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After an action packed Day 1A session, the PokerStars blog is back for what should be another exciting starting flight. Day 1B of the LAPT9 Chile $1,500 Main Event will likely crush yesterday's number of 258 players, creating a massive starting flight that is sure to be filled with big name players from across Latin America.

Again, just as a reminder to player and fans alike, Vina del Mar is our host this weekend and after a LAPT player party last night and 24 hours in Chile, we may never leave. Luckily, we have work for the next few days to keep us busy and over the next 12 hours, we'll bring you all the updates from this second and final LAPT9 Chile starting flight.

Those updates will start when cards get in the air at 12 PM, so stay tuned for all the LAPT9 Chile updates...

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* Click for end of Day 1A chip counts
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12:45pm: Let's get ready for a super Saturday

Let's do it again! It's time for Day 1B of the Eureka6 Rozvadov Main Event and as (almost) always we expect Day 1B to be significantly bigger than Day 1A. So with 219 players turning up yesterday the hope is that this could be the biggest ever Eureka Rozadov Main Event. If we get a little over double yesterdays runners we'll beat the mark of 664, which was set last season.

Eureka Rozvadov Main Event history:
Season 3: 421 players, €500,000 prize pool, Bart Lybaert from Belgium for €115,000
Season 4: 493 players, €500,000 prize pool, Martin Meciar from Slovakia for €87,600
Season 5: 664 entries, €644,080 prize pool, Raphael Wimmer from Austria for €99,695

The target for anyone playing today is 194,400 as that's what Daniel Karacic managed to amass yesterday. He topped the 90 players who made it through. Full chip counts of the survivors can be seen here.

Play is due to start at 1pm.

Key Eureka6 Rozvadov Facts:

- 25,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 25/50 for 500 big blinds
- Levels are 45 minutes on Day 1 and they'll be 10 of them. On Day 2 from level 15 onwards levels increase to 60 minutes.
- Late registration is open until the start of level seven.
- Day 1B is today and there's also a special Turbo Day 1C at 10pm CET. That's only open to players who have busted either Day 1A or 1B. The field will then combine for the first time on Sunday. Players will reach the money on Day 2 and then play down to a final table on Day 3. The final table will play out on Tuesday. Cue mad celebrations and swigging of pilsner from the trophy (possibly).
- Full Eureka6 Rozvadov schedule here.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at Eureka6 Rozadov: Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog

2:00pm: Level 10 begins, 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante

MPC24 HK$80,000 High Roller final day kicks off soon

The Red Dragon Main Event may have concluded last night but now it's time for the HK$80,000 High Roller! We had 105 entries yesterday and with late registration still open for the first 40 minutes today that number could climb even higher.

Of those 105 there are 66 guaranteed to return today. They'll play it out today until a champion emerges. As late registration isn't locked out yet we don't have a first place prize set but the prize pool currently stands at HK$7,969,360.

Last night's Red Dragon runner up Wayne Zhang jumped straight in the High Roller field after his 2nd place finish. He'll be looking at back-to-back deep runs in Macau. We'll highlight other notable names among the field as soon as play is underway.

The action kicks off at 2pm so stay tuned!

Vina del Mar, Chile welcomed the Latin American Poker Tour for the second stop of their Season 9 schedule, after the LAPT opened 2016 at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. We're now back to the continental tour of South America and if Day 1A of LAPT9 Chile was any indication, this season is going to be massive.

In total, 258 players bought into this opening starting flight and that is an over 60% increase from last year's numbers, when 155 players battled in the first Day 1 session. The PokerStars blog opened today's coverage with a player that went through last year's Day 1 session and through to the winner's circle, as Season 8 champion Oscar Alache was seated from the first minute of play.

He quickly built a sizable stack and for a few levels, it looked like Alache was trending towards a Day 1A chip lead en route to a record breaking third LAPT title. He'll have to wait until tomorrow for that storyline to play out though, as he lost a massive pot right before the final break of the night. Fernando Reines was the player that sent Alache to the rail and while he ended the night with a 123,300 stack, this entire surviving field is looking up to Sergio Palma.

Palma peaked late and while he was relatively under the radar, he'll likely headline the action heading into Sunday's Day 2 session as the opening flight's chip leader. He ended with 167,500 in the bag and while his tournament resume doesn't exactly scream "future LAPT champion", his play through this Day 1A flight does.

