2010 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Day 1b: Gwinner and Steicke Take Over
Pros Henrik Gwinner and David Steicke lead the pack after the second of three starting flights at the PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event. Day 1b brought 84 runners to the felt inside the opulent Grand Lisboa hotel and casino. After seven levels, only 36 players were still standing. On Day 2, they'll join the likes of Marcel Luske, Raymond Wu and Celina Lin, all of whom survived Day 1a.
Henrik Gwinner, a Danish pro who now lives in Hong Kong, amassed chips quietly throughout the day, then made a dash to the top of the chip counts in the last level of the night. He stacked an opponent when his pocket aces held against jacks and never looked back, finishing with 140,700. Fellow Hong Kong resident David Steicke took the opposite approach, jumping out to an early lead and splashing around in many big pots. Enough pots were pushed his way to give him the second spot in the end-of-day counts with 124,950. Romanian Ramon Cserei found himself in possession of a big stack late in the day after Roger Spets made an ill-timed move against him. Cserei put Spets' chips to work bullying the rest of the table and stealing pot after pot on his way to 118,250. All three players are ahead of Day 1a's chip leader, Alexandre Chieng, who finished with 113,100.
ProsJC Tran and John "the Razor" Phan didn't have quite as much luck. Both found themselves short after only a few hands and made their exits soon after. Terrence Chan is so well respected as a limit hold'em champion that they named the limit hold'em side event in Macau after him. But Chan couldn't get anything going in the no-limit Main Event and was eliminated halfway through the day.
Team PokerStars Pro Eric Assadourian fared slightly better. He'll return on Day 2 as one of the shortest stacks. Emanuel Seal, Andrew Scott, and Neil Arce also made it through the day.
The Grand Lisboa is expecting a full house on Day 1c. Among those joining the 172 who already played will be Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Tony Hachem, and Nam Le. Day 1c action will begin at 12:15 p.m. local time, and PokerNews will bring it all to you as it happens.
Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news, and also become our fan on Facebook.
