The chase for the cash starts in earnest today with 208 players returning to the Grand Waldo Casino and Hotel for day 2 of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau main event.

The battle is on from the opening hand for some of the Team PokerStars Pros with Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (15,100), Isabelle “No Mercy Mercier (8200) and Joe Hachem (5500) all under the chip average of 25,208. In contrast, Chad Brown (40,600) and Lee “Final Table” Nelson (29,900) have enough chips to pick their mark.

And if you’re wondering, ElkY has left the make-up and Joker outfit in the closet and turned up in civilian attire today.

Some of the more interesting table draws today see PokerStars Sponsored player Terrence Chan (22,800), Daisy Wain (70,100) and Joe Hachem together at table six, Isabelle Mercier, Thomas Bihl and Japanese pro Wooka Kim are at table 10 with David Steicke, ElkY, Chris Grigorian and Kofi Farkye set for an interesting battle at table 18.

Our chip leader, Germany’s Andre Wagner, said he was looking forward to today’s play and was confident of making a deep run in the chase for the HKD $3,540,040 (USD $453,851.28) first prize.

APPT tournament director Danny McDonagh said play would continue for seven levels unless the money bubble broke later today. Today’s structure is:

Level 8: 400/800 (100 ante)
Level 9: 500/1000 (200 ante)
Level 10: 600/1200 (200 ante)
Level 11: 800/1600 (200 ante)
Level 12: 1000/2000 (300 ante)
Level 13: 1200/2400 (400 ante)
Level 14: 1500/3000 (500 ante)

And the cards are in the air!

Seat 1: Mansour Matloubi (England) 20,900
Seat 2: Michael Doodson (Australia) 25,100
Seat 3: Dmytro Usenko (Ukraine) 20,300
Seat 4: Keith Greaves (UK) 37,600
Seat 5: Stiven Strmecki (Australia) 10,500
Seat 6: Harry Demetriou (UK) 25,600
Seat 7: Charlie Gang (Australia) 7100
Seat 8: Kevin Chan (Canada) 14,400
Seat 9: Giuseppe Gumina (Australia) 24,500

Table 2

Seat 1: John Juanda (USA) 25,800
Seat 2: Michael Hill (UK) 38,500
Seat 3: Andrew Pantling (Canada) 54,800
Seat 4: Bill Copeland (USA) 54,600
Seat 5: Michael Lindstrom (Denmark) 21,100
Seat 6: Dylan Wilkerson (USA) 21,000
Seat 7: Daphne Lim (Netherlands) 16,900
Seat 8: Frank Gu (USA) 13,200
Seat 9: Joe Ebanks (USA) 25,700
Seat 10: Kevin Macphee (USA) 61,900

Table 3

Seat 1: Chad Siu (Canada) 11,300
Seat 2: Michael Boon Suan Tan (Hong Kong) 12,200
Seat 3: Hoi Wing Derek Cheung (Hong Kong) 6700
Seat 4: Josh Mammon (Canada) 8300
Seat 5: Robert Megino (New Zealand) 15,500
Seat 6: Mike McDonald (Canada) 3500
Seat 7: Ruizhong Chen (Switzerland) 3 7 16,700
Seat 8: Johnny Huynh ((Vietnam)) 44,200
Seat 9: Ricky Lui (Australia) 15,100
Seat 10: Diwei Huang (Singapore) 34,900

Table 4

Seat 1: King Fung Yan (Hong Kong) 18,800
Seat 2: Keith Wintermans (Canada) 6700
Seat 3: Jacky Forestier (France) 6600
Seat 4: Joseph Di Tomasso (Hong Kong) 11,300
Seat 5: Aditya Agarwal (India) 45,200
Seat 6: Simon Greene 16,000
Seat 7: Nicholas Steven Chlebeck (USA) 50,800
Seat 8: Hon Ming Kim Lee (Hong Kong) 27,100
Seat 9: Erkan Isci (Turkey) 20,700
Seat 10: John Dalessandri (Australia) 45,200

