The long-awaited Asian Pacific Tour Incheon has finally arrived and shows no sign of stopping, especially with APT Incheon Main Event. As the game makes its fifth return to the country, the stakes are high and so are the rewards with the tables at Paradise City Casino filled with excited poker players.
These players are all competing for a part of the massive guaranteed prize pool which has now surpassed KRW 1,300,000,000 (US$ 1,000,000). This number has grown thanks to the conclusions of the last two flights yesterday and is on track to make the APT Incheon Main Event the second-largest tournament in APT history and the largest one in Korea.
APT Incheon Main Event Day Recap
With the conclusion of Flight C and D, the total number of entries has reached 709 players. Each player had to pay a buy-in cost of KRW 2,300,000 (US$ 1,725). That money would go to the prize pool and further increase its size.
As of writing this, the prize pool has reached a massive KRW 1,467,630,000 (US$ 1,128,946), even more than the ambitious million-dollar guarantee. After days off competition, only 331 players remain standing and will advance to day 2 of the event.
Among these players is Yu Sheng Lin emerged victorious in Flight A. He walked away with an impressive 246,500 chips. Yesterday’s events also saw shakeups as of 156, only 85 players advanced to day 2. Chinese player Zhanghui Yu led the pack with 184,100 chips.
Among the other players who advanced into the next round of the APT Incheon Main Event are John Tech, Winfred Yu, APT Superstar Challenge champ Jun Hao Wu, and runner-up Kevin Choi.
Tonight’s games provided the players their final chance to gather chips and prepare for day 2. In this final flight for the APT Incheon Main Event, 123 players signed up for the event but only 70 advanced into the final day. This last even saw several well-respected latecomers making an appearance.
This included Mike Takayama, a WSOP bracelet holder, APT Taipei Main Event champion Punnat Punsri, Japan’s Kazuhiko Yotsushika, and Australia’s Aaron Lim. One of the most impressive is the Philippine poker player Mike Takayama who has had a long and successful poker career. He has had no fewer than 16 APT titles including 2 main event wins. It seems like he wants to add the APT Incheon Main Event to that list and is well on his way with a chip count of 205,000.
He better expect some competition as another player, Thailand’s Punnat Punssri is just behind with 201,300 chips. His successful play against Huidong Gu put him right behind Takayama. Punsri is no stranger to the APT either and participated in the APT Taiwan last May, one of the largest main events in history. This had him compete against 1,434 players and take home a prize of NTD 11,210,400 (US$ 364,300).
A fierce competition is expected to develop between these two and all the other poker stars in the coming days. The next round of the main event only has 9 slots so the remaining 331 players will need to give it their all if they hope to reach that huge prize pool.
The APT Incheon has been a highly anticipated event for many months now since its original announcement.
If you want to see our coverage of the first announcement, you can read our APT Incheon Schedule Announcement post.