Chi Hang Chang

APT Taipei kicked off with a bang after a cracking turnout in the TWD 10,000 APT National Cup and sets the tone for what will be an unforgettable series. A total of 488 entries (348 unique), representing twenty countries, were recorded in the first of five flights with 73 players making the money in the opening event of the festival.

There were 29 players that made it through to Saturday's Day 2 with Taiwan's own Chi Hang Chang topping the counts after he amassed a stack of 995,000 chips, a slither shy of a huge one-million chip milestone.

Shi Tang Chen bagged up the second-biggest stack of 980,000, which was just one big blind off the top spot. Chih Feng Li and Chieh Chi Liu both finished with the exact same chip count of 890,000, which puts them both third in the counts.

Flight A generated a prize pool of TWD 4,212,904 (\~$133,060) and paid out TWD 875,000 (\~$27,640) of that, which was awarded to places 30 through 73. As two players, Chen-Yi Liu & Wei Chu Wang, were eliminated at the same time on the bubble, they both split a min-cash and received TWD 7,500 each. This leaves TWD 3,337,904 (~$105,420) in prize money that will be carried over to the final day.

Chia Yun Wu

Chia Yun Wu, who won the APT Kickoff last year at APT Taipei, brings a stack of 345,000 chips into Day 2 and will be looking for a repeat performance of last year's opening event. Wu has over $860,000 in live tournament cashes dating back just five years, and has so many wins on his Hendon Mob that it's hard to keep track of them.

Yung Ya Chen picked up an early chip lead during level eleven after flopping a set of sevens and taking down the pocket queens of Hung Te Lee. Chen managed to add more chips to his stack throughout the closing levels and bagged up 410,000 to bring into Day 2.

Other notables to make it through were Po Huang (590,000), Yen Liang Yao (555,000), Manoe Betrix (220,000), and short-stacked Chia Tse Yang (100,000).

The top ten stacks can be found below.

A full APT National Cup Flight A Survivor List can be found by CLICKING HERE.

A full APT National Cup Flight A Payout List can be found by CLICKING HERE.

Join us on Thursday, February 29, for Flights B & C of the APT National Cup which will kick off at 11:30am and 6:30pm respectively.

A full day's write up will follow shortly.

Chia Tse Yang just hit the rail in 30th place to bring the day's play to a close, leaving 29 players to bag up their chips to bring forward into Saturday's Day 2.

Yen Liang Yao shoved all in from the small blind and Yang called off his last 75,000 chips from the big blind to put himself at risk.

Yao J 8

Yang A 9

Yang was slightly ahead but fell behind on the K J 9 flop after Yao paired his jack. It was all over by the time the turn was dealt as a J improved Yao to trips and left Yang with no way to win the hand. A meaningless 3 fell on the river and Yang headed to the exit.

Only two more players must be eliminated to make it to Day 2.

The action on Table 3 got folded to the cutoff of John Costiniano, who moved all-in for just over 140,000. From the small blind, it was Che An Shih who quickly came over the top. After the big blind went out of the way, we saw a showdown.

Costiniano: A 7 .

Shih: K J .

The Q T Q flop gave Shih more outs. When the K appeared on the turn, Costiniano stood up from his chair. He only had three outs to safe his tournament life. The K on the river meant Shih boated up, sending Costiniano to the rail.

We are now on the stone cold bubble.

Players are now on a 15-minute break.

Yung Ya Chen opened to 32,000 and was called by Chieh Chi Liu on the button. Shao Ching Chen then squeezed from the small blind to 100,000. Chen wouldn't be pushed around so easily as he moved all-in for about 250,000. After Liu folded the button, Chen asked for the dealer for a count, but eventually folded and was shown the just the K by Chen.

Yu Yung Lin opened with a raise to 32,000 and Si Ming Lai made a 3-bet to 120,000. The action got back to Lin, who only had 115,000 chips in his stack, and he made the call.

Lin K J

Lai 9 9

The flip went the way of the shorter-stacked Lin as the board ran out Q T 7 K 2 to pair his king meaning he more than doubled up.

The action folded to small blind, player Chun Tsai Yu open-shoved for 850.000.

The big blind player Nai Rong Zheng call with her entire stack of 125.000.

Board came 9 5 7 4 7

Zheng 4 7

Yu K 2

At Table 3, the action is folded to the small blind of Wan Hung. After tossing in too many chips, Hung announced he was calling. After a short discussion, we saw big blind Chiayun Wu rising from the big blinds to 32,000.

Wu is an absolute CTP legend with 3 APT titles and $862,737 in live tournament cashes.

The flop revealed 5 2 8 . A quick check by Hung opened the door for Wu's aggressive bet of 40,000. Hung used 3 timebanks before he tossed in calling chips. The Q on the turn didn't slow down Wu, who pushed all-in after Hung checked his option to Wu.

After using all his timebanks, Hung made a big laydown by the looks of it.

With just five more eliminations until the end of the day, Po Theng Huang opened to 35,000 from early position. Yen Liang Yao was on the button and 3-bet all in for around 700,000. When the action got back to Huang he used his last remaining timebank chip before putting in the call for his last 300,000 chips.

Huang K K

Yao T T

The flop came Q 9 5 which was safe for the cowboys of Huang. The 3 on the turn left Yao with just two outs to climb to over a million chips, but the 2 came on the river and Yao had to carve out a large portion of chips and give them to Huang.