Joseph Cheong

After sixteen intense forty-minute levels inside The Red Space in Taipei City, Taiwan, Day 1 of the TWD 330,000 APT Super High Roller has come to a thrilling close. A total of 122 entries clashed on the felt, but by night’s end, only 25 players had bagged chips and punched their ticket to the final day. With chips secured and dreams still alive, the race for the title is only heating up.

Leading the survivors is Joseph Cheong from the United States, who finished the day with an impressive 3,325,000 chips — the only player to break past the 3-million mark. Cheong catapulted to the top of the counts after winning a massive all-in showdown against Germany’s Martin Sedlak and continued building his stack from there.

Despite his incredible resume, including two Superstar Challenge titles and his position atop the APT All-Time Money List, Cheong has yet to claim a signature Lion Trophy. He’ll be aiming to change that, with the TWD 9,319,420 (~$287,640) top prize firmly in his sights.

Top Ten Chip Counts

Alexander Lynskey

Chasing Cheong in second place on the leaderboard is Australia's Alexander Lynskey, who maintained a dominant stack throughout the day and bagged 2,380,000 chips. Closing out the podium positions is Calvin Lee from the United States, who finished with a stack of 2,220,000.

Other notable survivors include Natural8 Ambassador Nevan Chang (1,855,000), Dominik Nitsche (1,375,000), Chun Liu (1,210,000), Hirokazu Kobayashi (900,000), Chih Wei Fan(455,000), Anton Zhen Lu (430,000), and James Mendoza (385,000).

Play resumes tomorrow at noon local time on Level 17, where blinds will be 15,000/30,000 with a big blind ante of 30,000. The plan is to play down through 40-minute levels until only one player remains. The aim for everyone tomorrow will be to navigate their way through the bubble into the final 17, and secure themselves a minimum payday of TWD 581,500 (~$17,950).

A full APT Super High Roller Day 1 Survivor List can be found by CLICKING HERE.

The Seat Draw for the Final Day can be found by CLICKING HERE

The Payout Schedule can be found HERE

The Final Day will be kicking off tomorrow at 11:15am local time and will be live streamed with a 30-minute delay to keep the integrity of the game. The stream will broadcast in the following social media channels.

Youtube

Twitch

Play has finished for Day 1 of the APT Super High Roller, with 25 players managing to make it through to Day 2. Stay tuned for a recap of the day's action.

Manig Loeser kicked off the action with a 50,000 raise from the button, called only by Alexander Wice in the big blind.

Both players checked through the rainbow flop of Q 3 2 , however when the 9 came through on the turn, Wice fired off a 100,000 bet into the middle.

Reluctantly, Loeser mucked his cards and Wice took down the pot.

The floor has announced that there will be seven more hands before plays end for the day.

Alfie Poetra raised to roughly 115,000 from early position with just 15,000 remaining. Joseph Cheong called from the next position and the rest of the table folded.

Poetra committed the last of his chips on the J 5 9 flop, and Cheong swiftly called.

Alfie Poetra: K 8

Joseph Cheong: A T

Poetra needed some help from the dealer if he was to beat the ace-high of Cheong. However, the rest of the board ran out 9 2 , and all of Poetra’s stack was sent over to Cheong.

With the last few hands of the day, players were being cautious with their play to survive for the next day. Such was the case, when Yuan Chih in hijack and Alexander Lynskey on the button found themselves engaged in a hand.

Chih opened for 50,000 and got a caller in Lynskey to see a flop. The dealer dealt 8 7 7 which both players checked. The continued checking through the runout of 3 and J

Chih, first to show, had K 5 for king-high while Lynskey had A 2 for ace-high, which was enough to win the pot.

The hand was already in progress between Yuan Chih and Chun Liu on a board of 4 5 K 5 . Action was waiting on Chih, after Liu, at risk, responded to an all-in for 450,000 after his 100,000 bet. he hesitantly made the call bringing both players to showdown.

Chun Liu: 6 5

Yuan Chih: K T

Chih had top pair but Liu caught trips of five on the turn. The river T didn't improve Chih's hand doubling Liu up in the process.

The hand was already in progress with Yan Shing Tsang, in cutoff, all-in for his tournament life against two other players - Calvin Lee in the big blind and Alfie Poetra in hijack creating a main pot worth 480,000 chips

The flop came down 2 Q 6 which was checked by both Lee and Poetra. The 9 turn created a sidepot when Lee shot out 75,000 in the pot. Poetra called to see the last card.

Lee continued his aggression with a 225,000 bet on the K river, in the hopes of winning the side pot. But Poetra made the call bringing all three players to a showdown.

Yan Shing Tsang: A K

Alfie Poetra: K Q

Calvin Lee: 9 9

Although Poetra was ahead on the flop with top pair, the turn changed the tides when Lee caught himself a set. Tsang was sent to hit the rails as Lee scooped the massive pot.

Yuan Chih didn't know what he was about to start when he opened to 20,000 under the gun. Wai Kiat Lee representing strength three-bet to 75,000. Chun Liu in small blind made the call but Chih, who initiated the action, could not take the heat and folded.

The flop came Q 7 8 . Liu check-raised Lee all-in when the latter continued with a 30,000 bet. Liu, at risk, called and both players went to showdown.

Wai Kiat Lee: K Q

Chun Liu: 8 8

Lee thought he was ahead pairing his queen with the flop but upon seeing Liu's hand, he knew he needed to pray for a miracle as the latter had caught himself a set.

The turn J didn't improve his hand. And although he got himself trips with the river Q , Liu caught a full house ending Lee's tournament life.

We picked up the action on the flop of K 9 Q with Nicholas Go in middle position and Hirokazu Kobayashi in the big blind. Following a check from Kobayashi, Go fired off 25,000 which was called by Kobayashi.

The turn brought the Q , pairing the board, leading to a check from Kobayashi, Go responded in turn by betting 75,000, leading to a check-raise of 180,000 from Kobayashi, at which Go shoved for Kobayashi's remaining chips, which he called.

Hirokazu Kobayashi: Q 9

Nicholas Go: J T

The A river card was irrelevant because Kobayashi's turned boat had Go's flopped straight drawing dead.