The first event of the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific (WSOP APAC), the $1100 No Limit Hold’em “Accumulator” tournament, has finished play in its three Day Ones with France’s Antoine Saout the overall leader.
After seeing two 330-plus player fields for the first two Day Ones, the Crown Casino and WSOP officials were expecting another flood of players on the final day of the “Accumulator.” With thoughts that potentially 500 players could hit the felt in Melbourne, there was plenty of action in just getting the players to their respective chairs. Once that task was completed, the players showed the same breakneck pace that they had demonstrated in the previous two days of the tournament.
On the very first hand, former Aussie Millions champion Oliver Speidel would take the long walk out of the Crown. “Bust on first hand of the day, LOL,” Speidel chirped over Twitter. “Rivered full house against quads, not good…0/3 in Event #1 oh well…6 max next.” Speidel would not be the only player who would have to take that walk on Saturday.
There were several familiar faces around the Crown who had taken shots on previous days, but all of them would not be able to add onto their stacks to continue into Day 2 on Sunday. Daniel Negreanu, Chad Brown, Sam Holden, Jake Balsiger and Rupert Elder are among that list of pros, but two players who were on fire in the early days of the “Accumulator” tournament would be able to add on to their totals.
Dan Kelly, who came through the Day 1A battlefield to lead the way, was back on Saturday to try to add some more chips into his stack for the Day 2 action. Throughout the Day 1C play, Kelly slowly would gather some chips, but a couple of missteps later in the evening would drop his Saturday total down to only 15,800. Still, Kelly will be able to add to his 66,250 from Thursday to sit on an 82,050 total for Sunday’s Day 2.
The other power mover during Saturday’s festivities was Day 1B chip leader Saout. Continuing the assault that started during Friday’s play, Saout dismissed players left and right on his way to building a 45,500 chip fortress. Added together with his leading stack of 59,875 from Day 1B, Saout will be the dominant stack in the Crown Casino when Day 2 begins on Sunday (late Saturday night U. S. time).
1. Antoine Saout, 104,375
2. Dan Kelly, 82,050
3. Alex Givotovsky, 65,600
4. Nick Morales, 57,275*
5. Daniel Levy, 56,750
6. Jason Lee, 49,625
7. Sam Georges, 48,775*
8. Martin Kozlov, 48,500
9. Ryan Otto, 48,000*
10. Dylan Honeyman, 47,950*
* – Day 1C players
With the three Day Ones completed, the approximately 175 players who will come back on Sunday also know what they will be playing for. After a great deal of discussion between Crown Casino and WSOP officials – which centered on whether to pay unique entries for the tournament (580) or the total number of entries for the event (1085) – it was decided that the top 90 finishers in the event will actually take home a WSOP cash. While that min-cash will be worth $2452 (a profit for double bullet players), they are all looking to the top of the heap, where the first-ever WSOP APAC bracelet sits as well as $211,575 in cash for the victor.
While these players will be occupied with driving deeper into Event #1, the rest of the throng gathered at the Crown Casino will be looking forward to the second tournament on the WSOP APAC schedule. The first day of Event #2, the $1650 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, is slated to start tomorrow, which should draw a nice field to a peaceful Sunday poker game! The action will only get more hectic as the World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific rolls on into next week.
