The momentum is really starting to swing towards a climax as Day 14 of the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) saw the $10,000 Main Event play towards a final table and the $25,000 High Roller kick off with a bumper field.
When Day 2 of the Main Event began there were 70 players at the felt of the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. The plan was to play either six 90-minute levels, or down to the final 16, whichever came first. In the end the full six levels were played and there were 18 players remaining.
At the start of the day Kyle Montgomery was the chip leader, followed by Victor Teng and Jackie Glazier and all three of these players would survive the night.
At the other end of the spectrum, it was 2010 WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel who started the day as the short stack and he ended up being the first player eliminated on Day 2. Duhamel was all in preflop with and ran into the of Dennis Huntly and the of Tatjana Zizic. No help for Duhamel and he was sent home. Zizic, meanwhile, was left relatively short and was eliminated later in the day.
Throughout the day Montgomery and Teng stole the chip lead from each other until Teng started to move away. Teng actually ended up being the first player to see his stack move into seven-figure territory. The hand that pushed him over a million saw him eliminate Patty Lai on a board with Teng holding for the nuts, while Lai had .
The bubble burst late in the day, with Kasra Bakhshaee the unlucky player to go home with no cash for three days of grinding. Bakhshaee’s bubble hand was a roller coaster. He was all in preflop with against Ang Italiano’s and caught a nice flop to move ahead. The turn and Bakhshaee was still ahead, but the river meant Italiano had caught running cards to a straight to send Bakhshaee to the rail.
Once the bubble was burst, players like Yu Kurita (36th), Dean Stevenson (35th), recent bracelet winner Sam Higgs (32nd), Jamie Pickering (30th) and Dylan ‘WhiteRabbito’ Honeyman (27th) all hit the rail with some cash.
Once three tables of eight remained during the last level of the night, play slowed down quite a bit, but ultimately Tobias Reinkemeier (20th) and Dylan Kehoe (19th) were the final eliminations of Day 3, meaning 18 had survived through to the penultimate day.
It is Teng who leads the way as his stack of 1,854,000 is well ahead of Jason Giuliano’s 1,203,000. Teng saw his stack move towards 2 million when he dealt the fatal blow to cricket superstar and Australian icon Shane Warne.
Teng got aggressive preflop with and had Warne all in with . The board gave Teng a pair of queens and with that Warne was eliminated in 22nd place.
While Warne won’t be at the felt on Day 4, there are still plenty of prominent players still alive including 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kasella, bracelet winners JJ Liu, Gary Benson, Jackie Glazier and Aaron Lim.
The big emerging story is that Brandon Shack-Harris has made Day 4 of the Main Event and is now looking at a chance to re-take the lead off George Danzer in the WSOP Player of the Year race. Shack-Harris will need to finish in the top two so he still has his work cut out for himself, but the lead has changed so many times in the last two weeks, so clearly anything can happen.
Shack-Harris and all the other players will return from 12:30pm on Thursday and play down to a final table of six. The final 18 have already secured $23,441 and are fighting it out for a minimum payout of $118,769 for making the final day and the $850,136 that is up top.
Main Event – Final 18 Chip Counts
Victor Teng - 1,854,000
Jason Giuliano - 1,203,000
Kyle Montgomery - 1,196,000
Frank Kassela - 783,000
Henry Szmelcer - 663,000
Brandon Shack-Harris - 648,000
Gary Benson - 458,000
JJ Liu - 431,000
Henry Wang - 378,000
Scott Davies - 322,000
Jackie Glazier - 300,000
Jack Salter - 280,000
Baden Logan - 278,000
Joachim Chia - 266,000
Ang Italiano - 256,000
Eiji Matsumura - 253,000
Sean Winter - 185,000
Alexander Antonios - 127,000
Click here for WSOP APAC Day 4 seating draw
While the Main Event was playing down to the final few tables, the $25,000 High Roller was beginning on the other side of the Crown Poker Room.
There were 63 total entrants to kick off Day 1 of the event. That number will increase on Thursday as registration is open for the first two levels of Day 2.
Around half the field was eliminated during the ten 45-minute levels that were played on Day 1 including reigning Aussie Millions champion Ami Barer, the aforementioned George Danzer, 2012 November Niner Russel Thomas, Daniel Negreanu and Antonio Esfandiari.
The chip leader at the end of the day was Australian bracelet winner Andrew Hinrichsen with 346,000 in chips, while prominent Canadian Mike Leah, Kiwi young gun David Yan, German high roller specialist Fabian Quoss and 13-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth are just some of the 30 total survivors from Day 1.
$25K High Roller - Top Five Chips
Andrew Hinrichsen - 346,000
Mike Leah - 320,500
David Yan - 319,800a
Andy Lee - 279,000
Sam Higgs - 223,500
Click here for end-of-day 1 High Roller counts
All the survivors return from 2:30pm on Thursday and the event will play down to a final table.