Kiwanont Sukhum finishes on top of the pack in Flight A of the APT Kickoff

Kiwanont Sukhum bagged up 669,000 to come through Flight A of the VND 6,300,000 + 700,000 APT Kickoff as the chip leader. A total of 179 entries were recorded with just 26 spots available for a place in Day 2, which will play out tomorrow.

Sukhum, **who won the Mystery Bounty Hunter event at APT Taipei** less than a month ago, was relentless in his play as he eliminated countless opponents on his way to the top of the leaderboard. In two notable hands, he first eliminated Kjell Ove Dyb when his ace-ten cracked the pocket jacks of the Norwegian player, then went on to send Vietnam's Thuy Le home when his pocket kings took down the ace-king of the local.

Long-term chip leader Hoang Thinh took through 441,000 which is good for third in the counts. Thinh took an early lead and managed to maintain a healthy stack throughout the rest of play to put himself in a good position to tackle Day 2.

Tianyou Liu takes through a respectable stack of 346,000. Liu was the player to burst the bubble when his ace-nine held on against the king-deuce of Zijie Li. Liu has an impressive poker resume that boasts over $180,000 in career tournament earnings, mostly coming from events played in his home country of China.

Jinlong Hu

Jinlong Hu comes through the pack in seventh and bagged up 312,000 chips. Hu scored a big double-up when he flopped a set of nines to take down the pocket aces of Hsien Ren Koh. Hu has three APT titles under his belt and puts himself in contention for another here.

Amit Kaushik also brings through a stack into Day 2 as he accumulated a total of 121,000 throughout the day. Kaushik became one of the early chip leaders when he rivered a full house with ace-queen and got value from India's Harsh Bubna during level eight. Kaushik scored a podium place in the APT Main Event in Ho Chi Minh last year where he took home VND 1,691,700,000 for his third-place finish.

Other notables to make it through were Duc Trung Vu (104,000), Luc Tomassi (80,000), and Hao Lin (49,000).

The top ten stacks can be seen below.

You can see a full APT Kickoff Flight A Survivors List HERE.

Join us tomorrow for Day 2 at 12:15pm when players from both flights will meet for the first time and play down to a champion.

Zijie Li busting in 27th place

Zijie Li went all in for his last 22,000 chips with his countrymate Tianyou Liu making the call to put Li at risk.

Li K 2 Liu A 9

Would this be the moment the bubble popped?

The dealer fanned a flop of A 2 6 which gave both players a pair but kept Liu in the lead.

A 4 turn was no help for Li and neither was the 3 river, and he was out in 27th place.

The remaining 26 players will now bag up their stacks and come back to fight it out for the title tomorrow.

Full write up of the day's action is on the way.

Du Duc Tien survives on the bubble

Du Duc Tien shoved his last 22,000 and was called by Anh Dung Tran.

Tien A T Tran J J

Tran was ahead and was the favorite to win the hand, and burst the bubble. Tien needed an ace to stay alive and the board would fall kindly for him as the dealer put out a board of A T K 7 2 , giving him two pair but most importantly, keeping him in the tournament.

Oh Sumin shoved his last 50,000 or so into the middle with Minh Duc Vu making the call.

Sumin Q 3 Vu A T

Sumin would be dead on the flop as the A J A T Q board was dealt, sending Sumin to the rail and leaving us hand-for-hand.

Just like that, we are hand-for-hand.

27 remaining with only 26 spots available for a place in Day 2.

Who will be the bubble boy?

As we get closer to the end of the flight, shot clocks have been introduced to each of the remaining tables.

All players received four time bank chips, that grant them a 30-second time extension, should they need it.

Thuy Le

Kiwanont Sukhum is on a heater.

After eliminating several players, the next player to fall at the mercy of Sukhum would be Thuy Le.

In a button vs small blind situation, Le got her stack in pre-flop with Sukhum putting her at risk.

Le A K Sukhum K K

There would be no sweat for the Thai pro as the board ran J 9 J 5 2 and Le was eliminated.

Sukhum sitting with over half a million chips now.

Luc Tomassi shoved his stack over Dong Van Chien's open, with the latter calling to put the Frenchman at risk.

Tomassi A A Chien K K

The ultimate cooler with Tomassi being on the right end of it. The hand was practically over on the 3 2 A flop and Tomassi boated up on the 3 turn to seal the hand and double up.

Jin Long Hu

We join the action on the turn with Hsien Ren Koh shoving all in on the 7 9 3 8 board and being snapped off by Jin Long Hu.

Koh tabled A A whilst Hu had him crushed with 9 9 .

There would be no miracle river for Koh as the J completed the board and the big pot was shipped across the table, leaving him with just 2 big blinds.

Three-time APT title winner Hu now sits with 165,000 chips as we get to the business end of the flight.

Kiwanont Sukhum opened the action with Kjell Ove Dyb shoving his last 68,000 in pre-flop. Sukhum took a while before electing to make the call, putting Dyb at risk.

Dyb J J Sukhum A T

Dyb was in the lead and just needed to fade the ace of Sukhum to double up and claw back some of the chips he used to have.

Clawing back those chips didn't seem likely on the A 2 5 flop, with Sukhum eventually improved to trips as the board ran out 4 A . Dyb, who once had 200,000 chips, is out of the Kickoff and Sukhum's second bullet is looking healthy.