Ivan Zalac Leads the Pack After Day 1a
It was a short, yet action-packed day here in the Philippines, as Day 1a of the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event is in the books. We played six one-hour levels today, and after the dust settled, Ivan Zalac is looking down on the rest of the 41 players in the field, sitting on an impressive stack of 109,100 in chips.
One of the most notable stories of the day is the play of Trung Tran. Tran is looking for his second poker title in just two weeks here at the Philippines, as he just took down the $2,500 buy-in APT Main Event in Manila on April 20th. That win was good for $124,000, and he has set himself up for another deep run here, as he is second in chips with 105,900.
Some of the players joining Zalac and Tran in moving on to Day 2 are last year’s ninth-place finisher Antoine Amourette (69,600), Sam Razavi (42,200) and Team Pokerstars Pro Bryan Huang (19,800).
It wasn’t good news for all of our notables, however. Along the way today, we lost Dan Kelly, David Borg, Vincent Rubianes, 2012 Asia Player of the Year Yosuke Sekiya and Team Pokerstars Pro Vivian Im, who won this event two years ago. Unfortunately for these players, this is not a re-entry event, so they are done for the tournament.
That does it for us today! We will be back at noon local time tomorrow for Day 1b. Just like today, we will play six levels before the players bag and tag for the night. Until then, goodnight from paradise!