Yu Dong Holds Lead Going into Day 3 of the 2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau
The last of the Day 2 flights was also the last day of the 2017 Suncity Cup for player entries. This saw 55 survivors from the eight Macau starting flights and four prior legs in Jeju, Korea (24-30 Sept), Manila (13-16 Oct), Taipei (3-5 Nov) and Incheon, Korea (10-12 Nov) joined by a further 60 players to bring the Day 2B field up to 115.
This brings the total number of 2017 Suncity Cup entries up to an impressive 928, generating an HK$8,008,300 prize pool and surpassing the HK$8m guarantee.
The 32 players who made it through Day 2A will now be joined by the 36 surviving Day 2B players meaning Day 3 will see the 68 returning players attempt to reach the hallowed money spots.
While the tournament has already paid out HK$744,000 in cash to all the Day 2 qualifiers who made it through the respective Day 1's, some of the players chose to buy-in directly on the two respective Day 2’s for HK$38,000 so have not yet made any money at all. In fact, several of these players played Day 2A and Day 2B in addition to multiple HK$6,600 Day 1 starting flights so still have their work cut out for them if they want to see a return on their investment.
With the top 35 places paying out, 33 players will be leaving empty handed with those who make the money all guaranteed a payday of HK$50,900. However, it is the HK$1,925,000 first prize that all will be gunning for.
The man best positioned to take that down in China’s Yu Dong Yang who bagged up a monstrous 987,000 in chips – over 250,000 more than next closest Day 2B rival Korea's Je Ho Lee who bagged up 736,000 with China’s Zhao Yanchao (699,000) rounding out the top Day 2B stacks.
Dong began the day with a stack of 179,000 but had spun this up to over 300,000 by the time the second break came around. The Chinese player had more than double that of next closest rival, Hong Kong’s Sparrow Cheung, by the dinner break and did not look back. Dong dominated a great deal of his table action with very few of his hands making it to showdown with few players willing to tangle with his monster stack.
Dong’s fellow countryman Zhao Yanchao also played a great many hands and almost bagged the chip lead himself after hitting the nut straight holding six-seven on a three-four-five rainbow board. Unfortunately for Yanchao, his short-stacked opponent, holding pocket threes, hitting running kings to make a full house and deny the Chinese player the top spot.
Notables who managed to make it through included Canada’s Linh Tran, who earned a timely double-up after winning a race with pocket fives against the ace-king of Lu Fei on one of the last hands of the day to finish play with a stack of 319,000. Fei too managed to make it through, albeit with a much-reduced stack.
Japan’s Kosei Ichinose caught cards at just the right time to win two quick double-ups and finish the day with 336,000 and other notables who made the cut included Hong Kong’s Sparrow Cheung (387,000) and Danny Tang (347,000), Korea’sVivian Im (201,000) and Hong Kong’sJustin Chan (165,000) with the rest of the Day 2B survivors as follows:
2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau Day 2B End of Day Chip Counts
| Position | Name | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yu Dong Yang | China | 987,000 |
| 2 | Je Ho Lee | Korea | 736,000 |
| 3 | Zhao Yanchao | China | 699,000 |
| 4 | Oliver Saul | UK | 618,000 |
| 5 | Yuefeng Pan | China | 549,000 |
| 6 | Jeffrey Lo | Hong Kong | 538,000 |
| 7 | Juen Teoh Ming | Malaysia | 444,000 |
| 8 | Jinqiang Shi | China | 433,000 |
| 9 | Eugene Co | Philippines | 418,000 |
| 10 | Sparrow Cheung | Hong Kong | 387,000 |
| 11 | Kevin Choi | Hong Kong | 374,000 |
| 12 | Jesus Fernandez | UK | 356,000 |
| 13 | Danny Tang | Hong Kong | 347,000 |
| 14 | Kosei Ichinose | Japan | 336,000 |
| 15 | Albert Paik | USA | 329,000 |
| 16 | Chen An Lin | Taiwan | 324,000 |
| 17 | Linh Tran | Canada | 319,000 |
| 18 | Luo Xixiang | China | 313,000 |
| 19 | Yap Jun Wah | Malaysia | 303,000 |
| 20 | Gao Wenling | China | 267,000 |
| 21 | Kwang Zhen Yu | China | 46,000 |
| 22 | Ken Okada | Japan | 240,000 |
| 23 | Shinhung Chang | Taiwan | 212,000 |
| 24 | Canlin Chen | China | 205,000 |
| 25 | Vivian Im | Korea | 201,000 |
| 26 | Khanh Le Ngoc | Vietnam | 195,000 |
| 27 | Chin Sun Tan | Malaysia | 193,000 |
| 28 | Chih Wen Chen | Taiwan | 191,000 |
| 29 | Hyoung Suob Shim | Korea | 187,000 |
| 30 | Tsan Yuen Leung | Hong Kong | 166,000 |
| 31 | Justin Chan | Hong Kong | 165,000 |
| 32 | Yuri Ishida | Japan | 147,000 |
| 33 | Carson Wong | Hong Kong | 136,000 |
| 34 | Kui Huan Soh | Malaysia | 134,000 |
| 35 | Keisuke Hikosaka | Japan | 100,000 |
| 36 | Zhou Qiang Bo | China | 98,000 |
| 37 | Xiao Jialiang | China | 81,000 |
| 38 | Lu Fei | China | 68,000 |
Notables who came up short included Bulgaria’s Atanas Kavrakov, Taiwan’s Pete Chen, Hong Kong’s Percy Chao and Thailand’s Phachara Wongwichit.
The 68 Day 2A and 2B survivors return to action for Day 3 at 1pm local time (GMT+8) on Friday, 1 December and will play down to the final table so join us then as we see who’s got what it takes to go the distance.