Table 5

Seat 1: Steven Djingga (Indonesia) 62,400
Seat 2: David Lee (Australia) 29,800
Seat 3: Manuel Chu Jo (USA) 22,400
Seat 4: Tyler Cornell (USA) 39,500
Seat 5: Marko Neumann (Germany) 12,900
Seat 6: Mark Everett (Australia) 27,200
Seat 7: William Wright (USA) 45,200
Seat 8: Daniel Collier (USA) 15,000
Seat 9: Daniel Coupal (Canada) 14,700
Seat 10: Van Nguyen (USA) 27,800

Table 6

Seat 1: Barry O'Callaghan (Ireland) 9500
Seat 2: Terrence Chan (Hong Kong) 22,800
Seat 3: Charles Chua (Australia) 49,100
Seat 4: Brianna Renee Bramer (USA) 21,500
Seat 5: Erwin Co (Philippines) 11,000
Seat 6: David Maudlin (England) 17,200
Seat 7: Joe Hachem (Australia) 5,500
Seat 8: Daisy Cupino Wain (USA) 70,100
Seat 9: Victor Zebei Hon (Australia) 26,100
Seat 10: Bulent Gørmez (Denmark) 11,800

Table 7

Seat 1: Carter Gill (USA) 48,400
Seat 2: Edward Sabat (USA) 41,400
Seat 3: Yvo Molin (Netherlands) 20,500
Seat 4: Samuel Frederick Riley (Australia) 19,500
Seat 5: Matt Russell (USA) 16,500
Seat 6: William Jr Te (Philippines) 12,600
Seat 7: Adrian Mills (Ireland) 10,900
Seat 8: Kenichi Takarabe (Japan) 9800
Seat 9: Masayuki Nagata (Japan) 9800

Table 8

Seat 1: Doron Tourgman (Germany) 18,500
Seat 2: Rodney Davidson (Australia) 36,100
Seat 3: Dominic Mykhaltso (Canada) 24,000
Seat 4: John Babatsikos (Australia) 14,600
Seat 5: Man Wai Paul Siu (Hong Kong) 33,000
Seat 6: Colin Lovelock (UK) 3900
Seat 7: Johnny Chan (USA) 12,800
Seat 8: Cang Nguyen (USA) 39,500
Seat 9: Bob Binsky (USA) 14,000
Seat 10: Nick Blackburn (USA) 18,900

Table 9

Seat 1: Andre Wagner (Germany) 109,700
Seat 2: Phi Long Luu (Australia) 29,100
Seat 3: Aaron Matthew Zhi Hua Lim (Australia) 37,900
Seat 4: Chad Brown Team PokerStars Pro (USA) 40,600
Seat 5: Stephen Darnell (England) 17,000
Seat 6: Jose Ramos (Brazil) 29,500
Seat 7: Cho Fai Nicholas Wong (Hong Kong) 31,500
Seat 8: Patricia Ingram (USA) 11,300
Seat 9: Tom Nicholas Rafferty (Australia) 39,000
Seat 10: Yongseok Choi (Korea) 56,600

Table 10

Seat 1: Isabelle Mercier (Canada) 8200
Seat 2: Hang Ha (Vietnam) 13,500
Seat 3: Hongji Liu (China) 5400
Seat 4: Wooka Kim (Japan) 18,200
Seat 5: Thomas Bihl (Germany) 13,600
Seat 6: Kai Lee Tse (Hong Kong) 11,900
Seat 7: Thomas Kazemieh (Germany) 20,400
Seat 8: Taneli Tiikkaja (Finland) 34,500
Seat 9: Euell Smith (Bermuda) 9,300
Seat 10: Olle Lindberg (Sweden) 17,000

Table 11

Seat 1: Tamas Lendvai (Hungary) 31,100
Seat 2: Tommi Eteläperä (Finland) 16,600
Seat 3: Matthew Lee (Hong Kong) 14,800
Seat 4: So Myung Sim (South Korea) 25,900
Seat 5: Yadong Liu (China) 51,500
Seat 6: Koen De Bakker (Netherlands) 17,900
Seat 7: Deng Feng Yu (China) 31,600
Seat 8: Derick Hernandez (Philippines) 17,900
Seat 9: Frank Bianco (Australia) 22,800
Seat 10: Kenneth Hicks 60,100

