With a massive field of 598 players still seated at bagging time, one might expect finding the chip leader to be a challenge. However, that wasn’t the case as China’s Dang Wang stood out with piles of stacks amounting to 317,500 (211 bb). This far surpassed Day 1A chip leader Yankai Zhang by a substantial 16 bb.
Day 1B of the 2024 CPG Championship Finals aka Main Event ran on Sunday, August 25 at the Howard Johnson Resort Sanya, Hainan, China. Once again players arrived in droves that midway through Level 3, the event had already eclipsed the Day 1A turnout (1,296). After eight levels of late registration, the final tally was 1,569 players.
Among the heat’s survivors was American elite player Daniel Cates aka Jungleman. As is his tradition at the WSOP, Cates showed his quirky side by arriving in costume, this time dressed as a Chinese female anime character. Cates closed the day with 17,000 (13 bb) in chips.
One player holding on to a healthy amount of chips at bagging time was CPG frequent flyer Alex Lee from Singapore with 167,000 (111 bb). Also staying afloat were Kok Seng Yap, Pham Tien Dung, Hieu Tran, Bernard Trong Huy, Neo Zhi Han, Daniel Lim, Tom Henricus, Wong Yu Kang, and Lee Jong Won. Hidden in the vast field were Chinese nationals WSOP bracelet holder Wei Guo Liang and Chen Hao.
On the flip side, several of the fallen were Hoang Hai Nam, Jun Li, Mark Grundeman, and Park Younghee who lost all of his chips during the last hands of the day. Luckily there is still one more chance to enter with Day 1C up next. These players will be eligible to play if they have secured a Main Event voucher ahead of time.
With two starting days in the books, it brought the total number of entries to an astounding 2,865 with an equally stunning 1,064 players into Day 2. The qualifiers have another day break as they await the results of Day 1C which runs on Monday, August 26 starting at 12pm.
Players entering this final flight begin with a 30,000 stack, equivalent to 300 times the opening blinds. Levels increase every 60 minutes with 20 minute breaks after every two levels. Dinner break is after Level 6. Registration closes at the start of Level 9. Bagging time is the end of Level 10.
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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