Behind Palma are players that likely began the day expecting to be at the top of the leaderboard, as some of South America's most successful and consistent players took to the felt. Damian Salas was one of them and while a handful of his countrymen fell, the Argentinian, who couldn't get himself out of the action if he tried, seemed to steadily climb. In the end, he finished with 107,200 chips, good for fifth overall.

Other big stacks included Lucas Tabarin, who finished just off the pace of the Chilean leader, with 165,600. Andrius Bielskis finished over 100,000, along with Mauricio Zeman. Fabian Chauriye, fresh off a final two table run in the PCA Main Event, headlines the players right below that century mark, with 95,400. Daniela Horno was one of just two female players to find the bag, putting 73,800 for Day 2 and Bruno 'Foster' Politano rounds out the notable names from this 1A flight with 70,100. Those players might not be near the top of the leaderboard but they've at least secured themselves an off day tomorrow, while some of the bigger names that we saw throughout the day will have to try again in Day 1B.

Oscar Alache is one of them and he leads a three man group that are all looking to make LAPT history this weekend. Fabian Ortiz and Mario Lopez are the other two two-time champions that failed to survive Day 1A and we imagine they'll all be back ready to fire at will come 12 PM tomorrow. Renata Teixeira, who finished 2nd in this event last year, will be joining them, after she failed to get much traction today. Chile's own Nicolas "PKaiser" Fierro also failed to advance.

In total, nine tables were still running when the bags came out so we imagine just shy of 90 players advanced through this first starting flight. That official number and those player's counts will be posted in a few hours. The PokerStars blog will be back prior to tomorrow's Day 1B flight begins at 12 PM and until then, buenas noches.

Season six of the Eureka Poker Tour kicked off today at the King's Casino in Rozadov. A total of 219 players put up €1,100 to play some poker and when the ten levels were over 90 players had made it through to Day 2.

Topping the lot of them is Daniel Karacic. The Croat bagged up 194,400 and is no stranger to success in this casino. In September 2010 he scored his biggest career score to date when he collected €15,000 for winning a €330 tournament.

He leads a chasing pack that contains: Harald Casagrande (155,000), Lazer Gjergji (151,800), Gaspare Leggio (147,700), Arturs Scerbaks (138,700), Jens Steuber (126,100) and Ivan Luca (124,800).

The Argentinian high roller finished third in the €5,000 event that concluded here yesterday and showed up halfway through the day. He'd soon done half his stack, but a late night comeback, including a timely queens versus jacks coup, sees him in great shape for Day 2

There were EPT, UKIPT, Eureka and even Who Wants to be a Millionaire champions in the field today and Michael Eiler - who won EPT7 Vienna - had a great day at the felt. He was always well placed and the 117,900 he bagged up means he'll be hopeful of a deep run.

Of course for some stacks to grow others must disappear. For the likes of Alex Kravchenko, Marius Pospiech, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, Josef Snejberg, Raphael Wimmer, Makarios Avramidis, Tom Holke and Daniel Stacey it was a day to forget. They aren't completely out of contention yet though as they'll be able to enter Day 1C, a turbo Day 1 that starts at 10pm tomorrow and has 20 minute levels.

We'll be back before then though as Day 1B kicks off at 1pm CET. We'll see you then but you can catch up on today's coverage by clicking here. Whilst overnight chip counts are available here.

There's a big tournament taking place in South America too. Follow live updates from LAPT Chile here.

But until tomorrow, goodnight.

All photos are copyright of Tomas Stacha

A stellar week of poker, a record-breaking field and a new Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon champion!

The atmosphere here at PokerStars LIVE Macau has been electric over the past few days. Not only did this iteration of the Red Dragon prove to be the biggest yet, but the event also earned itself the title of the largest freezeout tournament ever in the Asia-Pacific.

There were 1,075 who ponied up the HK$12,000 entry fee but when play concluded tonight a champion had emerged...

Congratulations to Malaysia's Ying Lin Chua!

Chua navigated his way through a tough final table that included former Red Dragon champion Tom Alner and Hong Kong Stars team member Wayne Zhang to score himself HK$1,904,000 (HK$1,804,000 after a three-handed deal + a HK$100,000 ACOP Main Event ticket) and the best-looking trophy in poker.

