Although the day started slow, day 1b of the P1M Guarantee Main Event eventually picked up momentum and recorded 193 total entries by the end of late registration. At the end of regulation play, only 28 players were able to hold on to their chips with Korea's Soo Jo Kim taking full ownership of the chip leader's status with a massive stack of 348,600 chips.

SJ Kim managed his stack well all day, keeping it above average by winning many small pots and claiming several heads. His biggest takedown happened against Filipino player Christopher Mateo. With both players sporting a big stack, they were both all-in preflop with Kim holding pocket aces and Mateo with ace-jack. Kim's rockets held and he escalated past the 300k range making him the overwhelming chip leader.

Running second in rank was Singapore's Wei Li Lee with 194,400 chips. Lee earned some sizable pots during the last few levels, a big one when he eliminated Xiaohua Fu with his king-jack connecting with a higher pair at the flop against Fu's pocket tens. Korea's Seung Soo Jeon ended in third position with 160,300 chips. Like SJ Kim, Jeon maintained an above average stack all day, adding more when he eliminated a player late in the tournament with his ace-seven suited. In fourth position was another Korean player, Minwoong Jeong, with 152,500 chips. With three tables left, Jeong won a nice pile of chips against aggressor Byeongcheol Kim when his pocket nines improved to a set. Rounding out the top five was Filipino player Noel Regencia with 145,800 chips. Regencia also capitalized on a set of nines but he also eliminated Martin Corpuz to add more firepower to his growing stack.

Other players who also survived the grueling battle at the felt were Korea's Byeongcheol Kim, Jae Chul Chang, Singapore's Zhengzhong Yang, India's Srinivas Polishetty, Australia's Derek Baker, China's Zhinning Chen, and Filipino players Ronald Dimaano and Edgar Angelo Felix.

With such a low number of players making the cut, that only meant that many fell to the wayside. Among them were Jean Issa who told us he tried everything but it just wouldn't go his way, Nickolai Alexandrov, John Tech, Kunal Shetty, Justin Worth, Ben Abrahams, Anacleto Quijano, and Mike Takayama to mention a few.

The final day resumes at 1215pm tomorrow with 56 players returning to the felt. For a read on some of the action today, just click the link Day 1b updates.

Day 1b Chip Counts: 28 players
Soo Jo Kim - Korea - 348,600
Wei Li Lee - Singapore - 194,400
Seung Soo Jeon - Korea - 160,300
Minwoong Jeong - Korea - 152,500
Noel Regencia - Philippines - 145,800
Ronald Dimaano - Philippines - 137,000
Derek Baker - Australia - 136,400
Hyungkook Shin - Korea - 126,300
Byeongcheol Kim - Korea - 121,900
Jose Arceo - Philippines - 115,200
Zhengzhong Yang - Singapore - 109,700
Sungwoon Park - Korea - 105,000
Zi Cheng Wou - Singapore - 99,000
Jae Chul Chang - Korea - 97,800
Johnjin Kim - Philippines - 90,400
Felicitas Soriano - 85,100
Jingxiang Li - Singapore - 76,700
Srinivas Polishetty - India - 74,400
Alejevel Yburan - Philippines - 71,300
Zhinning Chen - China - 64,200
Stanislav Malkov - Russia - 57,800
Hung Chang Lin - China - 55,400
Edgar Angelo Felix - Philippines - 53,500
Gary Serafin - Philippines - 52,500
Patrick de Jesus - Philippines - 49,700
Raul Aquino - Philippines - 45,200
Jerick Borja - Philippines - 43,000
Ponciano Ramel - Philippines - 20,000