Table 12

Seat 1: Mikael Rosen (Sweden) 54,000
Seat 2: Xinzheng Xu (China) 52,800
Seat 3: Veerachai Vongxaiburana (Thailand) 32,900
Seat 4: Johnny Olesen (Denmark) 26,800
Seat 5: Robert Dobbs (USA) 17,500
Seat 6: Chris Levick (Australia) 17,000
Seat 7: Ong Heng (Singapore) 11,300
Seat 8: Alex Niu (Territory of Taiwan) 8100
Seat 9: Mark Bongo (USA) 7100
Seat 10: Xin Shen (China) 3500

Table 13

Seat 1: Pete Giordano (USA) 24,000
Seat 2: Tyrone Kerrigan UK 49,400
Seat 3: Adrian De Carteret (UK) 7,400
Seat 4: Chulwoo Park (Korea) 20,900
Seat 5: Emad Tahtouh (Australia) 28,800
Seat 6: Charles Resewehr (USA) 4400
Seat 7: Eugene Borukhov (USA) 26,100
Seat 8: George Vassilopoulos (Australia) 21,300
Seat 9: Alexander Willy Edward Jung (Germany) 30,600
Seat 10: Chih Fang (Territory of Taiwan) 11,200

Table 14

Seat 1: Phil Johnson (USA) 122,600
Seat 2: Guray Turkay (Turkey) 54,300
Seat 3: Pontus Kers (Sweden) 15,000
Seat 4: Mark Ioli (USA) 14 4 13,200
Seat 5: Jonathan Macey (Australia) 9900
Seat 6: Yinh Chieh Chen 40,700
Seat 7: David Ewing (Australia) 16,900
Seat 8: Michael Pedley (Australia) 17,000
Seat 9: Michael Tang (Netherlands) 44,200
Seat 10: Mudasser Khan (Denmark) 9600

Table 15

Seat 1: Ming Lee (USA) 39,200
Seat 2: Dennis Waterman (USA) 75,800
Seat 3: Mark Griffiths (Switzerland) 42,400
Seat 4: Joel Doods (Australia) 19,000
Seat 5: Troy Perry (Australia) 16,900
Seat 6: Nam Thien Le (USA) 14,500
Seat 7: Sarah Wing Yi Lee (Hong Kong) 8800
Seat 8: Sam Jessop (Australia) 18,800
Seat 9: Yun-Hsiang Terry Fan (China) 30,600
Seat 10: Mark Walsh (Ireland) 95,000

Table 16

Seat 1: Martin Comer (Australia) 11,400
Seat 2: Andras Kovacs (Hungary) 16,800
Seat 3: Anson Wong (Hong Kong) 11,700
Seat 4: Tom Carter (USA) 9400
Seat 5: Mark Furniss (Australia) 11,400
Seat 6: Marius Bobinas (Lithuania) 13,400
Seat 7: Romain Rambaldi (France) 21,400
Seat 8: Manlee Wan (Macau) 20,600
Seat 9: Andrew Lichtenberger (USA) 22,600
Seat 10: Chris Battenfield (USA) 24,500

Table 17

Seat 1: Chintana Blumenthal (Thailand) 25,100
Seat 2: Daniel Schreiber (USA) 13,100
Seat 3: Dave Gibeault (Canada) 21,000
Seat 4: Chung Yiu Charles Lam (Hong Kong) 41,000
Seat 5: Munehiko Matsuyama (Japan) 16,400
Seat 6: Jamie Bunner (Canada) 9,900
Seat 7: Kristopher Cunz (Australia) 26,300
Seat 8: Elton Tsang (Hong Kong) 31,200
Seat 9: Steffan Van Khoa Da Denmark 59,300
Seat 10: Tian Chen (China) 62,500

Table 18

Seat 1: Kofi Farkye (USA) 78,700
Seat 2: David Steicke (Australia) 87,700
Seat 3: Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (France) 15,100
Seat 4: Gouliang Xu (China) 17,500
Seat 5: Jon Parsons (UK) 30,500
Seat 6: Anthony Wright (Australia) 8400
Seat 7: Javed Abrahams (England) 32,500
Seat 8: Sean Oliver Moreno (Philippines) 16,400
Seat 9: Chris Grigorian (USA) 24,400
Seat 10: Jeppe Drivsholm (Denmark) 54,800

