away from Kim to keep herself in contention.

Yoon Koo Kang got his stack in pre-flop with Punnat Punsri making the call.

Kang 8♣ 8♠ Punsri A♦ A♥

Punsri with the best starting hand in all of poker going up against the snowmen of Kang.

The board ran T♥ 9♦ T♠ 3♦ 4♣ meaning Kang's Main Event dream had melted away and Punsri's stack is blasting off over the 6,000,000 mark after those well-timed pocket rockets.

Kang 24th for TWD 299,400.