By the later stages of the final table Chua had begun to steamroll his opponents and came into heads up play against Zhang as a 10:1 chip favourite. Moving all in blind in the very first hand Chua showed he wasn't afraid to gamble, and while he may have lost that hand, it would be less than 10 minutes later that Chua would seal his victory.

The final hand of the tournament saw Chua get the chips in with a dominant [jd][9s] to Zhang's [jh][4h] and hold as the board ran out [3h][jc][2s][kc][as]. With the fall of the river card, and an applause that swept across the tournament floor, we had our new Red Dragon champion.

Before that whirlwind heads up clash though, the final table of nine would take over eight hours. It took 90 minutes of play to find our first final casualty. The 9th place spot went to Yongqiang Huang who got his money in good with [ad][9d] against Liang Xu's [kh][jd] and looked almost a lock to double up after the [8h][6d][ac] flop. Unfortunately for Huang a painful runner-runner would determine his fate as the [kc] turn and [jh] river arrived to give Xu two pair.

Next to go was former Red Dragon champion Tom Alner. The Englishman moved all in over an opening raise from Yang Zhang before Wayne Zhang next to act pushed all in over the top. The rest of the table folded and with Yang Zhang flashing [ad][qd] before mucking, Alner's chances looked bleak with [ah][qc] against Wayne Zhang's [qs][qh]. Alner failed to improve when the community cards fell and he left us in 8th place.

It wouldn't take long for our 7th place finisher to find the exit. Yang Zhang was eliminated only 15 minutes after Alner. Zhang got the last of his chips all in holding [qh][5d] on a [9d][qc][4c] flop but was dominated by Chengbei Lei's [qd][td]. With the [kc] turn and [6s] river completing the board Zhang couldn't find any help and would have to be content with 7th place.

Fan Xie would exit in the 6th spot. With the flop reading [7s][4s][4c] Xie got the last of it in holding [7d][6s] but had run into the [5s][4d] trips of Xu. Drawing thin to a seven or running cards they never came as Xie was eliminated and collected HK$302,100.

Then Chengbei Lei hit the rail. He moved all in preflop from under the gun with [ah][4h] and was called in two spots by Xu and Chua. Despite the dream flop of [5d][3h][6h] Lei soon found out Chua had flopped a straight with [4s][2s] and Lei failed to find a heart for a win of a seven or deuce for a chop.
4th place went the way of our start-of-day chip leader Liang Xu. He got his chips in preflop against Chua and was dominated holding [ac][4d] against Chua's [as][qc]. While the [2d][7h][7d] flop gave him some hope for a chop, the [8d] turn and [5d] couldn't save him as he was eliminated for HK$611,000.

Japan's Takashi Ogura finished one short of heads up play. He was all in and behind with [kh][jh] against our eventual champion's [ac][2d] and couldn't improve. Ogura took home HK$1,382,000 and his elimination saw the heads up match set where Chua held the 10:1 lead and would soon overcome Zhang.

MPC24 Red Dragon - Final Table Results
1st: Ying Lin Chua (Malaysia) - $1,904,000*
2nd: Wayne Zhang (China) - $1,307,000*
3rd: Takashi Ogura (Japan) - $1,382,000*
4th: Liang Xu (China) - $611,000
5th: Chengbei Lei (China) - $413,000
6th: Fan Xie (China) - $302,100
7th: Yang Zhang (China) - $257,000
8th: Tom Alner (United Kingdom) - $223,500
9th: Yongqiang Huang (China) - $190,000

* denotes a three-handed deal
all amounts in HK$

Click here for a full list of payouts

Congratulations to Ying Lin Chua and a big thank you to the City of Dreams casino for hosting another sensational Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon event. If you're still chasing some more exciting poker action, our coverage of the HK$80,000 High Roller begins from tomorrow at 2pm.

We hope to see you then right here on the PokerStars Blog!

I was fortunate enough to score on Valentine's Day...by making the final table of the $10.50 Super-Knockout! Unfortunately, I also had a date planned with my girlfriend at the same time.

It was your typical poker-life balance dilemma, one that full-time players are often faced with. In this case I had to make a choice between going out with my girlfriend on Valentine's Day and playing out the tournament for a top prize of over $1,300.

Or did I?

Even though seemingly impossible to pull off, I thought that maybe there was a way to win both the tournament and the date.