Table 19

Seat 1: Ewan Morgan (Australia) 10,900
Seat 2: Karl Erik Hjort (Sweden) 22,000
Seat 3: Terry Gonzaga (Philippines) 9100
Seat 4: Matt Affleck (USA) 16,700
Seat 5: Kejing Tang (China) 5,800
Seat 6: Kuok Wai Will Cheong (Macau) 14,500
Seat 7: Matthias Koerber (Germany) 17,400
Seat 8: Faraz Jaka (USA) 28,800
Seat 9: Shunu Zang (China 27,800
Seat 10: David Chiu (USA) 13,000

Table 20

Seat 1: Quinn Do (Korea) 83,600
Seat 2: Ka Yung (Canada) 26,200
Seat 3: Hyunjin Lee (Korea 21,800
Seat 4: Lee Nelson (New Zealand) 29,900
Seat 5: Joe Pharo (USA) 35,100
Seat 6: John Byrne (USA) 11,500
Seat 7: Olov Thomas Nilsson (Lithuania) 30,900
Seat 8: Mark Mcguigan (USA) 27,300
Seat 9: Brad Ogier (UK) 7600
Seat 10: Eric Liu (Canada) 16,600

Table 21

Seat 1: Frank Bianco (Australia) 20,000
Seat 2: Ming Chak Phil Lau (Hong Kong) 35,600
Seat 3: Sami Laurinen (Finland) 10,000
Seat 4: Mikael Johansson (Sweden) 26,200
Seat 5: Naohiko Yamazaki (Japan) 9100
Seat 6: Thanh Van Nguyen (Vietnam) 9800
Seat 7: Johnny Cheung (Canada) 15,900
Seat 8: Jaroslaw Jaskiewicz (Canada) 19,400
Seat 9: Ole Johan Steinvik (Norway) 68,900
Seat 10: Mads A Amot (Norway) 25,200

An historic day for the emergence of poker in Asia concluded at the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino with 88 of the 229 players in day 1C of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour set to return for tomorrow’s day 2 action.

With the total entry confirmed at 538, the APPT Macau main event has smashed every record for a poker tournament on Asian soil.

The total prize pool of HKD $12.643 million (approximately USD $1.62 million) and first prize of HKD $3,540,040 (USD $453,851.28) also represent previously unscaled heights for an event in Asia.

Day 1C was also characterised by one of the most impressive line-ups of poker talent ever assembled on the Asian continent, headlined by Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem, Lee “Final Table” Nelson, Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier and Hevad Khan.

The field also included PokerStars Sponsored players Tony Hachem, Neil Arce, Franco Mabanta, Terrence Chan, Emad Tahtouh, Ivan Tan and surprise entrant John Phan (fresh from his WPT Legends of Poker win less than a fortnight ago), six-time WSOP bracelet winner Men “The Master” Nguyen and his wife Van, Shaun Deeb, LAPT San Jose final table participants Max Steinberg and Steve Silverman, last year’s APPT Macau main event winner “All-in” Dinh Le and a trio of star players with proud Asian heritage – J.C. Tran, Nam Le and David Chiu.

But emerging from the galaxy of stars was PokerStars qualifier Mark Walsh from Ireland, who finished the day with 95,000.

He’s followed by 2005 WSOP bracelet winner “Mighty” Quinn Do (83,600), Ole Johan Steinvik (68,900), Tian Chen (62,500) and Kevin MacPhee (61,900).

Notables to made it through to day 2 were Carter Gill (48,400), Men “The Master” Nguyen (39,500), Van Nguyen (27,800), PokerStars Sponsored duo Emad Tahtouh (28,800) and Terrence Chan (22,800), Frank “The Bank” Bianco (20,000), Nam Le (14,500) and David Chiu (13,000).

A trio of Team PokerStars Pros survived the day. Lee “Final Table” Nelson is best placed with 29,900 (just above the average) but Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier (8200) and Joe Hachem (5500) face a stern test.

The other Team PokerStars Pro in action today, Hevad Khan, bowed out after Raymond Wu rivered a set of threes on a board of Kc-Js-Ac-6c-3s, then David Chiu made a set of aces against Khan’s set of nines.

