APPT Macau: David Steicke's fine form continues on Day 1A
Brandon Demes has the chip lead after Day 1A but David Steicke stole the show. Steicke continued his good run from last weekend to finish the day in second place.
Season 3 PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour has kicked with the 2 week long Macau Festival of Poker that is being played out at the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino. The APPT Macau Main Event began today with 119 signing up for Day 1A.
After 7 levels of play, Brandon Demes who cashed twice in WSOP 2009 emerged as the chip leader and the sole player to reach six figures. His stack of 102,200 chips puts him comfortably at the top of the 64 man field.
David Steicke steals the show
The man to watch today however was David Steicke who finished fourth in the APT Macau Main Event that concluded just 2 days ago. Steicke brought his excellent form over from that event and quadrupled his chip stack over the course of the day to end with second place and 82,300 chips.
Steicke started the day seated on the "Table of Death" with Johnny Chan, Joel Dodds and Grant Levy. That however did not deter Steicke from taking an early pot away from a frustrated Johnny Chan after betting 6,625 with one chip of every denomination as the flop came 
.
Steicke's day then kicked off when he doubled up through Rasmus Akerblom after dropping to 13,000 chips. He pushed all-in preflop with 
against Akerblom's 
. The board came 
and a confused Steicke asked, "did he just get there?". Luckily for him, the dealer was already counting the the chips from Akerblom's stack to push over to Steicke.
Johnny Chan Eliminated
Steicke never looked back and steadily piled on the chips after that. He even eliminated Johnny Chan (pictured right) on the way up, taking down the pot with 
against Chan's 
. A king showed up on the 
flop to put Steicke ahead. The 
on the turn and on the river meant that Chan will not return on Day 2.
Besides Chan, other notable eliminations on Day 1A include Team PokerStars Pro Emad Tahtouh and Vivek Rajkumar. 2009 November Niner James Akenhead, Team PokerStars Pros Eric Assadourian and Grant Levy and PokerStars Team Asia Pros Dan Schreiber, Jonathan Lin and Raymond Wu all survived the day.
The top 10 chips leaders from Day 1A are as follows:
| APPT Macau Day 1A Standings |
||
| Rank | Name | Chips |
| 1st | Brandon Demes | 102,200 |
| 2nd | David Steicke | 82,300 |
| 3rd | Cheng Su | 82,000 |
| 4th | Dbinder Singh | 79,900 |
| 5th | Mark Cornwell | 79,000 |
| 6th | Dan Schreiber | 78,700 |
| 7th | Ikeuchi Kazuki | 76,400 |
| 8th | Mike Kim | 56,160 |
| 9th | Isaac Galazan | 54,200 |
| 10th | Stewart Scott | 48,000 |
