And then there was one – Bertrand ElkY Grospellier is the only Team PokerStars Pro still standing after the first day’s play in the PokerStars.net APPT Seoul main event at the Paradise Walker-hill Casino.

A total of 165 players took their seats in pursuit of the biggest tournament prize on the Asian mainland this year, and just half (83) will be back for day two.

After Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan was eliminated in level five of six played on a relatively short day, Raymer followed on the final hand of the evening. Perhaps not surprisingly, the player who claimed Raymer’s scalp was David Saab.

The pair had been engaged in banter – all friendly – for most of the afternoon after Raymer was moved to the seat vacated by JJ Liu to Saab’s left.

In the small blind, Saab made it 1200 and Raymer immediately reached for chips. “Have you even looked at your cards?” Saab inquired. Raymer squeezed a peek and replied, “now I have, and I still raise.”

In went Raymer’s remaining 9000, with Saab beating him into the pot. “I knew you’d try this on the last hand of the night,” Saab said, followed by his infamous giggle as he showed Ac-Js.

Raymer showed Kh-6c and watched the flop come Jd-10s-9d – not bad for the Team PokerStars Pro. But the turn was a brick (4d) and the river no better (6d) as we farewelled the only WSOP main event winner in the field.

It was a mixed day for the PokerStars Sponsored players as well, with Celina Lin, JJ Liu, Daniel Schreiber, Guillaume Patry, Eddie Sabat, Will Cheong and Ivan Tan all taking their seats. Only Lin, Schreiber, Sabat and Tan will return on day two. APPT Macau main event runner-up Charles Chua and APPT High Roller runner-up Andrew Scott were also KOed.

Topping the chip count is Oman’s Jan Van Dyk on 51,375, ahead of Saab (47,850), Japan’s Hidenari Shiono (47,175), Justin Jung (44,500) and Tim Davis (42,875).

Players will return at 12.45pm tomorrow (Saturday) for the continuation of play. Blinds will start at level 7 (300/600 with a 75 ante) and play will continue until the final table of nine is decided.

All photography © Joe Giron/IMPDI

Watch APPT Seoul 08: James Honeybone on PokerStars.tv

That’s small comfort for New Zealander James Honeybone, who’s free to pursue any meal option he likes after he pushed all-in with A-K and found himself up against pocket nines.

The only remaining nine in the deck landed on the flop, along with a king to rub salt into the big man’s wound. Not one to hide his feeling, a steaming Honeybone stormed from the tournament area as his dreams of emulating his fifth-place here last year evaporated.

A new chip leader has emerged in the opening minutes of level six, and not surprisingly, it’s a member of the Japanese contingent. Hidenari Shiono flopped a full-house (pocket eights on a flop of 8-3-3) to send another player to the rail. Shiono becomes the first player to break the 50,000-chip barrier.

On the adjacent table, Team PokerStars Pro Greg Raymer continues to turn on a world-class display, and his poker’s cruising along nicely too.

Displaying the patience and temperament that is required to win a WSOP main event, Raymer has out-chatted the mechanical voicebox that is David Saab throughout the afternoon. Saab has been reduced to a bit-player in the theatre at table three.

Three seats to Raymer’s left is his PokerStars teammate Bertrand ElkY Grospellier, who has also given Saab a working over this afternoon. ElkY is in third chip position on 37,000 and well placed for a charge towards a final table berth.

But the tournament is over for the other Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan after two punches sent him to the rail by TKO. There was already money in the pot before the flop of 2d-3d-9s, which Khan bet 1800. His opponent pushed all-in for 8500 and Khan called, showing Ah-Kd while his opponent held Ad-10d. The turn was safe – 7h – but a diamond (Q) sent the majority of his stack across the table.

Khan made his final stand from the small blind (Qs-8h), and received a call from the big blind, who held pocket kings. The flop (6s-8s-Js) gave Khan plenty of outs but the board ran out Jh 10h to give Khan a run at the buffet before the crowd arrived.

It seems the staff at the Paradise Walker-hill Casino have picked up on the 2005 WSOP champion’s choice of mid-event snack for this year’s visit of the region’s best poker players.

We’re not sure of the benefits that B-group vitamins, carbohydrates and potassium offer to the modern, health-conscious poker player, but we’ll keep an eye on those hoovering up the bananas to see how they fare over the next two and a half days.

Jimmy Cha certainly seemed to enjoy his banana. For the second year in-a-row, Korea’s most famous poker export has returned to play in his ‘home’ event

A consummate professional across his many interests (from poker to martial arts, classical music, or Baduk), Jimmy Cha made his name in Las Vegas during the late 1980s and early 1990s as one of the world’s premier cash players (in a period dominated by Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese). He even provided the inspiration for the lead character in the locally produced TV series All-in.

Cha has survived the first four levels of the day, but PokerStars Sponsored players JJ Liu Will Cheong, APPT High Roller runner-up Andrew Scott and two of the three travelling West Australians, Michael Pedley and Kent Hunter have been eliminated.

We’ve also lost the man who reached the final table of both APPT events in Macau, Charles Chua. Short-stacked, he moved in with Q-8 from the button and Eddie Sabat (the player who defeated Chua in the APPT Macau main event) made the call in the small blind with pocket fours.

Chua looked set for a double up when the flop came 6-8-Q but a 4 on the turn gave Sabat a set and sent the Chuck Truck to the parking lot.

