One of Asia's best players almost took down the Single Day High Roller as the Asian Poker Tour stop in Incheon enters its climactic final days with the Main Event underway.
When the dust settles, a whopping 96 events will have gone down, culminating in the APT Main Event at Paradise City Casino. The flagship tournament carries a buy-in of KRW 2.5M (~$1,800) and a guarantee of KRW 1.5 billion (~$1M).
Chi Hsiang Chiu is the chip leader after a Day 1A that drew 250 players — 89 of which will be back for Day 2. Day 1B wrapped with 236 entries with Singaporean Dixon Pang at the top of the second flight's leaderboard, bringing the grand total after two flights to 692. The Main Event will pack in a total of four flights before Day 2 on Wednesday. It will all wrap up on Saturday, August 9, with the final table.
Near miss for Punsri
Elsewhere at APT Incheon, Daming Kang beat Punnat Punsri in the Single Day High Roller, doubling his live earnings and locking up his first APT trophy. Punsri is a former champion on the tour, winning the Main Event in Taipei in 2023.
The Thai poker superstar has over $25 million in live earnings, according to The Hendon Mob, including three other victories on the APT, four Triton titles, and three PGT wins inside the PokerGO Studio.
For his part, Kang had just $36K in live earnings before the win, all from tournaments in Jeju, South Korea. He has two runner-up finishes among his five cashes, both in non-hold'em events — a no-limit 2-7 single draw tournament in May of this year and a PLO event in February.
The APT continues on Monday with Day 1B of the Incheon Main Event, along with 11 other events. The tour stop continues Sunday, August 10.