APT High Roller - Day 1 - TWD 11,000,000 GTD

Leo Pang

Hongkonger Leo Pang is the chip leader of the TWD 150,000 APT Taipei High Roller. After a slow start inside the Chinese Majong League, the registrations kept pouring in, ending at a total of 160 entries (114 unique), creating a total prize pool of TWD 21,728,000 (~$690,940). This means the guaranteed prize pool of TWD 11,000,000 was almost doubled! The winner of this event will be taking home TWD 5,053,000 (~$160,685) – the largest APT High Roller top prize of the new era.

Of the 35 players that made it to Day 2, Pang was the only player to bag over 1 million chips, 1,237,000. Pang grinded his way slowly to the chip lead throughout the day. At the end of level 13, he played a double average stack, but the biggest pots went Pang's way in the final three levels of the day. Tomorrow is a big day for Pang who can crush his best live tournament poker score of $9,598 by a mile.

Japan's Yosuke Nakazawa is the number two in stack with 993,000. Nakazawa has $153,056 in live tournament cashes and won one APT side event in 2022. Nakazawa was most of the day below average, but a massive pot against Chi-Jen Chu with ace-king versus ace-jack launched his APT High Roller Day 2 hopes.

The podium was completed by Taiwan regular Chen An Lin, who bagged 935,000. Lin is number seven on Taiwan's all-time money list and holds 2 APT side event titles. Lin moved up the leaderboard early on when he won a big pot with pocket aces versus the pocket tens of Jun Obara.

Chen An Lin

APT Taipei High Roller Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

Other notables that made it to Day 2 are 5th place finisher at the Zodiac Classic Benjamin Jacobs (574,000), #3 of the Philippines' all-time money list Florencio Campomanes (422,000), UK's Jack Salter (408,000), high roller regular Hon Cheong "Ivan" Lee (400,000), Japan's Jun Obara (396,000), Vietnam's Quang Thai Ha (390,000), Bosnia and Herzegovina's Andrija Robovic (310,000), and former APT Main Event champion Dicky "Tricky Dicky" Tsang (302,000).

APT Taipei High Roller Payouts

Day 2 of the APT Taipei High Roller will continue at 11:15 AM local time inside the Asian Poker Arena. The final table will be live-streamed and can be seen through all social media channels of the Asian Poker Tour.

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This live reporting blog was brought to you by Life of Poker.

Day 1 of the APT High Roller has ended with 35 players making it through to Day 2 tomorrow, March 10.

A full write-up of today's action will follow shortly.

Dicky Tsang

One of the tournament chip leaders Stanley Weng, opened from the cutoff to 24,000 and was called by Dicky Tsang in the big blind.

Tsang checked the A♦ 7♣ 2♥ flop, and faced a cointuation bet of 14,000 from Weng. Tsang made the call.

When the turn came the K♦ Tsang checked for a second time to Weng who checked back to have the Q♥ come of on the river. This was checked by both players once more, and Tsang took down the pot with A♣ 6♦ for a pair of aces.

Yan Jie Wu

Yan Jie Wu opened from the button to 30,000, and Andrija Robovic defended his big blind.

When the flop came K♥ J♦ 4♠ Robovic checked and Wu fired out a continuation bet of 25,000 chips. Robovic didn't too long before putting in the call.

The turn was the 6♥ which Robovic checked again. This time, Wu put out a bet of 80,000 into the middle. Robovic stared down his opponent, throwing in a few time extension chips before eventually choosing to fold and forfeit the pot to Wu.

Raymond Wu open-shoved for 165,000 and Thomas Hall made the call in the small blind to put him at risk.

Hall: J♣ J♦

Wu: 9♠ 9♣

The board ran T♠ 5♥ 6♥ 2♦ A♦, did not save Wu and he will be eliminated by Hall.

Anthony Hu

Jun Obara raised to 24,000 from UTG and saw short-stacked Anthony Hu go all-in for his last 38,000. Big blind Teng Kuei Hsu cold-called the all-in, and Obara tagged along.

The flop came 9♣ Q♦ 4d:, Hsu and Obara both check. When the 8♥ hits Hsu check folds to a 30,000 bet of Obara. Showdown between Obara and Hu:

Hu: A♣ J♥.

Obara: J♣ T♣.

The player from Japan turned the nuts and Hu is looking for the three remaining tens to chop.

Hu laughed loudly when the T♥ on the river appeared, meaning Obara and Hu would chop Hsu's chips. Hu said, "I have been grinding six big blinds in the past 2 hours".

Players have just entered the last level of play for today. After completing this level, players will bag up their chips and come back tomorrow to play it out till there is a winner.

Yousuke Nakazawa

Yousuke Nakazawa is now sitting with over 1,000,000 chips in play, chip leading in the level 15.

When we got to the table the chips had already gone into the middle with Kuan Han Lee being the player at risk for his remaining 40,000 chips. James Mendoza was the one trying to send him to home, late on Day 1.

Mendoza Q♥ Q♦

Lee A♥ K♦

The flop of 9♣ A♦ 7♦ was perfect for Lee who hit one of the cards he needed to catapult him into the lead. The 5♣ turn and 2♣ river meant Lee could continue his quest for the APT High Roller trophy and prize money.

Yosuke Nakazawa

When we got to the table the action was already on the turn with the board showing A♥ :3♥ T♥ 7♣, and Japan's Yosuke Nakazawa had moved all in for 240,000 into a pot of around 200,000. His opponent in the hand was APT Main Event final tablist Chi-Jen Chu, who put in the call for most of his chip.

Chu A♦ J♥

Nakazawa A♣ K♦

Chu needed a heart or jack on the river to eliminate Nakazawa, but the 3♣ wasn't one of them and Chu was left crippled.