Day 1E was obscenely massive.
Yesterday, tournament staff was hoping we'd get more than 300 entries.
We got 454.
Today was, by far, the largest starting flight in Macau Millions history. During the first hour of play, a massive line extended more than 100 ft and went far past the tournament area. But the fast-paced style of this tournament reduced that field to just 32 players in under eight hours.
Leading the 32 Day 1E survivors is Terry Fan, with 346,500. Fan won a Red Dragon event last April and then final tabled another earlier this year. Both Red Dragons were the largest-ever at the time.
Now the 2014 Macau Millions is on track to be the largest tournament ever held in Asia. Fan's shown he can handle a big field, we'll see if he can handle the biggest. Despite finishing atop the largest Day 1, Fan is second overall, just behind Tai Tan, who finished 1B with 364,500.
While Tan and Fan headline the Day 2 chipcounts, Percy Yung was Day 2's shortest stack.
Not anymore.
Yung, who is also tied in points for Asia Player of the Year, became the third person to qualify for Day 2 twice. Yung bubbled Day 1A and then almost bubbled again on Day 1D but squeaked by with just 24,500. Yung found herself short again today with just 36 players left, but she scored a much-needed double up.
Faced with a raise to 16,000, Ronny Mak moved all-in from middle position and Yung called all-in for 45,000 from the small blind. The initial raiser folded and Mak showed [kh][ks] to Yung's [ah][qd].
Yung asked for an ace and then cheered when the flop came [ad][6d][5c]. The turn and river brought no surprise king and Yung doubled up. Yung won a few more pots and finished the day with 136,000, a significant improvement.
While Yung joined the list of double qualifiers, Bryan Huang joined the list of Team PokerStars Pros who made it to Day 2.
Huang was near the lead with about 45 players left, but then lost a 150,000 pot after he called an all-in with pocket queens. His opponent held [as][js] and hit a flush on the river. Huang then rebounded a bit.
A player moved all-in for 57,000 from the cutoff and Huang called from the big blind. The cutoff turned over [qh][jd] and Huang had him dominated with [ad][js]. The board ran [5d][10s][kd][kh][5s] and Huang got some chips back.
Then he lost some more during another all-in. After the roller coaster stopped, Huang finished the day with 94,000. Here's how he stacks up against the other survivors:
1. Terry Fan (Chinese Taipei) - 346,500
2. Hsieng CHing Feng (Chinese Taipei) - 271,500
3. Xiaoyun Zhou (China) - 261,000
4. Guo Liang Wei (China) - 260,500
5. Kenneth Yuen Kiong Leong (Hong Kong) - 239,000
6. Per Emil Mattsson (Sweden) - 185,500
7. Jie Mai (China) - 185,000
8. Ronny Tsz Shu Mak (Hong Kong) - 176,500
9. Dilijiang A (China) - 176,000
10. Jing Gao (China) - 150,500
11. Percy Pui Suen Yung (Hong Kong) - 136,000
12. Bo Ren Chuang (Chinese Taipei) - 129,000
13. Li-ta Hsu (Chinese Taipei) - 127,000
14. Adam Chi Tat Tsui (Hong Kong) 124,000
15. Johannes Tobbe (UK) - 116,000
16. Yi Chung Cheng (Canada) - 108,000
17. Heng Wu (China) - 106,500
18. Hongbing Li (China) - 105,500
19. Yue Cao (China) - 101,000
20. Huaqing Luo (China) - 100,500
21. Xiaojie Liu (China) - 98,000
22. Bryan Huang (Singapore) - 94,000
23. Lung To (Hong Kong) - 93,500
24. Sun Ka Ho (Hong Kong) - 92,500
25. Eben Blignaut Lottering (South Africa) - 87,500
26. Yuting Li (China) - 83,000
27. Jiahua Liu (China) - 82,500
28. Shu Xu (China) - 71,500
29. Maria Bernadette Lina (Philippines) - 68,000
30. Youhong Liu (China) - 58,000
31. Geng Liu (China) - 31,000
32. Yang Shen (China) - 20,500
These 32 players join the 54 survivors from the previous four days. Since Percy Yung had already qualified, the total number of Day 2 players now stands at 81.
That number's only going to grow one more time.
Join us tomorrow at 7 p.m. for the sixth and final Day 1 of the 2014 Macau Millions. It's meant to be the biggest so stay tuned.
Alexander Villegas is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.