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.

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.

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.