APPT Macau: 77 survive Day 1C

After 3 day 1 sessions, APPT Macau registered a total of 429 entrants to generate a record high prize pool of more than HK$16 million. Kristoffer Myhre holds the chip lead going into Day 2.

After a flurry of late registrations, the final count for Day 1C stands at 185 players, bringing the 3 days total for the tournament up to 429.  This brings the PokerStars APPT Macau Season 3 Prize pool up to a record-breaking HK$16,130,400, with first place earning almost HK$4.2 million ($540,000).

With 77 players surviving in Day 1C, 196 players will start on Day 2. Wei Cheng 'Jacko' Chiang finished with the chiplead on the third Day 1 session but Day 1B chipleader Kristoffer Myhre with his massive stack of 183,400 chips remains in the lead going into Day 2.

Pros make early exits

2008 November Niner David "Chino" Rheem and J.J. Liu were amongst the earliest to leave the tables today. Rheem who got himself intro trouble after losing a bunch of chips early on was eventually eliminated by Theo Tran. J.C. Tran and Lee Nelson were also among those who made early exits on the day.

With the flop reading , Rheem who was down to about 4000 chips put it all in the middle with . Tran who was holding tossed in a 5,000 chip and the cards hit the felt. on the turn changed nothing, but the on the river gave Tran the straight to eliminate Rheem.

Less than half an hour later, J. J. Liu was also gone. On the board of , Liu had made trips with her and made the call after her opponent had put her all in. The three jacks however were not good enough as her opponent showed for a full house.

Elky makes a late surge

Among the other big names who showed up included Team PokerStars pros Joseph Hachem, Lee Nelson and Tony Hachem, both made the trip from down under. It was however fellow team member Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier who stole the show, spotting a new red hairdo.

Elky made steady progress in the early rounds but saw his chips stack drop to below the starting stack halfway through the event. He however recovered well to end the day strongly. In the final level of the day, Elky eliminated an opponent to move up to 65,000 chips.

In that hand, Elky bet out into 2 opponents with the flop showing, .The player to his left then pushed all-in, while the other opponent folded. Elky made the easy call with and his opponent showed for a gutshot straight draw. The turn and river came to make sure Elky ended his day on a high.

Here are top 10 day going into Day 2:

APPT Macau Day 1 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Kristoffer Myhre	183,400
2nd	Peter Nielsen	141,500
3rd	Roel Pijpers	125,500
4th	Wei Cheng Chiang	124,800
5th	Darkhan Botabayev	124,500
6th	Tom Hall	120,700
7th	Kyle Cheong	118,300
8th	Daniel Hansson	110,500
9th	Brandon Demes	102,200
10th	Preetinder Bhayana	99,300