Day 1a Concludes; Richardson and Hayamizu On Top
On Thursday the first starting flight of the 2013 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Seoul Main Event kicked off at the Paradise Walkerhill Casino. Day 1a saw a total of 122 players hit the felt for the first event of the APPT Season 7 schedule. By the end of eight levels only 50 players remained with Benjamin Richardson (111,600) leading the pack. Right on Richardson's heels was Manami Hayamizu (104,800) who was toward the top of the leader board for a majority of the day.
While Richardson and Hayamizu finished in the top positions, they were not the only ones to find success. Other players who will be returning with chips for Day 2 include Wang Ping Yuan (102,400), Park Yu Cheung (90,000), PokerStars Team Online member Naoya Kihara (88,700), Foster Hays (85,500), Casey Kastle (58,100), and Nicky Tao Jin (43,100).
Xuan Liu will also be returning for Day 2. Liu found much success early on in the day, but that all came crashing down before the last break. On the last hand of level 6, Liu was involved in a hand that saw her seven-bet shove all in holding pocket queens. While Liu's ladies were a strong hand, they were nothing against the pocket kings and pocket aces of her opponents. After that hit Liu was successful in nursing her short stack back to life during the last two levels of the day and will be returning for Day 2 with 53,500 in chips.
Joseph Cheong made the trip to Seoul and was eager to participate in this event but was unfortunately eliminated before play ended for the day. Cheong took a substantial hit early on in the day when his 
were cracked by an opponent's 
and he was left to grind from there. Finally, he saw his last hand when he was all in before the flop holding 
. Cheong was racing with an opponent's 
but was forced to the rail when the board ran out 
.
Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang also sat down at the tables only to come up short by the day's conclusion. Huang saw his final hand against two other opponents on a board of 
. Huang fired a bet of 2,250 and one of this opponents called to see the 
strike the turn. Huang moved all in for about 13,000. His opponent announced a call.
Huang: 
Opponent: 
Huang needed help going to the river and needed to either make a flush or pair his jack. Unfortunately for Huang, the 
completed the board and he saw an early exit from play.
Other players who saw their tournament come to an end include Sam Grafton, Phill Huxley, Robert Acton, Stevan Chew, David Steicke, JJ Liu, and Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu.
Play will resume at the Paradise Walkerhill Casino on Friday when a new batch of players will take their seats for the second starting flight. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as we provide you with all of the latest updates from the tournament floor.