APT National Cup

And that’s it with Day 1 of the APT National Cup at the Asia Poker Arena. Flight C drew 429 (346 unique) players, 61 of those will come back at 11:15 am to continue their quest for the trophy. All in all 235 players will return to Day 2 of this APT National Cup.

Taiwan's Yu Cheng Lee finishes Flight C on top with a chip stack of 933,000. This makes him the overall chip leader going into Day 2.

Second in chips in Flight C comes Hong Kong citizen Robert Cheung with a stack of 612,000. Kaihung Hu from Taiwan completes the podium by accumulating 567,000.

Other notable survivors include former APT Main Event Champion Shixian Khoo from Singapore (154,000) as well as his countryman Ravn Teo (106,000). We will also welcome back to Day 2 Natural 8 ambassador Kunal Patni from India and Taiwan's Kun Han Lee, who will be looking to win another APT title.

The top ten stacks in Flight C can be found below:

Flight C of the National Cup is officially in the books. Chattanat Sirirattanapat is the unlucky bubble boy. He was forced to put his remaining chips all-in in the big blind with J♦ 2♣ and went heads up against Korea's Jinuk Lee A♠ K♥ . He was alive until the river, though could not manage to hit a pair on T♠ 6♣ 3♦ 8♣ A♦ .

All remaining players are now in the money and will already come back in a few hours to play Day 2. A full recap of Flight C's action will follow shortly.

The final flight of the APT Taipei National Cup is entering the hand-for-hand stage. Which player will be sent to the rail, and who will join the Day 1A and Day 1B survivors? Day 2 starts in only six and a half hours.

Thailand's Sarawoot Ratanatabtim was one of the shortest stacks with only a few people away from the bubble. There it helps to get A♦ A♥ all in against A♣ K♦ .

In early position Lin open jammed for his remaining 87,000 with A♦ J♥ and was dominated by Taiwan’s Sung Chi Yuan A♠ Q♥ . However, the J♦ 9♥ 8♥ flop looked promising for Lin. And indeed 3♠ on the turn and 8♠ on the river helped Lin to stay alive nearing the bubble.

Hung En-Cheng from Taiwan opens the action in the lojack, only to be met with a 3-bet from Huang Wei Xun in the small blind, sitting on a shorter stack. Hung calls, and they go to a flop of 2♦ 6♥ 2♥ , with a chunky 70,000 already in the middle.

Xun decides to down bet to just 8,000, leaving himself 40k behind. Without hesitation, Hung shoves all-in, putting the small blind to the test. Xun isn’t thrilled but makes the sigh-call. He’s all smiles when he sees he’s in fantastic shape against 3♠ 3♣ , and fades the outs to scoop the pot. Another day at the office!

Early position decides to shove their 55k stack, only to find some serious resistance from the small blind, who promptly re-jams. Cards hit the felt and it’s A♠ 4♠ versus the classic A♦ K♣ - a tough spot for the small ace.

No drama on the board as it runs out clean, leaving AK high to scoop the pot. Another victim bites the dust in this turbo event.

Sasitorn opened the action from early position and got a caller from the hi-jack, Hou Chine. The flop came J♠ 9♦ 6♠ , and Sasitorn decided to go for it, shoving all-in with a massive 2x pot-sized bet. The hi-jack, sitting on top pair with J♦ T♠ , made the call.

But Sasitorn wasn’t sweating—she flipped over Q♠ Q♥ miles ahead with her over-pair. The runout came clean, and she secured a crucial double-up, leaving the hi-jack wishing he hadn’t tangled with the Thai sensation!

Japanese player Yuji Watanabe opened the action to 6,000 in middle position, followed by his fellow countryman Ryoji Hatanaka next to him three-betting to 17,000. Watanabe jammed all in effectively for Hatanaka 61,000 who called. And we were off to the races: A♣ J♠ for Watanabe, and T♦ T♠ for his opponent. To Hatanaka’s relief the board ran out clean 6♦ 3♦ 4♥ 3♥ Q♣ and he doubled up while Watanabe was left with just under the starting stack.

We have been seeing a lot of players holding Aces in all-in situations and Ekthanat Nakdee was one of the lucky ones to have woken up with A♣ A♦ in the hole. He was all-in against Wen Yun Chung's pockets 9♦ 9♣ .

Both players saw a board of 6♥ 8♥ 3♣ A♥ 7♦ holding up the aces and adding some chips to Nakdee's stack.

Boonchai Jirapongtrakul was already packing his bags when we arrived, seeing his chips in the middle of the table beside his cards of Q♦ T♦ against Chun Yat Li's A♣ A♠ .

The flop showed Q♠ 9♣ T♠ giving Jirapongtrakul a lot of hope to remain in the tournament with his two-pair.

The turn of 6♥ was almost a sure double for Jirapongtrakul. However, Li got one of his 2 outs with an A♦ giving him a set and pushing Jirapongtrakul out of the tournament.

We arrived on the table with Siang Lin Yang all-in for his tournament life with A♥ 5♥ and got called by a large stack in front of Kam Sang Suen who held cowboys K♥ K♣ .