Other casualties of day 1C included PokerStars Sponsored players Ivan Tan (who finished second in this event last year), Tony Hachem, Neil Arce and John Phan, plus Shaun Deeb, Steve Joonhee Yea, defending champion Dinh Le, Steve Sung, Jo Berec, J.J. Liu and J.C. Tran.

Day 2 is scheduled to kick-off at 1.30pm local time, with play again scheduled for seven one-hour levels. See you tomorrow as the chase for the money heats-up.

All photography © Joe Giron/IMPDI

Watch APPT Macau 08: A player Interview from Jeff on PokerStars.tv

Unfortunately Tan won’t be going any further in the Macau Main Event, as he was recently bounced out of the tournament on that dreaded pre-flop all-in scenario, holding pocket Kings vs. pocket Aces. Ouch. Talking with Tan afterwards, we asked him how he thought his recent performances have increased the profile of poker in Singapore. Tan said he had been invited to do a number of newspaper, television and magazine interviews since the APPT Macau last year, and estimated the number of people playing poker in his home country had doubled in the 12 months since.

Singaporeans don’t have any casinos or live poker rooms to play in, so the only outlets for their preferred hobby is online or in home games. Tan says there are around 70 home games taking place every week in the city, and the poker community there is fairly close-knit; most players know each other from regular communication via online forums and blogs. No doubt additional solid performances from Tan and the other 10 or so Singaporean players who are playing in the APPT Macau Main Event, plus the appearance of an APPT Singapore event in 2009, will only continue to increase the phenomenal growth of poker in the Asian region.

Watch APPT Macau 008: Joe Pharo on PokerStars.tv

APPT tournament director Danny McDonagh runs a tight ship but loves a laugh, especially at the expense of a player who has turned up feeling a little under the weather.

One youngster (he pleaded with us not to name him, and luckily the pic below doesn't show his face) looks like he should have stopped at the 13th or 14th cocktail last night.

He’s been gradually going downhill all day, but it all turned very ugly a few minutes ago when he deposited the night’s takings straight into his cap.

After a brief “rest” in the nearby men’s facility (and a few laps of the Grand Waldo in a porcelain bus), he returned but has spent much of this level slumped over the table, only occasionally lifting his head to glance at his cards.

One player at table nine just commented about flopping the nuts. The reply was swift: “Man, please don’t mention food.”

A stickler for the rules, McDonagh just announced that all players in the main event should “wake up – we need you awake to play. Including table nine”.

Speaking of movements, Men “The Master” Nguyen and PokerStars Sponsored player Terrence Chan have been the big climbers on the leaderboard. Chan is now on 30,000.

Chan doubled-up and eliminated another player (a set of nines against pocket 10s) on the same orbit and even shouted the eliminated player a Coke before he left the tournament area.

Meanwhile Men “The Master” is up to 40,000 after he KOed Adam Schwartz. Nguyen was behind pre-flop with Js-10s against Schwartz’s Ad-9s but the board ran out Jd-Kd-8d-Jh-Ks to give Men a full house.

And it’s been steady-as-she-goes for the Team PokerStars Pros today. Lee “Final Table” Nelson is on 32,000 with Isabelle Mercier – seated to Lee’s left – on 13,000. Joe Hachem just lost a big pot and is down to 10,000, while PokerStars Sponsored player Emad Tahtouh is on 12,000.

Watch APPT Macau 08: Isabelle Mercier on PokerStars.tv

Players are just about to take their final break for the day. Of the 229 players who started the day’s play, 113 remain. One level remains, with blinds up to 300/600 (ante 75).

The big man with the pony-tail was about to have his car repossessed and had to withdraw the last few dollars from his bank account to make the journey to Sydney year after qualifying for the country’s biggest pub poker tournament, the Australian Poker League Tournament of Champions, a freeroll offering a prize pool of AUD $1.5 million.

He wasn’t sure how he was going to find the money to get home to his hometown of Bega, several hours south of Sydney. But after outlasting the field of 230 players to pocket the first prize of AUD $300,000, Davidson’s problems were solved – for good.

Rodney’s been soaking up the atmosphere here at the Grand Waldo over the past few days (there’s barely a hand in the house that he hasn’t shaken) and looks very relaxed as we enter the latter stages of day 1C in the PokerStars.net APPT Macau main event.

