APPT Macau: Stars fade on Day 2
Only 42 players survived the intense action on Day 2. It was a rough day for Team PokerStars as Daniel Schreiber is their sole surviving member.
Of the 429 players who registered for the PokerStars APPT Macau Main Event, only 42 are left in the running after 15 levels plays. Australian Kyle Cheong will go into Day 3 as the chip leader.
The cards were not kind to the pros on Day 2 as Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Tony Hachem were among those who were sent to the rails. Team Asia pro Daniel Schreiber is the sole survivor amongst the big contingent of PokerStars pros who started the day.
Joseph Hachem out on a coin flip
2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem who was no doubt the most well known player to have started Day 2 was sent packing five hours into the day. Hachem who made the final table last year had been hoping for a repeat performance.
He pushed all-in with Q-Q and was called by Terry Fan who had A-K. The classic coin flip showdown did not go well for Hachem (pictured right) as Fan hit his ace on the flop and Hachem's dreams of back to back final tables was over.
Not long later, fellow Team PokerStars pro Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier also hit the rails. Wing Cheong Chong made a pre-flop raise and "Elky" pushed his short stack into the middle after looking down at 
. It was not looking good for him however as Chong turned over 
.
The Frenchman fell further behind on the flop as the cards came 
to give Chong bottom pair and a better flush draw. 
on the turn meant "Elky" was looking for a lady to save his day. But the 
on the river made Chong a full house and the 5th place finisher in 2007 was gone.
Kyle Cheong surges past 500,000 chip mark
After a prolonged period of hand to hand play before the bubble, David Paananen became the unfortunate bubble boy. Paananen who was holding 
against Preetinder Bhayana's 
was all in on the 
flop and all set for a double up. However, the turn and river cards of 
and 
gave Bhayana the runner-runner straight to send the stunned Paananen home.
The final elimination of the day took chipleader Kyle Cheong past the half million chip mark. Aaron Lerner had moved all his chips in with 
and Cheong called with 
. The flop came 
, followed by on the turn.
So far so good for Lerner, but Cheong still had six outs on the river. 
was then dealt and it was one of the cards Cheong needed. The win moved him to well over 500,000 while the disgusted Lerner slammed the table before departing in 43rd place.
The top 10 players after Day 2 are as follows:
| APPT Macau Day 2 Standings |
||
| Rank | Name | Chips |
| 1st | Kyle Cheong | 577,500 |
| 2nd | Preetinder Bhayana | 507,000 |
| 3rd | Tom Hall | 424,000 |
| 4th | Tom Rafferty | 395,500 |
| 5th | David Chiu | 391,000 |
| 6th | Wally Sombrero | 361,000 |
| 7th | Daniel Hansson | 324,000 |
| 8th | Wing Leung Chung | 309,000 |
| 9th | Joshua Ang | 301,000 |
| 10th | Tony Makasovski | 278,500 |