The chip count resembles the United Nations early in level 4 – the leader is Jan Van Dyk from Oman (45,000), with the Korean-based Frenchman and Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand ElkY Grospellier close behind (36,000), with Canada’s Larry Pashak (34,000), Japan’s Wooka Kim (28,000) and American Eddie Sabat (24,000) filling out the top five.

Watch APPT Seoul 08: Khan and Raymer on PokerStars.tv

The three Team PokerStars Pros in action – Greg Raymer, Bertrand ElkY Grospellier and Hevad Khan – have safely negotiated the opening two one-hour levels to be placed on 9500, 12,500 and 11,500 in chips respectively.

Fresh from his PokerStars.net APPT Macau main event victory, Eddie Sabat has bolted from the stalls to be among the chip leaders on 32,000, with fellow PokerStars Sponsored players Dan Schreiber and Ivan Tan (21,000) also solid early.

Incredibly, Sabat is seated next Charles Chua – as if the pair didn’t spend enough time together at the final table of the APPT Macau main event where they filled the top two positions.

David Saab has been his normal erratic self in the early going – wearing a Vancouver Canucks NHL guernsey and nursing a nasty hangover, Saab has been unusually quiet so far today but has been involved in more pots than not and currently sits on 17,000 in chips.

We also just chatted with perhaps the three most jet-lagged players in the room – Aussies Michael Pedley, Kent Hunter and Terry Gardiner. The trio have been on a business trip to Russia but managed to squeeze Seoul into their schedule on the way home.

They flew into Incheon at 11am and made a lightning trip across the city (a challenge that all Seoul taxi drivers relish) to make it here in time for the first hand. Pedley reported they even played a few hands of poker while in Russia despite being in a remote region several hours east of Moscow. Poker knows no boundaries.

In contrast, poker’s latest poster child, PokerStars Sponsored player Celina Lin, is still becoming accustomed to the attention that comes with her celebrity in Asia (a glamorous cover on the Asian Poker Times didn’t hurt her profile one bit).

But a steelier Lin, a Chinese-born player now living in Melbourne, is more focussed on her performance at the tables in this tournament to consolidate her position as one of the rising stars of the game in this region. She’s sitting just above the starting stack of 10,000 and looking solid.

However, APPT Seoul can safely lay claim to being the biggest tournament to be played on the Asian mainland this year. It’s also interesting to note that compared to the 2007 event, the numbers of Asian-based players have increased dramatically.

And the field could potentially have been much bigger – Korean nationals are not permitted to play in the Walker-hill Casino (only foreigners are allowed to enter the casino), while no Filipino players were allowed to enter Korea for this event.

However, the proximity of Japan to Korea has again ensured a big contingent from the Land of the Rising Sun, as our Japanese blogger Jenn Barr reports.

“Poker has boomed in Tokyo with the Japan Poker League and many of the players cultured there have taken the two-hour flight to Seoul to try their hand at the biggest poker tournament on the Asian continent.

After qualifying for the 2008 APPT Macau main event, Yu Kurita is back in Seoul and ready to avenge her day one finish a few weeks ago. Also back is PokerStars Qualifier Kenichi Takarabe, who made it to day two at the Grand Waldo earlier this month.

Living in Japan of Korean descent, Wooka Kim, based in Osaka, is no stranger to the felt. She played in APPT Seoul 2007, the APPT Macau main event this year and has played in many other events throughout the world like the Aussie Millions and the WSOP. Put your money on her for a strong finish for Team Japan.

Also joining us from the “Land of the Gods” is Ireland national Liam Hearns, based in Tokyo is sitting next to popular Korean-based American, Dan Schreiber. Liam holds most of his experience in cash games, but took a few days off of his office job to try his hand at APPT Seoul.”

Watch APPT Seoul 08: "Yaba" Online Qualifier on PokerStars.tv

The calming sound of Kyungki Minyo provided the perfect antidote to the chaos that precedes the start of any major poker tournament as players packed the Paradise Walker-hill Casino for the start of play in the KRW 3,000,000 (approximately USD $2600) PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Seoul main event.

After welcomes from APPT President Jeffrey Haas and APPT Tournament Director Danny McDonagh, the order to “shuffle up and deal” was delivered by 2004 WSOP main event winner and Team PokerStars Pro Greg Raymer.

“I shouldn’t be welcoming you as this is also my first trip to Korea, but I can safely say that Korean is one of my favourite cuisines,” Raymer said as he wished players all the best for the tournament.

The field for the second event on season two of the PokerStars.net APPT looks set to exceed 160, with the field including a trio of Team PokerStars Pros (Raymer, Hevad RaiNKhaN Khan and Bertrand ElkY Grospellier), several PokerStars Sponsored players such as Celina Lin, JJ Liu, Daniel Schreiber, Guillaume Patry plus several players who final-tabled at the last APPT event in Macau, including main event champion Eddie Sabat, China’s Tian ‘Tim’ Chen, Kuok Wai ‘Will’ Cheong from Macau, and High Roller place-getters Will Ma (Canada) and Zhong Wei ‘Ivan’ Tan (Singapore).

Other players in action today include top Aussie pros David Saab and Van sirens Marcus, APPT High Roller runner-up Andrew Scott, Japanese pro Wooka Kim, and the only player who reached the final table of both APPT events in Macau, Charles ‘Chuck Truck’ Chua.

Fresh from a stunning WCOOP on PokerStars where he cashed seven times, ElkY has been quick to carry that form into today’s action and has already been involved in several pots with Eddie Sabat.

The format that proved so popular in Macau has been retained for Seoul, meaning there will be seven 60-minute levels today with dinner at the conclusion of play.

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)