He recently “got a bit lucky” when his pocket aces improved to a set after an opponent had pushed all-in with two pair on the flop. Davidson is now up to more than 30,000 and looking good for a seat on day 2.

We’re already assured a new champion in this year’s event after 2007 winner Dinh Le butted heads with Korea’s Steve Joonhee Yea. The money went in pre-flop with Le the all-in player. He showed pocket kings and found himself up against Yea’s A-J with an ace on the turn sending Dinh to the rail.

He joins players including Steve Sung and Jo Berec (second in the 2007 PokerStars.net APPT Seoul main event) to be eliminated today.

Meanwhile Yea, who was 10th in last year’s APPT Manila main event, is up to 44,000 and into the chip lead for today.

Close behind is Kevin ImaLuckSac MacPhee. He’s had a solid year online, with cashes in the PokerStars $55k Guaranteed and $15k Guaranteed for a combined $29k, then he won $38,300 for second in a PokerStars $100 rebuy tournament.

After some ferocious betting on the river, MacPhee called his opponent’s all-in with Kh-10c against Ad-10d on a flop of Ah-10h-3h. The flush arrived on the turn (Jh) and MacPhee avoided the full house draw (9s) on the river to double through to 40,000.

With the vast number of nationalities represented, for most players, English is not their first language, even though it is the only language permitted on the tournament floor. Combine that with Chinese dealers who also have limited English, and pretty much the only common language is that of poker. To reduce the chance of confusion during all-in confrontations, the APPT has introduced an “All-In Chip” which players can throw onto the felt to indicate they are all-in. From what we have seen so far, the system has been working very well… if not a little quietly.

The PokerStars blogging team had to overcome a few language barriers of our own today. We noticed a player in a wheelchair in today’s flight and with many good news stories about disabled players doing well in poker, like the blind Hal Lubarsky or William Rockwell who plays with his feet after losing his arms in a motorcycle accident, we wanted to have a chat to this unknown player to hear his story too. When we approached him for an interview, we found he was French and couldn’t understand what we wanted… fortunately one of the blogging team studied French at school, so we were able to have a broken conversation with the player in some combination of French and English… or Franglais.

The player, Julien Langvan, due to a birth defect, has arms that reach just below his shoulders, and only two fingers and a thumb on each hand. Just like Lubarsky and Rockwell however, his disability has not prevented him from playing the game he loves, nor has it prevented him from succeeding! Langvan, who has been playing poker for two years, actually won a French televised TV tournament called “NRJ PokerStars” (“NRJ” is pronounced “energy” in French), outlasting over 500 other contestants, and winning a $200,000 sponsorship from PokerStars, that will send him to every tournament on the APPT, EPT, LAPT and WSOP tours until the end of 2009! A fantastic story, and it’s great to hear we’ll be seeing a lot more of Langvan in the future.

With big names come big bust-outs, and the list of casualties is starting to mount up on day 1C of the PokerStars.net APPT Macau main event.

Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan has just wandered by with details of his bust-out after a testing afternoon on what he described as the “toughest table in the room”.

In consecutive hands, the river card proved a heart-breaker. Firstly Raymond Wu rivered a set of threes on a board of Kc-Js-Ac-6c-3s, then Khan pushed in his last 3000 in chips with pocket nines only to run into David Chiu’s pocket aces. Khan spiked a nine on the turn but the Ac quickly followed to end the Team PokerStars Pro’s day.

In the last few minutes, PokerStars Sponsored player John ‘Razor’ Phan was also spotted making his way over the boundary rope after committing the last of his few remaining chips.

With a board reading Jh-4c-3d-5h, Phan bet 1000, his opponent pushed all-in and Phan bet his remaining 2200 with Ad 5h but found himself in massive trouble against pocket jacks. The deuce he needed failed to materialise (the river was the 5c) ending Phan’s hope of adding to his remarkable tournament record for 2008. At least until next week’s APPT High Roller event!

PokerStars Sponsored player Tony Hachem is also free to dine at his leisure this evening after his last 1800 went into the pot on a board of 9h 2d 6c, with the caller showing pocket jacks. Hachem revealed 6d 4d for middle pair, but help didn’t arrive (turn 3h, river Ks) and Tony’s run of recent good form had come to an end.

