Lester Edoc

A historic day inside the Asia Poker Arena, where the APT Taipei hosted the inaugural $25,300 Superstar Challenge. After 16 levels of 40 minutes we are down to the final 9 players out of 49 total entries (38 unique). The 49 entries created a total prize pool of TWD 36,930,000 (~$1,167,615) making sure the winner of this prestigious event will go home with the biggest ever first prize in Taiwanese poker history, TWD 11,632,810 (~$367,770).

Our final table chip leader is no other than APT legend Lester Edoc (2,875,000). The Filipino won the #15 Single Day High Roller yesterday for TWD 2,686,140 (~$85,000) and took his card rush with him in the Superstar Challenge. Edoc was unbeatable in the final three levels of the day, still needs to be on the lookout as several very experienced players are joining him on tomorrow's final table.

Coming into the final table as second in chips is Austria's Klemens Roiter. The Austrian online crusher with $794,545 in live tournament earnings will bring 2,040,000 into the final table. Roiter grinded his short stack for most of the day, but in the last few levels of the day the Austrian was picking up more pots. A massive preflop all in against Jans Arends made sure Roiter comes into the final table as second in chips.

Biao Ding

The number three in chips on this final table is Triton regular Biao Ding. The Chinese earned a total of $4,719,592 in live tournaments and will bring an above average stack of 1,660,000 to the final table. Yesterday Ding earned his very first APT cash, finishing 9th in the Single Day High Roller. Can he keep his momentum going?

Does the star-studded lineup end there? The answer is no as GGPoker ambassadors Tony "Ren" Lin and Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier also made it to the final table. Lin entered the Superstar Challenge 3 levels in and picked up aces versus the kings of Leon Sturm minutes after he sat down at the table. Lin will bring 855,000 to the final table tomorrow. One of the last players to enter Day 1 was Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier. The French poker legend patiently grinded his way up the ranking, finishing the day with 900,000.

Final 9 Chip Counts

Payouts

The APT Superstar Challenge final table will start tomorrow 11:15 AM local time. Besides the live blog APT will live stream the final table on all the social media channels.

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This live reporting blog was brought to you by Life of Poker.

We are down to the final 9 of the Superstar Challenge. The players are bagging and tagging and this also means we are only two players left of the money.

A full Day 1 recap is coming shortly.

Tony "Ren" Lin had the honor to raffle the card what determined how many hands will be played till the end of the day. Lin pulled a deuce and gave Hrabec a high-five. Only after Lin realised he would be the last big blind of the day.

Lester Edoc is on fire. The Filipino poker pro is winning every all in he is involved in and just won one again. The short stacked Isaac Haxton was moved to the outer table of Edoc and ran into the ace-queen of Edoc who made a flush on a four club board.

Haxton wished all the remaining players good luck as he walked off into the Taipei night.

The action was on Joshua McCully who after his fortunate double up wasn't able to win any hands. He therefore was down to 350,000 and decided to put it all on the line. Behind him Roman Hrabec went out of the way, but Lester Edoc made the quick call.

McCully: K Q .

Edoc J J .

McCully right away shook his head. "I can't win a flip and I can't win a pot from Lester.", as the flop came out 5 7 3 . "I am not going to hit it.", McCully repeated. Edoc was enjoying McCully's banter as the 8 turn didn't help McCully. When the 2 river hit the felt McCully smiled and shook his head.

Lester Edoc is now the commanding chip leader of this Superstar Challenge.

Jans "Graftekkel" Arends entered the final two tables as one of the biggest stack but after an unlucky hand against McCully his tournament now came crashing down. The action started with a raise by Klemens Roiter from the cutoff to 60,000. When the action was folded to Arends he counted out he still had around 700,000 left.

Arends decided to jam all in and was snapped by Roiter.

Arends: A Q .

Roiter: A A .

It was now Arends turn to ran into the pocket rockets. The Dutchman needed a miracle to survive, but the K 9 6 flop gave him no hope. The J turn gave Arends 3 outs, but it was not meant to be for Arends as the A river ended his Superstar Challenge.

Arends walked off but we will see him tomorrow surely for the $10,000 Super High Roller.

Former chip leader Mikael Andersson has been blinding down in the past orbits. The Swede down to 300,000 moved all in over the top after Lester Edoc opened to 75,000. Edoc was prized in and made the call.

Edoc: Q 9 .

Andersson: A A .

Edoc ran into the pocket rockets of Andersson and was now looking to deliver a massive bad beat.

The 5 8 J flop gave Edoc a gutshot, but the K turn and 4 river meant no brutal beat for Andersson.

Aidan Tam

Aidan Tam has just hit the rail in 15th place. The action started with a raise to 75,000 by Lester Edoc. Tam saw the action was folded to him on the button and after thinking it over for few seconds he announced all in for 400,000. McCully and Hrabec in the blinds went out of the way and Edoc made the snap call.

Edoc: K K .

Tam: A K .

The board ran out 5 8 2 3 Q . A disappointed Tam tapped the table while Edoc commented "poker is easy with kings." This pot makes sure Lester Edoc is our new Superstar Challenge chip leader.

The final 15 players in the Superstar Challenge are avoiding any big battles at the moment. In the past 40 minutes 3-bets have been respected and besides big blind defends we haven't seen a lot of flops and showdowns.

We are playing till the end of level 16, so expect a lot of action in the coming 60 minutes!

The action started with a min raise from Jans Arends to 40,000. Joshua McCully, who is grinding his short stack for a while already, pushed all in for 270,000 all other players went out of the way and Arends made the quick call. McCully saw he was in trouble.

Arends: J J .

McCully: A T .

The Aussie was looking for help and the poker gods listened: A 9 T . Massive flop for McCully that even boated up when another T came off on the turn. The jack was avoided on the river, McCully doubled up, while Arends is still one of the bigger stacks in the room.