APPT Main Event ($1,750)

Yao Liu of China—who has made it deep on only one bullet—raises from UTG for 6,000 and gets a call from the hjack from American Hamid Siddiqui. However, another Chinese player in Dong Lyu Lyu 3-bet shoves from the cutoff for 38,000 and gets a call from Yao. Siddiqui gets out of the way.

Dong turns over K♠ Q♣ while Yao already has a made hand with 9♣ 9♥ .

The runout goes: 8♣ 2♥ 6♠ T♣ 7♣ to give unnecessarily give Yao a backdoor straight and eliminate his countryman from futher contention in Day 1A.

Yao’s stack nears the 200,000 chip mark.

This was a heated duel from the get go with Adrei Kalgin of Russia eventually going all-in on the river and getting called by Hamid Siddiqui of the United States on a board of 3♦ 2♦ 2♥ 5♠ 4♥ as well as a pot of well over 50,000.

Kalgin tables Q♠ J♣ using aggression on every street to try and outmuscle Siddiqui to no avail as the American called him all the way with A♦ 7♦ with the nut flush draw that eventually became a backdoor straight.

The Russian is bounced as a result and Siddiqui has almost a quarter of a million in chips.

Kazakhstan’s Ilya Firstov opens from the cutoff for 4,500 and gets the SB in American Hamid Siddiqui and the BB in Adrei Kalgin of Russia to come along.

The flop shows 2♣ 7♥ 8♥ as Kalgin checks and Firstov CBets to 5,000. Siddiqui folds but the Russian sticks around. It is Heads Up to the turn that produces the J♠ as Kalgin checks again and the Kazakh unloads again, this time for 20,000. Kalgin still calls. The river is the A♦ as Kalgin checks a third time. Now, Firstov opts to check behind.

Kalgin flips over 9♣ 9♠ while a relieved Firstov shows Q♦ Q♠ for a substantial pick up in chips.

Hoping to get a much needed double up, Korea’s Kim Jung Su goes all-in preflop from utg and the action gets folded to the blinds where sb Hammid Siddiqui of the United States makes the call and drags in bb Nguyen Hoa Thinh of Vietnam along.

The flop is 5♠ Q♠ 8♠ as the blinds check. The turn is the 3♥ and no one makes a move and the river is the T♥ with the blinds opting to take their hands to showdown.

Kim flips over K♦ 5♦ for a pair of fives on the flop. Siddiqui has J♣ T♦ for a pair of tens on the river while Nguyen shows 4♣ 4♦ .

By virtue of the river card, Siddiqui rails Kim but with registration still open Kim is expected back in the fray soon.

England’s Craig Jones begins the action by raising to 500 from utg and has customers in the blinds with Hamid Siddiqui in the sb and Kim Jung Su of Korea in the bb making the calls.

The flop comes A♠ 3♦ 2♦ as the blinds check. Jones continues firing for 500 anew and gets called by Siddiqui. However, Kim check-raises to 2,200 and gets re-raised by Craig to 3,700. Suddenly, Siddiqui declares he is all-in for 21,000 and gets the call from Kim. Craig ponders for a moment before electing to fold.

Siddiqui shows 3♣ 3♠ for a set on the flop while Kim has A♦ 6♦ for top pair on the flop. The turn brings out the 7♣ while the river is the 6♣ as Siddiqui seriously trims the Korean’s stack and nears the 50,000 chip mark in the process.