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.

China’s Yao Liu opens from the hijack for 3,000 only to get a 3-bet shove from last year’s APPT Main Event runner-up Kim Donghyup of Korea for 21,500.

Yao folds.

They meet again in a battle of the blinds as Chinese nationals Luan Haitao (completed the SB) and Yao Liu raises from the BB to 7,500. Luan makes the call.

The flop is 2♣ 4♣ 4♠ as Luan checks. Yao fires 10,000 and gets an almost immediate fold from Luan.

Yao earns some chips after being hit earlier by his opponent.

Gu Huidong of Macau, China opens from the hijack for 2,400 and gets Chinese player Yao Liu to defend his BB.

The flop is J♦ 7♠ K♦ as Yao checks. Gu CBets to 2,800 and gets check-raised to 7,000. Gu makes the call. The turn is the 4♣ and this time, both players chose to check. The river is the 3♥ and Yao checks a second time after the initial check-raise. Gu fires a value bet of 3,900. Yao elects to fold.

The Macanese player shows the K♥ .

China’s Yao Liu raises from the cutoff to 1,600 and gets 3-bet to 5,000 by Dutchman Tony Khoang on the button. Then Kaifan Wang of the United States declares a 4-bet to 12,000 to which Yao 5-bet shoves. Khoang calls. Wang is suddenly in a dilemma that results in him tanking and eventually folding.

Yao turns over A♦ A♥ , much to the chagrin of Khoang who shows K♣ K♠ .

The runout goes: 9♦ 5♦ 4♦ 4♣ 9♠ .

Khoang drops to 5,000 in chips in one crippling blow.

China’s Li Shao Shuai had the action folded to him on the lowjack and raises to 1,100 while fellow Chinese player Yao Liu makes a 3-bet from the hijack to 3,200. Tony Khoang from the Netherlands proceeds to 4-bet to 10,300.

The two Li and Yao decide to fight another day.

China’s Yao Liu opens from utg for 300 and gets called in the +1 position by Geeraj Najria. However, Russian Dmitry Nemiroysky 3-bets it to 1,000 on the button and still gets called by both.

The flop is A♠ J♥ 3♦ as three players check. The turn is the Q♦ and this time, Yao leads out for 2,000 and gets raised by Gajria to 4,000. Nemiroysky and eventually Yao opt to fold.