The board didn't produce an Ace and instead showed 6♠ 7♦ 9♥ 5♣ 4♣ making Yang sadly walk out the door.

We got to the table with a three-way all-in. Yoshiro Tase and Somasekhar Sanampuri did not expect to stare down at bullets from Lin Tzuhao. Tase, who was at risk held K♣ 6♠ , while Sanampuri had Q♦ J♣ , and Lin Tzuhao showed A♠ A♦ .

A board of T♥ 4♥ Q♣ 5♣ 8♦ brought no help for Tase or Somasekhar and Tzuhao's aces held.

We get to the table with the big blind Yu Chuan Tsai raising to 4,500, called by under-the-gun player Dhanapon Singklavanji and Andy Chen at cut-off. The flop came down 9♦ 4♥ J♦ and Tsai continued to bet with 3,000. Singklavanji folded but Chen called again.

With a J♠ turn, Tsai continued firing with 5,500 but Chen decided to reraise him for 15,000. Tsai took his time to think about what his action will be, eventually deciding to fold his hand.

Pre-flop we saw Decathorn Leksathan all-in against Po-Jui Lin. Leksathan held K♣ J♣ against Lin's A♦ T♠ . Board came with 3♦ 8♦ A♥ J♦ 2♦ ending the tournament life of Leksathan.

The following hand, we found Jaruplavath Raju all-in once again against Khoo Shixiang. Raju tabled A♣ Q♦ versus Shixiang's A♦ J♦ which hit two-pair on a flop of 2♠ A♥ J♣ .

The turn and river of 2♦ and K♠ proceeded without much fanfare and Raju quietly left the table.

Yu Jiaming raised the blinds to 1,200 in middle position. Navasoopanich Supakrit called and got surprised when Tsai Chen En shoved all-in. Players to En's left folded to the dealer button where it found Jaruplavath Raju shoving all-in immediately the moment action came to him.

The table started heckling the initial raiser Jiaming as he considered his action with a big smile. The table erupted when he went all-in as well. Supakrit wide-eyed got out of the action.

En: 4♥ 4♣

Raju: A♦ J♥

Jiaming: K♥ K♦

The window card was an A♠ which made Raju cheer. Unfortunately for him, the J♣ K♣ followed giving Raju a two-pair versus Jiaming's set. En was drawing dead.

Still with outs, Raju started chanting "Ace, Ace, Ace" but turn showed T♦ where he changed his chant to "Queen, queen, queen". But the 2♥ river didn't give him the redraw he was praying for.

Huang Yu Lun raised to 2,500 from early position. Kwan Kam Tsz called from middle position and took it to the streets.

Tsz fired a bet of 3,000 on the 3♠ 5♣ 8♥ flop, and Lun stuck around to see the turn.

With a 2♣ sliding on the turn, Tsz shoved all in for around 19,000 chips forcing Lun to throw her cards in the middle, forfeiting the pot.

Action began with Lee Kingtin who raised to 700. Takashima Keita on the hi-jack three-bets to 2,100 which Kingtin called. The dealer dealt a flop of 2♦ 5♠ 9♠ . Kingtin checked over to Keita, who then fired another 2,000 which Kingtin called again.

A turn of Q♣ got another check from Kingtin and Keita took the opportunity to continue his aggression with a raise of 3,500. This made Kingtin consider his options for a while and In the end, he surrendered to the aggression shown by Keita.

Arriving on the action with a board of 9♠ K♠ 6♣ 3♣ , we saw Kimura Yasuaki move all-in with Huang Hao-Shan thinking long and hard about a call. Eventually he called and Yasuaki tabled A♦ K♥ while Hao-Shan showed K♦ Q♠ for a pair with a lower kicker.

The turn and river ran 3♥ and 2♠ , respectively, which didn't help Hao-Shan at all, leaving him with only four big blinds behind.

Keung Pui Yi opened to 600 and was called by Punjarojanakul Tanupat and Chung Kit Hang.

On the flop of 4♠ 4♥ 5♣ , Yi continuation bet for 11,000 which Tanupat raised to 17,000, but Hang got out of the way. The action went back to Yi who took a while before she mucked her hands.

We arrived on the table with Seomoon Hyunwon under-the-gun betting 1,200 after the blinds folded to him on a flop of A♦ 9♠ Q♦ . Everyone folded to the small blind Ling Cho Ho who called.

The turn Q♣ garnered a check from both players, who checked all the way to the Q♥ river.

Hyunwon showed K♠ T♣ to the winning hand of Ho T♦ 9d

Turbo Flight C of the APT National Cup is starting now with 15-minute blind levels. There were 654 entrants in Flight A with 90 players moving into Day 2. Flight B is still running with a total entry of 597 players. The survivors of all three flights will play out Day 2 tomorrow

Turbo Flight C of the APT National Cup will get underway at 9pm local time. The buy-in is set at TWD 10,000 and this event boasts a guaranteed prize pool of TWD 10,000,000!

It will run alongside Flight A and Flight B which are still ongoing with the survivors of all flights meeting tomorrow to play out Day 2.