Kilian Loeffler Tops Day 1A of 2017 Suncity Cup Macau Finale, Japan’s Sahashi Hideki Still Leads Field
A total of 21 players coughed up the HK$6,600 buy-in for Day 1A of the 2017 Suncity Cup Macau Finale, and with the format offering unlimited re-entry four of these chose to try their luck a second time to bring the total number of entries up to 25.
With 15 percent of the field making it through to Day 2, it took twelve 40-minute levels to whittle this down to four, with Germany’s Kilian Loeffler the man leading the charge.
Loeffler bagged up 108,600 at the close of play – the only player to break the six-figure stack mark – with next closest rival Macau’s Sio Fat Lau who finished play with 97,700.
Japan’s Keisuke Hikosaka (91,000) and China’s Yao Jin Chen (64,500) were the other two who managed to lock up their Day 2 seat with the Day 2 redraw as follows:
2017 Suncity Cup Finale Day 1A Survivors and Day 2 Draw
| Position | Name | Country | Chip Count | 2A Table/Seat | 2B Table/Seat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kilian Loeffler | Germany | 108,600 | 9-4 | - |
| 2 | Sio Fat Lau | Macau | 97,700 | - | 9-5 |
| 3 | Keisuke Hikosaka | Japan | 91,000 | - | 8-1 |
| 4 | Yao Jin Chen | China | 64,500 | 10-4 | - |
Loeffler’s Day 1 began with his chip stack moving in the wrong direction and the German player was down to his last 6,500 at one point after running two pairs into the rivered straight of Portugal’s Antonio Martins. While Martins made the final nine he could not go the distance and departed just shy of the money spots.
However, Loeffler turned things around extremely quickly, running his stack up to the giddy heights of 45,000 by the start of level six. While the German was unable to maintain his lead he did not drop out of the top four for the rest of the day and a late run of form saw him edge in front of rivals Lau and Hikosaka as play wound down.
While Loeffler led Day 1A, the overall chip lead still belongs to Japan’s Sahashi Hideki, who qualified through the third leg held in Taipa from November 3-5, and is sitting pretty on 374,200. Loeffler currently sits in seventh in the overall standings, but with seven more starting flights left to play that could well change before Day 2A begins at 1pm on Wednesday 29 November.
Notables who began play but could not go the distance included Bulgaria’s Atanas Kavrakov and Dutchmen Bos Wim and Martijn Gerrits. Kavrakov had aces cracked early, rebought and busted again when play was six-handed while both Wim and Gerrits exited well before the last nine.
That concludes the PokerNews live coverage for the day with Day 1B getting underway on Friday 24 November at 1pm local time (GMT+8) so join us then as we see who’s got what it takes to go the distance and earn themselves a berth for Day 2.