J.C. Tran’s tournament is also over after he pushed all-in with pocket kings on a board of 7c-Qd-4s-6d, but 2008 WPT Championship winner David Chiu almost beat him into the pot with pocket queens. There was no help on the river for J.C. Tran.

In contrast, the remaining Team PokerStars Pros are cruising along nicely, with Joe Hachem (24,000) and Lee “Final Table” Nelson (22,000) among the chip leaders while Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier has been steadily picking her way through levels three and four to be around the chip average (13,000).

The current chip leader is Carter Gill, who finished 28th in last year’s APPT Grand Final in Sydney but was poised to go much deeper as one of the chip leaders late on the penultimate day. He was 14th in last week’s APT main event and thanks to a double-up through David Chiu, he’s currently leading today’s field with 40,000.

The prize pool has been finalised for the APPT Macau main event, with the winner assured HKD $3,540,040 (or approximately USD $453,850).

1 HKD $3,540,040 (USD $453,851.28)
2 HKD $2,275,740 (USD $291,761.54)
3 HKD $1,201,080 (USD $153,984.62)
4 HKD $847,080 (USD $108,600.00)
5 HKD $632,150 (USD $81,044.87)
6 HKD $442,500 (USD $56,730.77)
7 HKD $328,720 (USD $42,143.59)
8 HKD $240,220 (USD $30,797.44)
9 HKD $177,000 (USD $22,692.31)
10-12 HKD $126,430 (USD $16,208.97)
13-16 HKD $101,145 (USD $12,967.31)
17-24 HKD $75,860 (USD $9725.64)
25-32 HKD $63,215 (USD $8104.49)
33-40 HKD $50,570 (USD $6483.33)
41-48 HKD $44,250 (USD $5673.08)
49-56 HKD $37,930 (USD $4862.82)

It may have been Americans who introduced poker to the nation of more than 7000 islands, but it’s a young band of players who’ve enthusiastically picked up the torch and taken Filipino poker to previously unscaled heights.

The momentum created by last year’s PokerStars.net APPT Manila event (the first ever APPT tournament) has been maintained in casinos and dedicated poker rooms throughout the country.

They might be fierce rivals on the PokerStars-sponsored Filipino Poker Tour, but the local players have banded together to travel to Macau for the opening event of the 2008 APPT.

PokerStars Sponsored player Neil Arce is the face of Team Philippines. The highest profile player on the local poker scene, he recently took out the Filipino Poker Tour against the best field of local players ever gathered. Arce is also lauded as the first locally based Filipino player to cash in the WSOP when he finished 222nd in the 2007 main event.

Other Philippines playing today include PokerStars Sponsored player Franco Mabanta and Alan Escano while Derick Hernandez, who final-tabled at last year’s APPT Manila, is already through to day 2 of this event.

Players have just returned from the first break after two levels of play. Lee “Final Table” Nelson was able to kick back and savour his cup of green tea after eliminating a player just minutes earlier, winning a pre-flop race with jacks against his opponent’s Ad-Qc after the board ran out 9h-8d-6d-Kh-10h. The Team PokerStars Pro and celebrated author of books like Let’s Play Poker, Kill Phil and Kill Everyone is up to 17,000.

But PokerStars Sponsored player Tony Hachem was despondent during the 10-minute rest period after taking a big hit from JJ Liu late in level 2.

On a board of 8d-Ac-7s-Ks, Liu called Hachem’s bet of 2000 before the river came 9s. Liu made it 3000 and Hachem called, showing Kc-7d. However, Liu made a runner-runner flush with As-3s to take down the pot and send Hachem crashing down to less than 4000.

We’ve just had the prize pool confirmed for the PokerStars.net APPT Macau main event, with the 538 players chasing HKD $12.643 million (or approximately (USD $1.62 million), making this the richest and largest event ever played on Asian soil. Good times APPT!

The confirmed figure for today’s 1C flight is 229, taking the official total of players in the PokerStars.net APPT Macau main event to a staggering 538. That’s 206 more than last year, and confirms that tournament poker has truly arrived in Asia.

