Wai Kiat Lee in Pole Position After Day 2A of the 2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau
So far the 2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau has attracted 575 unique entries and generated an additional 85 re-entries to bring the total number of runners up to 660.
This combined with the 172 runners from the four previous legs in Juju, Korea (24-30 Sept), Manila (13-16 Oct), Taipei (3-5 Nov) and Incheon, Korea (10-12 Nov) brings the total number of entries up to an impressive 832.
Day 2A of the 2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau saw 69 survivors from the eight starting flights assembled for the first time and a further 36 players coughed up the HK$38,000 direct Day 2 entry fee to bring the total number of entrants up to 105 and the total number of 2017 Suncity Cup entries up to an impressive 868, with Day 2B still left to play out.
Any players who joined the Day 2A action directly began with a 100,000 starting stack, though some of the players who had qualified via the other starting flights and four other prior legs began with a great deal more – notably Japan’s Sahashi Hideki.
Hideki qualified from the Taipei leg and began play with a commanding lead of 374,200 (374 big blinds) – more than 100,000 more in chips than next closest rival, China’s Weizhou Zha, who began the day with 270,200.
However, by the end of the nine 60-minute levels there was a new sheriff in town – Wai Kiat Lee. The Malaysian player qualified during Day 1C and began play with a stack of 150,000 but spun this up to 400,000 by the end of level four.
The hand that saw him climb to the top was a big one between Lee and China’s Dong Luo, whom Lee pushed off a massive hand to win without showdown and shoot to the top of the leaderboard while Luo was left crippled and departed shortly afterward.
Lee’s fellow countryman Michael Soyza also enjoyed a great day at the tables, briefly flirting with the chip lead himself after winning a race with ace-king against the pocket tens of Yang Zhang to send the Chinese player to the rail.
However, Lee did not want to have his thunder stolen and busted the unfortunate Atanas Kavrakov shortly afterward, moving all-in from the small blind to isolate after the Bulgarian got the last of his chips in from the cutoff and Hong Kong’s Ben Lai smooth-called the button.
Lai folded ace-queen, meaning Lee’s pocket tens were enough to beat Kavrakov’s king-nine offsuit and push Lee back in front, though it could well have been a different story had Lai called as the flop came down ace-high. Both Soyza (834,000) and Lai (377,000) managed to make it through to Day 3 with the rest of the field stacking up as follows:
2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau Day 2A Survivors
| Position | Name | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wai Kiat Lee | Malaysia | 840,000 |
| 2 | Michael Soyza | Malaysia | 834,000 |
| 3 | Chien Jenyen | Taiwan | 580,000 |
| 4 | Victor Chong | Malaysia | 561,000 |
| 5 | Renjun Yang | China | 522,000 |
| 6 | JC Alvarado | Mexico | 510,000 |
| 7 | Cheng Dong | China | 509,000 |
| 8 | Lim Chin Wei | Malaysia | 490,000 |
| 9 | Karol Janiszewski | Poland | 379,000 |
| 10 | Ben Lai | Hong Kong | 377,000 |
| 11 | Lin Kun Si | China | 376,000 |
| 12 | Tuck Wai Foo | Malaysia | 371,000 |
| 13 | Guo Dong | China | 367,000 |
| 14 | Song Liang | China | 300,000 |
| 15 | Zheng Xiao Shang | China | 294,000 |
| 16 | Martijn Gerrits | Netherlands | 262,000 |
| 17 | Chen Xiao Jie | China | 257,000 |
| 18 | Chow Hing Yaung | Malaysia | 256,000 |
| 19 | Jacky Wong | Hong Kong | 252,000 |
| 20 | Weizhou Zha | China | 238,000 |
| 21 | Sahashi Hideki | Japan | 229,000 |
| 22 | Vincent Li | Hong Kong | 208,000 |
| 23 | Tang Wei Cong | China | 186,000 |
| 24 | Hon Cheong Lee | Hong Kong | 184,000 |
| 25 | Zhang Chung Guang | China | 163,000 |
| 26 | Yong Bin Wang | China | 156,000 |
| 27 | Rongshan Li | China | 136,000 |
| 28 | Kui Huan Soh | Malaysia | 134,000 |
| 29 | Andrew An | USA | 99,000 |
| 30 | Zhou Qiang Bo | China | 98,000 |
| 31 | Bobby Zhang | Australia | 91,000 |
| 32 | Ye Wang | China | 90,000 |
Notables who were unable to make the Day 3 cut included two-time World Series of Poker Main Event champion and ten-time bracelet winnerJohnny Chan, who was the last player to bust as the end of the day after running top two pair into the flopped nut flush draw of Taiwan’s Chien Jenyen. Canada’s Linh Tran and Bulgaria’s Atanas Kavrakov were two more who could not go the distance, but with the format allowing players to enter on Day 2B, any player who has been eliminated can still try their luck one final time.
Day 2B begins at 1pm local time (GMT+8) on Thursday, 30 November and with 55 players already qualified and late registration open until the end of level two at 3:10pm we are expecting another big day at the baize so join us then.