APPT Cambodia Main Event draws 176 entries; Cheng Zhang and Bien Mai top 41 Day 1A survivors; final two flights up next

Players from China are making waves at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) festival currently taking place at NagaWorld in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Not only have they been winning trophy after trophy, but one of their own, Cheng Zhang, topped the counts at Main Event Day 1A. Zhang’s biggest takedown was cracking Eric Ceret’s pocket Kings with that paired the Ace on the flop.

Also bagging up a worthy chip leader stack was Turbo Freezeout champion Bien Mai who trailed Zhang by just 2 big blinds, bagging up 394,000.  The hot running Mai caused havoc numerous times at the table with set over two pair against Selim Souissi and Aces over Kings against Quan Zhou. 

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	Cheng Zhang	China	399,000	133
2	Bien Mai	Vietnam	394,000	131
3	Riki Yokono	Japan	282,000	94
4	Chao-Ting Cheng	Taiwan	241,000	80
5	Seunghun Ko	Korea	194,000	65
6	Sungrock Jung	Korea	188,500	63
7	Abhinav Nataraj Iyer	Inidia	187,000	62
8	Miakishev Ilia	Russia	182,500	61
9	Hao Tian	China	173,000	58
10	Hal Rotholz	USA	172,000	57

MAIN EVENT CHIP COUNTS

Read up on the action via the Live Updates- Main Event Day 1A, just click the link provided.

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The APPT Main Event attracted 176 entries for Day 1A which was significantly larger than last year’s opening 113 entries. In addition to the top 10 players listed above, others making the cut were Ashish Munot (54 bb), Hyper Turbo champion Mohit Bohra (46 bb), Zong Chi He (44 bb), Minwoo Kang (42 bb), Anthony Cierco (28 bb), Nevan Chang (26 bb), and Xuming Qi (23 bb).

Buy in: US$ 1,500
Guarantee: US$ 400,000
Day 1A entries: 176
Day 1A survivors: 41

With only 41 left at bagging time, that meant plenty fell along the way. Among them was the inaugural APPT Cambodia Main Event champion Alexander Puchalski. Others getting bumped were Zhao Feng, Christopher Mateo, Yunsheng Sun, and late day eliminations Xixiang Luo and Quang Nguyen.

Lucky for all of them and for all the railbirds and weekend warriors, the Main Event continues on Saturday May 12, 2023 with two final flights to jump back in.

Day 1B: Saturday, May 13 at 1pm – reg closes at 8:10pm
Day 1C Turbo: Saturday, May 13 at 8pm – reg closes at 11:40pm
Day 2: Sunday, May 14 at 1pm – plays down to the final table
Day 3 / Final Table: Monday, May 15 at 1pm

For the structure, head to the APPT CAMBODIA 2023 – Player Guide