Day 2 of the 2010 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event is now history. The day began with 160 runners, and when the final hand was dealt at just past 8:00 p.m. local time, just 44 remained.
American T.J. Vorapanich worked his way up the leaderboard on Day 2, finishing the day with a tournament-best 472,900 in chips heading into Saturday’s money round.
Five Team PokerStars Pros were still in the field when Day 2 began, but after seven levels of play, only Marcel Luske of Team Netherlands was left standing. Luske started the day with just 15,775 in chips, and thanks to a handful of critical double-ups, he retired for the day with 93,000 in chips.
Tony Hachem was the first of four Team PokerStars Pro to hit the rail on Day 2; his ace-jack outraced by Darren Judges pocket tens near the end of the first level.
Fellow Aussies Eric Assadourian and Celina Lin followed suit, as both were eliminated within an hour after Hachem. Team Asia Pro Raymond Wu joined his PokerStars comrades a couple hours later after an attempted blind steal was thwarted by a pocket pair of jacks owned by Victorino Torres.
Notable Day 2 survivors include PokerStars player Brendon Rubie (299,300), PokerStars sponsored player Guillaume Patry (127,000), Darren Judges (106,700), PokerStars Macau satellite winner Jessica Ngu (149,700), Binh Nguyen (87,400) and Henrik Gwinner (116,200).
Notable Day 2 casualties include 2007 APPT Macau champion Dinh Le, 2009 APPT Sydney Grand Final champ Aaron Benton, PokerStars sponsored players Nam Le and Neil Arce, and well-known Aussies Julian Powell, David Ewing and Michael Pedley.
Here’s a quick look at the top ten chip stacks heading into Day 3:
TJ Vorapanich, USA – 472,900
Kai Paulsen, Norway – 416,800
Brendon Rubie, Australia – 299,300
Andriyan Lebedev, Russia – 250,700
Jonas Kronwitter, Germany – 241,900
Elton Tsang, Hong Kong – 233,000
Jeppe Drivsholm, Denmark – 224,400
Michael Durrer, Germany – 218,600
Oscar Teran, Venezuela – 212,200
Mikhail Mazunin, Russia – 205,000
Action is scheduled to resume Saturday afternoon at 12:15 p.m. local time (GMT +8), when the remaining 44 players embark on the home stretch toward the final table.
