The ACOP Main Event is possibly the strongest field, and certainly one of the biggest prize pools, that you will see in an Asian poker event. Day 1a and 1b have now been completed for the 2015 instalment of the ACOP Main Event, and one of the key questions will be whether the field has seen growth compared to last year. The truth is, we cannot say for certain, because late registry stays open for the first 90 minutes of day 2.
255 entries so far in the event
We can certainly take a look at the numbers so far, however. Day 1a saw 110 players buy in for HK$100,000 (USD$13,000) with only 63 making it out of the day alive. Day 1b attracted 145 hopefuls, with 94 making it through the day. With 291 runners last year, the 255 who have entered the field this year, would represent a marked drop in numbers. With another 90 minutes of late registry still to come tomorrow though, the 255 figure is set to rise further.
Day 1 B of the ACOP Main Event (Photo Kenneth Lim – Courtesy of PokerStars)
Notable Names
The field size is always a point of interest in an event of this magnitude, it's player composition, even more so. What we saw today was an extensive list of poker talent, drawn from many corners of the globe. Tournaments with a 1st prize that looks set to fall around the USD$700,000 mark, have a way of attracting the world's best. Some of the big names to have fallen on day 1a include: Last year's champion, Gabriel Le Jossec, along with Naoya Kihara, Chen An Lin, and Fedor Holz. Day 1b saw the following big names taken out of contention: Kitty Kuo, Celina Lin, Randy Lew, Manny Stavropoulos, Dominik Nitsche, and football star, Ronaldo.
Ronaldo didn't qualify for Day 2 (Photo Kenneth Lim – Courtesy of PokerStars)
Below is a compiled list of notable name survivors from each day, and their chip counts.
Day 1a survivors:
– Erik Seidel – 130,400
– Yuguang Li – 115,200
– Yat Wai Cheng – 100,300
– David Lim – 57,000
– Pete Chen – 40,800
– Joe Hachem – 20,500
– Adrian Brion – 18,500
– Xuan Liu – 17,400
Day 1b survivors:
– Mikhail Shalamov – 100,500
– Isaac Haxton – 71,800
– Steve O'Dwyer – 53,600
– Vivian Im – 53,500
– Raymond Wu – 50,900
– Bryan Huang – 38,900
– John Juanda – 29,800
– Kosei Ichinose – 18,100
– Raiden Kan – 17,200
– Aditya Agarwal – 12,800
– Christoph Vogelsang – 11,300
– Terrence Chan – 9,600
While some big names were cut down by the day 1 minefield, a long list of notable pros are safely through to day 2. In order to add some context to the chip counts listed above, the following is a list of our top 10 chip stacks for when the remaining field of 157 merges, and day 2 begins.
Top 10 Chip Stacks
– 1st – Yasuhiro Ojiri – 149,900
– 2nd – Zhengye Yao – 136,500
– 3rd – Andjelko Andrejevic – 136,200
– 4th – Ningdan Shi – 131,000
– 5th – Erik Seidel – 130,400
– 6th – Tse Jui Tsai – 129,600
– 7th – Matthew Wakeman – 128,200
– 8th – Shinobu Tanaka – 127,200
– 9th – Wei Zhang – 123,000
– 10th – Yan Li – 120,500
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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