The room was abuzz not long ago as railbirds cheered on friends and family in the final level of Day 2. They've since dispersed after players bagged up their chips and thanked Lady Luck for her charity before they return tomorrow.
The field was whittled down again today as 188 became 41 and players made it into the money in this APPT9 Macau Main Event. Those remaining have all locked up at least HK$54,500 (US$7,029) and are still in with a chance at the HK$2,525,000 (US$325,667) championship prize.
There were a horde of eliminations today. Among those that didn't survive were Winfred Yu, this morning's chip leader Jia Liang and although we reported on Steve O'Dwyer making a good run at the title, he also found the rail in the later part of the day.
Perhaps the most disappointed of those eliminated was this year's bubble boy, China's Zheng Wang. The energy was tense one off the money and a substantial host of railbirds had surrounded to sweat the action.
The hand saw Kai Yat Fam open the betting with a shove from the small blind and Wang, with only a couple of big blinds behind, called to put himself at risk holding [Ah][5c]. His opponent tabled [Jc][3h] and although Wang got it in good, the flop of [5d][Jh][Js] saw him in dire straits as the observers erupted. The [Ac] turn kept his dream alive but the river bricked off with the [Qc] falling on the river Wang was knocked out on the bubble.
It was then a round of applause from the rail and remaining players as the latter locked up a payday and guaranteed a return for their time here.
Among those still in field is Frenchman Nicolas 'Legadzo' Cardyn who bagged up 350,000 chips at the conclusion of play. Joining him will be Day 1a chip leader Zhifeng Yao down to 78,000 and MPC21 Red Dragon champion Zhenru Xie with 519,000 in chips.
Trumping them all though is China's Xiaohua Fu who finished the day as the chip leader. He'll be back tomorrow with 724,000 in play, and with only one other live cash to his name, Fu is in good shape to add a big score to that list this week.
Top Ten Chip Counts
Xiaohua Fu (China) - 724,000
Fan Zhao (China) - 588,000
Kwet Yoong Lim (Mauritius) - 580,000
Zhenru Xie (China) - 519,000
Yat Wai Cheng (Hong Kong) - 400,000
Xiang Wei Lee (Singapore) - 396,000
Chun Liang Kuo (China) - 382,000
Nicolas Cardyn (France) - 350,000
Daniel Lee (USA) - 346,000
Weijie Ye (China) - 321,000
So that's all from us here tonight. It's been an exciting day of poker and we're expecting another one tomorrow here at PokerStars LIVE Macau from 2pm. In the meantime you can check the full chip counts and table draw in the live reporting section of the APPT9 Macau page. We hope you can join us tomorrow as we continue our Main Event coverage.