My Valentine's plans involved dinner at a nearby upscale pizza parlor followed by a comedy show that a friend was involved in. Reservations were set for 6:30pm and the comedy show started at 8:30pm.

Luckiest man alive? Tyler Frost

I wasn't even going to play tournaments at all that day to avoid any potential conflicts. But after my girlfriend pointed out that I had yet to reach a final table all year, I agreed the chances of my making a super deep run appeared slim (funny how things work out). Plus, I wanted to play cash games either way.

It didn't take long before I had busted most of my tournaments, except for the $10.50 SKO. Included in those bust-outs was a very frustrating bad beat in a $5.1 hyper-turbo with around 60 players remaining for basically all of the chips. After that, I figured I'd be booking a small losing day in tournaments, but would continue playing cash games until I busted the SKO.

I continued treading water in the SKO for a while. Before I knew it, the breaks started to pass me by...2:55pm, 3:55pm, 4:55pm and suddenly it was 5:55pm and my girlfriend had long started to get ready for our date. She knew that I was still in the tournament and asked if we were going to have to cancel dinner - she's very supportive of the poker lifestyle and understands how all of the big money in tournaments is made at the final table.

The thought of cancelling our date never seriously crossed my mind. Had I been playing down to the final table in the Sunday Million then it would be a different story, but we were hardly talking about life-changing money and with 4-5 tables still remaining cancelling dinner and busting shortly after would probably put me on tilt for the rest of the month!

Still, I didn't really know what to do and joked about bringing my phone to the restaurant and playing out the tournament on the mobile app. Somewhat surprisingly my girlfriend didn't seem opposed to the idea. All of a sudden the app became my backup plan if I didn't bust over the next half an hour.

I showered during the break and spent the next 25 minutes getting dressed in between hands. I was looking hard for spots to either double-up or bust, but as 6:30pm approached the situation had not really changed. There was no more time left to play the tournament at home without missing dinner, so despite being reluctant about the plan, I closed the client and logged into the mobile app and we walked out the door.

The restaurant was nearby but it was raining. My multi-tasking skills were put to the test as I tried to hold up an umbrella, the phone, and dodge traffic along the way. We arrived at the restaurant with three tables remaining in the tournament. My girlfriend assured me that it was fine to put the phone on the table, but I did not want to be "that guy" on his phone during a Valentine's date. So I did what I could to hide it on my leg.

Playing on the app, having grinded all day on my desktop, was difficult in its own right. Being short stacked for most of the final few tables worked out well because my decisions were limited and I didn't have to worry about typing in custom bet sizes. I found myself in a lot of "all-in or fold" situations and by the time drinks arrived we were down to the final two tables.

There was more of the same at the final two tables. The greatest difficulty came when the table became short-handed, because there was less time between hands. On the date side of things, we had successfully managed to order dinner and keep up a conversation despite the obvious distraction. I would try to show my girlfriend every time I was all-in or a big pot happened. It didn't take long before the final table hit and we cheers'ed to that!

Coming into the final table I remained short in chips, so my hopes at a top three finish were not very high. Given my situation I felt like I was freerolling anyway and was content with whatever happened.

I was surprised when a few players busted before me. Then I won a coin flip with 7-7 to put me back in the middle of the pack with around five remaining. Things continued to go my way and after doubling-up with A-K vs. K-J on a K-K-X-X board, I was actually the chip leader three-handed!

At this point we had finished dinner and had asked for the bill. Conveniently it was around 7:55pm and there was a break in the tournament. I thought that it would be way too difficult to play out the tourney three-handed on the app, especially while searching for a cab to take us to the comedy club, but I had a plan to make everything work.

I figured that my best chance of making the comedy show, and banking a four-figure score, was to convince the other two players to make a deal. I was in a good position as the chip leader and to my great relief both players agreed to look at numbers!

I agreed with the numbers quickly and sweated it out to see if the others would follow suit. One player was soon on board with the deal and it didn't take much longer for the other player to accept. We had a clean deal!

Since the break the whole ordeal had taken about ten minutes. With that, I said "good game" to the players and was out the door and into a cab on the way to the comedy show.

We ended up arriving with plenty of time and had a great night. It was incredibly difficult but thanks to an understanding girlfriend and some serious poker run-good, I managed to succeed in the tournament and more importantly, on the date as well.

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