Curtis Lim

Curtis Lim was already all in preflop and at risk for 35,500 on the button against Shih Hsun Chen, who had Lim covered from early position.

Curtis Lim: 5 5

Shih Hsun Chen: A Q

It was a race, but the T 9 T 7 J runout favored Lim this time, awarding him the double up early on in Flight E.

Yu Liou Fei opened to 800 first to act and was called by chia Huang Po in the hijack and Chih Hao Hu in the big blind for a three-way pot.

Action checked through on the Q 8 A flop and then Hu checked to Fei, who bet 1,200 on the 2 turn. Po called, but Hu folded.

Fei sized up for a bet of 3,600 on the 7 river and Po didn't take long to look him up.

Fei shrugged and revealed K T for a bluff, prompting Po to table A J for a pair of aces to claim the pot.

Hal Rotholz

Flight E is already up to 106 entrants, with several notables hopping into the fray.

Among them are Hal Rotholz, Maxim Lykov, Stephen Lai, Jaewon Kim, and Andy Tsai, to name a few.

Ekkachal Winpatthanon opened to 1,000 from early position and just behind him, Kuan Chieh Chen three-bet to 2,500. Action folded back around to Winpatthanon, who called.

Winpatthanon checked on the 6 Q 4 flop and Chen continued for a bet of 2,200. Winpatthanon quickly announced a check-raise to 7,000, which was met with a prompt fold from Chen.

Alvir Inocentes raised to 600 from the hijack and was called by Victoria Livschitz in the cutoff for a heads-up pot.

Inocentes check-called a 600 bet from Livschitz on the 5 J 4 flop, but check folded after Livschitz fired 3,000 into the middle on the 3 turn.

Livschitz, who has various poker titles to her name with live-tournament earnings in excess of $3 million, is playing in her first APT festival and will be looking to make a name for herself here in Asia.

Yen Po Chen opened to 600 on the button and was three-bet to 2,200 by Jisung Seo in the small blind. Wisinee Tanpichai called from from the big blind and then Chen used up a time bank before making it 8,500 to go.

Undeterred, Seo five-bet to 17,200, which got a quick fold from Tanpichai and a shove from Chen. Seo quickly called and hands were revealed.

Yen Po Chen: A Q

Jisung Seo: A A

It was unfortunate timing from Chen, who had run his ace-queen into the preflop nuts of Seo.

The K 7 K Q 9 runout brought no miracle for Chen and he was the first player to be eliminated, sending Seo out to an early chip lead.

Abraham Ceesvin

With 25 players at the start, Flight E of the National Cup Championship is now underway!

The final opportunity to secure a place in the National Cup Championship Final Day arrives tonight as Flight E, the fifth and last starting flight, gets underway at Red Space, Taipei. With Flights C and D currently underway, players yet to find a bag will have one final chance to join the growing group of survivors and take a shot at APT glory.

There are already plenty of familiar names through to Sunday's finale. Australia's Troy Mclean holds the overall lead following Flight B, where he was the only player to bag a seven-figure stack with 1,261,000. Japan's Konosuke Nakajima bested Flight A with 1,234,000 in chips, narrowly ahead of Taiwan's Jun Wei Yan (1,126,000). Other notable survivors include former APT Super High Roller champion Shung Er Sua (370,000), Pete Chen (232,000), and Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss (210,000).

The TWD 16,000 buy-in flight begins at 8:30 p.m., with players receiving 40,000 in chips and playing 15-minute levels throughout. Late registration remains open until the start of Level 11, scheduled for approximately 11:15 p.m. As with the previous flights, the field will play down to the top 14%, with all survivors securing a min-cash and a seat in the Final Day.

Late registration has already closed for Flight C, which drew a total of 740 entrants. At the time of writing, Flight D is up to 372 entrants, bringing the total number to 1,932 and growing the prize pool beyond the TWD 20 million guarantee.

Everyone who manages to bag up chips at the end of the day will join the other qualifiers on Sunday, November 15 at 11:15 a.m., with the National Cup Championship set to play down to its champion.

For all the latest updates, be sure to check out the APT Live Blog as the final flight plays out and the Day 2 field takes shape!