A speedy Day 2 at the PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event saw the field whittled down from 304 players to just 96, heading into Day 3.
All eyes were glued on Phil Ivey, whose participation alone sent a buzz through the poker wire earlier in the week. Ivey started Day 2 with 51,100 in chips and never seemed to get anything going, eventually busting from the tournament with about an hour left on the clock.
A handful of subplots quietly developed on Day 2, materializing somewhat discreetly due to all of the hype surrounding Ivey’s return to tournament poker.
Two-time WSOP Main Event champ Johnny Chan surged into the top half of the leaderboard, transforming his T77,600 starting stack into 244,400. .
Singapore native Nathaniel Seet took on the role of chip leader early in the day and held it til the bag-and-tag portion of the evening, amassing a tournament-best 774,500 in chips heading into Day 3. The next-biggest stack belongs to Danny Park from Korea (478,100).
Jose “Nacho” Barbero from Team PokerStars Argentina also enjoyed a profitable Day 2, turning his T108,300 starting stack into 257,400 by day’s end. Canadian Team Online representative Randy Lew also survived to reach Day 3 with 145,000 in chips.
Dinh Le, the original APPT Macau Champion (2007), saw his run at a second APPT title fizzle out on Day 2 at the hands of Asia Player of the Year (APOY) contender Haifeng Xue from China. Xue is one of only a small handful of players that can overtake Hung-Sheng “Shaq” Lin in the APOY race during the APPT Macau series; the last qualifying tournament series on the APOY calendar. Xue will return to action on Saturday with 69,600 in chips — sitting three seats away from another player with an identical name: Haifeng Xue (Hong Kong).
With Le out, Victorino Torres is the only former APPT Macau Main Event winner still alive in this year’s field. The reigning champ returns to action Saturday with a healthy 296,600 in chips; good enough for a spot in the overnight top ten.
Other notable Day 2 survivors include David Steicke (372,400), Andrew Scott (156,000), Terrence Chan (166,000), Grant Levy (144,600), Daoxing Chen (125,500), Roel Pijpers (83,100), Jackson Zheng (75,000), Vincent Torres (62,700) and Julian Powell (53,400).
Notable Day 2 casualties include Team PokerStars Pros Bryan Huang (Asia), Vivian Im (Asia), Alex Kravchenko (Russia), Raymond Wu (Asia) and Mickey Pedersen from Team Online. Ozzy Sheikh, Phillip Willcocks and Jacky Wang also hit the rail on Day 2.
TOP TEN CHIP COUNTS (END OF DAY 2)
Nathaniel Seet – 774,500
Danny Park – 478,100
Wenfei Huang – 436,300
Fabian Spiedelmann – 389,500
David Steicke – 372,400
David Hrdlicka – 333,600
Ligong Wei – 312,600
Lance Richard Lee Yuen – 299,500
Daniel Francis – 298,900
Victorino Torres – 296,600
