NAGAWORLD Kickoff ($500)

After sixteen levels and around 13 minutes into Level 17, Flight A of the APPT Cambodia opener - NagaWorld Kickoff - wrapped up with the final 18 players established. Up top was Hong Kong's Cheuk Wing Wong with a commanding stack of 646,000 (107 bb).

Wong was already leading the pack at the end of registration and continued the momentum, to never be at risk of elimination. To emphasize the enormity of his stack, Wong's closes challenger was Adam Lydford with 350,000 (58 bb) and in third rank was Avneesh Munjal with 314,000 (52 bb).

Also advancing were PokerStars regulars Christian Lortie Cloutier (301,000 - 50 bb) and Joseph Magnotti (138,000 - 23 bb) who delivered the bubble.

Flight A drew 117 entries with 18 headed to Day 2's ITM round. Among the players that missed the mark were Lei Zhang, Adrien Berger, Kyle Bao Diep, and Amir Abbas. They still have a chance with Flight B registration still open.

The last hand of Flight A has been delivered by Joseph Magnotti who opened 12,000 from cutoff holding K♣ T♦ . Small blind Zaobin Wu called leaving himself only 2000 behind. With the big blind folding, the flop ran 3♥ 4♠ J♥ . Wu tossed in his last chips and flipped over T♠ 7♣ after the call was made.

The turn Q♥ and river 3♦ filled up the board. Wu missed completely to fall as the stone cold bubble.

After a raised pot preflop and a checked flop, on the turn board 5♦ 8♣ A♥ 6♥ , Chang Hyeon Kim shoves with T♦ T♥ and chip leader Cheuk Wai Wong shows the goods A♠ 2♠ . Needing to connect to survive, Kim watches the river 9♥ crush his hopes as he falls two spots to the money.

We have now reached the bubble round.

We missed the hand but caught Stephen Rosenthal shipping it as Karan Kokar was speeding off. According to Rosenthal he opened then called Kokar's three-bet jam of 82,000. Rosenthal had pocket Aces, Kokar had King-Queen, the board saw no scares.

It is now down to 20 players.

Stephen Rosenthal opens and finds one caller in Avneesh Munjal at hijack. When the flop comes 5♦ 8♦ 3♣ , Rosenthal continues for 24,000 and Munjal sticks with him to take them to the turn Q♥ . Rosenthal slows down and checks, Munjal tests his opponent's strength with a 47,000 bet, Rosenthal folds.

Cheuk Wai Wong calls a raise from Chang Hyeon Kim then bets 12,000 on the flop 9♦ 5♠ 2♦ to take it down without a fight at all.

Still 21 players left. Three busts to the money.

Bubble time at the Warm Up High Roller and a massive pot was brewed on a board showing 5♦ 2♦ 5♣ Q♠ 4♥ with Mauricio Salazar Sanchez all in. Leo Soma is covered and goes deep in the tank using up five time-extensions before he finds a fold.

The field is now down to 22 players which means only four busts needed until the survivors bag up. Cheuk Wai Wong commands with a stack of 490,000.

Van Xuan Nguyen continues to muscle the table with his big stack raising 9000 only to face a pushback from Edgar Antezana who jammed 67,000. Nguyen folded.

Catching the action only as the dealer is awarding the pot to Cheng Zhang who doubled up against Aladin Reskallah. It was a runner runner two pair for Zhang on a board 4♦ 5♠ A♠ Q♥ 9♦ with Q♠ 9♠ over Reskallah's A♣ 3♣ .

With just 42,000 behind, Van Tien Dinh goes all with A♥ 7♥ in the hole. Action folds around to the small blind Adam Lydford who well covers Dinh and has J♥ J♦ . Lydford fast-calls.

With the board running 8♦ 7♣ A♦ , Dinh quickly improves to two pair and is in fine shape for a double but that hope quickly vanished on the turn J♠ as Lydford jumped ahead with a set that held on the river 5♥ .

Big stacked Van Xuan Nguyen opens from early position then gets challenged by button Stephen Rosenthal with a three-bet of 21,000. Nguyen can easily afford and call after a short tank. At the flop A♥ 5♠ T♦ , Nguyen checks, Rosenthal overbets with a huge jam of 118,000, Nguyen thinks about it again and this time decides to fold.

Catching the action only as the chips are being pushed to Chun An Lin who had T♠ T♦ that landed a set with T♣ on the board. His opponent Oleksandr Humeiuk mucked.

Limping in from the small blind, David Koy takes on big blind Martin Ng's 7500 raise for a flop of K♥ 4♥ 2♠ . Koy checks to Ng who follows it up with a 5500 bet, Koy calls. On the turn 4♣ , Koy switches up with lead out bet of 10,000, Ng gives it some thought then calls. Koy fires again on the river J♣ for 20,000 and this tine Ng gives up his stake in the pot.

Hard-hitter Cheng Zhang opens from under the gun for 4000 and nearly steals the blinds and ante until big blind Van Tien Dinh defends. At the flop 3♥ 6♥ 9♣ , Zhang sends out 4500 and Dinh calls. Zhang decides to slow down his pace with a check on the turn A♥ and Dinh checks back to complete the board 9♠ . Zhang checks again, Dinh doesn't take action, Zhang then shows his A♠ 9♥ full house.

Following a button raise from Adrien Berger, small blind Oleksandr Humeiuk pumps it up to 9000. Big blind Peteris Enders defends his big blind as Berger opts to give up his bet.

At the flop T♥ 6♦ 3♠ , Humeiuk continues for 8000 and get called to take them to the turn 2♣ . Humeiuk barrels again for 13,000, and that's enough to claim the pot without showdown.

Big day in the works at APPT Cambodia as NagaWorld Kickoff Flight A quickly breaches the US$ 50K guarantee with 117 entries. Play continues until ITM of 18 players remaining. At the close of registration, only 51 players were still seated. For those that miss the mark, Flight B is up and running. Buy in is US$ 500.

Cards are now flying at APPT Cambodia and at the top of the menu is the NagaWorld Kickoff with a guarantee of US$ 50,000. This is the first of six guaranteed events on the lineup, but as always, those numbers are just the beginning, with prize pools at this series consistently much larger.

Good news for players, in Cambodia the US Dollar is widely used, and at the festival, every tournament will be using that currency. Buy in for this event is US$ 500 with registration open for ten levels. Starting stack is 30,000 (150x opening blinds). Blinds go up every 30 minutes giving plenty of time to size up the competition and build a good stack. Only two flights are offered, both run today, and bag up at ITM of 15% of the field.

Flight A: Registration closes at 4:50pm

Flight B: Registration closes at 10:20pm

Flight live updates begin at the close of registration.