The growth has come from across the board – more pros, more live and PokerStars qualifiers and most importantly, more players from China, the territories of Hong Kong and Taiwan and nations throughout south-east Asia.

But the more things change, the more things stay the same – the big mover in level one was 2005 WSOP main event winner and Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem.

On a board of 8d-5h-2d-Ad, Joe bet 800, his opponent shoved all-in and Hachem called, showing Jd-10d for a flush, which had his opponents set of aces dominated. It stayed that way with the 3h on the river, and Hachem had doubled up to 21,000. And keeping it in the family, Joe’s cousin Billy Sukkar has just been seated to Joe’s right on table 12.

PokerStars Sponsored player Terrence Chan has just been rewarded for his decision to skip his 10-year high school reunion to make the long trip to Macau.

After some fierce pre-flop action, the money went in on a flop of Ah-Qh-3h, with Chan showing pocket aces for set over set against pocket queens. Chan stayed ahead on the turn (8c), then just to rub salt into his opponent’s wound, the remaining ace (Ad) sailed down the river.

If any of Terrence’s former school friends want to see how their classmate turned out, keep an eye on the PokerStars Blog for the next few days, we have a feeling there’ll be no shortage of updates on his progress.

Another PokerStars Sponsored player, Emad Tahtouh, has ensured an early end to one PokerStars qualifier’s day. However, he was made to work for it – the action started with a raise to 150 from Emad in middle position, with one caller behind.

He committed another 300 on a board of 2c-Js-8c – again came the call. He upped it to 800 on the turn (9s), his opponent made it an extra 2200 and Tahtouh called. The river was a danger card (6c), with Tahtouh checking his option before the all-in bet of 3750 came from his opponent. Emad made a great call with pocket 10s, while his opponent showed Qc 4c for busted straight and flush draws. Emad’s pulse is almost back to normal.

We’ve saved the best for last with some of the world’s biggest names in action on day 1C of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour at the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino in Macau.

For the players – many of who are PokerStars qualifiers – this morning’s massive thunderstorm added to the nerves already building as they prepared to take their seats along side some of the marquee players in poker.

How’s this for a line-up? Headlining the 200-plus field, which will take the total field well above 500, are Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem (who final-tabled at the APPT High Roller event here last year), Lee “Final Table” Nelson, Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier and Hevad Khan.

Six-time WSOP bracelet winner Men “The Master” Nguyen and his wife Van, who took out the 2008 WPT Celebrity Invitational, are playing today along side PokerStars Sponsored players Tony Hachem, Neil Arce, Franco Mabanta, Terrence Chan, Emad Tahtouh and Ivan Tan.

We’re also delighted to announce that the hottest player in tournament poker today, John Phan, is a PokerStars Sponsored player for this event. Phan has been on a remarkable run in the past 12 weeks, winning two bracelets at the 2008 WSOP ($3000 No Limit Hold’em and $ 2500 Deuce-Seven Triple Draw Lowball), finishing fifth in the WPT Bellagio Cup main event then winning the WPT Legends of Poker in LA just over a week ago.

The world’s number three ranked online player Shaun Deeb, who was part of the winning PokerStars World Cup of Poker USA team, is also playing today, as are PokerStars.net LAPT San Jose runner-up Max Steinberg, Hong Kong Poker League qualifiers Yun-Hsiang Terry Fan and Kam Keong (Simon) Lee plus Steve Silverman, who was third in the PokerStars.net LAPT event in San Jose.

Other players in the room today include defending APPT Macau main event champion “All-in” Dinh Le, last year’s APPT Seoul winner Ziv Bachar, 2006 PokerStars WCOOP main event winner JC Tran, 2006 WPT Shooting Stars champion Nam Le, 2008 WPT Championship winner David Chiu, 2005 WSOP NLHE Short-handed bracelet winner Isaac Galazan … you get the picture, it’s a loaded field.

As was the case on days 1A and 1B, today’s play will feature seven levels of 60 minutes today, with the blinds:

Level 1: 25/50
Level 2: 50/100
Level 3: 100/200
Level 4: 100/200 (ante 25)
Level 5: 150/300 (ante 25)
Level 6: 200/400 (ante 50)
Level 7: 300/600 (ante 75)