12:45pm: Welcome to Day 1b!

Players have begun wandering in to the poker room here at Paradise Walkerhill Casino as Day 1b is almost underway.

Yesterday saw 61 players in the Main Event race and we're expecting to eclipse that number today as a new batch of pony up the ₩3,000,000 (~$2,600) and chase the Seoul poker crown. They'll be looking to best the Day 1a end-of-day chip leader Albert Paik who bagged up 116,800.

The plan today is eight one-hour levels so including breaks play will conclude around 8:30pm local time. For now though, it's just about time to begin. Stay with us! -- BK

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Seoul: Brad Kain and Jack Stanton. Photos by Kenneth Lim Photogrpahy.

The APPT Seoul festival at Paradise Walkerhill Casino runs until Monday, June 27th. Full details are available on the official APPT website page.

By any human standard, Daniel Negreanu's 2016 World Series doesn't look incredibly bad on paper. He has four cashes, three of which are top 20 finishes. One of those was fourth place in the $1,500 Razz. He's grossed $81,570 in winnings since the 2016 WSOP began three and half weeks ago. It's not the kind of summer about which many people would complain.

Negreanu is not many people.

That's why he did this.

I'll give you a moment to collect yourself. If you need longer, feel free to bookmark this and come back next week after you've become more accustomed to the idea and the night terrors have stopped.

Full disclosure: I am not the best person to be writing this story. When I was a toddler, my mother cut her hair very short, and I wouldn't go near her. I cried for days, at which point my mom bought a wig and wore it 24 hours a day until her hair grew back out.

If you're ready to continue, here's a explanation from the man himself.

I've known Negreanu longer than I've known one of my children, and for as much of that time as I can remember, Kid Poker has looked closer to Grizzly Adams than Baby Face Nelson. There was a part of me that had come to believe he was poker's bearded version of the Bible's Samson, a man who could take the jawbone of an ass and beat all the donkeys into submission. Negreanu looked for all the world like a man who drew his power from his bewhiskered face. He was, by any standard, poker's Wooly Bully.

There was evidence for this belief in a flocculent Negreanu. I mean, here is just the first page of Google Image results for "Daniel Negreanu."

That guy--THAT HIRSUTE JESTER OF POKER'S BIGGET CASTLE!--turned himself into the (lots of expletives) king of poker's biggest castle. Bearded Danny is in the Poker Hall of Fame. He's a multi-millionaire, an international superstar, and one of the game's best ambassadors.

He's the (more expletives) Face of Poker!

And he shaved it. Daniel Negreanu shaved the face of poker.

The people of the poker world know the barbate Kid Poker. They know the power of that beard. Be he bushy or goateed, the fuzzy Danny is a successful Danny.

But now Negreanu, poker's Samson, has become his own Delilah.

And I'll be damned if it doesn't seem to be working.

That's right. The freshly-pruned Negreanu bagged a top 20 stack last night in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. Nearly 800 people entered, and Negreanu is 12th out of the remaining 128.

I'm not entirely sure how to deal with this on an emotional level. Part of me is shivering in a corner begging Mommy to put the wig back on. Part of me is going to find a really good therapist. The rest of me is eager to see if the decorticated Negreanu can manage to turn a baby face into a bracelet.

We'll be watching tonight as he goes back to work in the PLO event and turns this into a sponsorship opportunity with Gillette.

In the meantime, I'm going to comfort myself by listening the Reverend Gary Davis. About 120 years ago, Davis was born just a few miles from where I sit. One of his most famous choruses comes from "Samson and Delilah," one I imagine Negreanu will be singing that as he sits down at the Rio today.

"If I had my way, I would tear this building down."

12:00pm: Shuffle and deal!
Level 1: Blinds 50/100

Cards are now in the air!

We're in for eight levels of play today. Let's see how many runners we can get here for the Main Event and who of those can survive the day.

So far we've spotted reigning Asia Player of the Year Alan Lau in the field, we're about to go scouting for some more notables.

Stay tuned! -- BK

11:45am: Day 1A ready to go!

It's a hot day here in Seoul, South Korea, but inside the Paradise Walkerhill Casino there's a cool, calm atmosphere right now. It's not going to last though; Day 1A of the APPT10 Seoul is just 15 minutes away from starting, and those cool exteriors will soon heat up as the cards get in the air and the chips start flying.

The buy-in for this main event is ₩3,000,000 (roughly $2,600 US), with registration open until the end of Level 4. There will be eight 60-minute levels on Days 1A (today) and 1B (tomorrow), so the only question now is to see who will make it through to Day 2?

This tournament had 241 runners last year, and boasted a star-studded final table featuring Team PokerStars Pros Celina Lin and Bryan Huang. In the end it was Jason Mo who took it down for KRW165,590,200 ($151,359) and the coveted APPT trophy.

Play will be starting at 12pm local time, so don't go anywhere.

Key APPT10 Seoul Facts:
- 20,000 starting stack
- Blinds starting at 50/100 for 200 big blinds
- Levels are 60 minutes on Day 1 and there'll be eight of them
- Day 1A is today and Day 1B takes place tomorrow
- The field will then combine for the first time on Saturday. We'll reach the money during the eight levels of play on Day 2 and then play down to a final table on Sunday. Monday is all about the final.
- Full APPT10 Seoul schedule here.

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Seoul: Brad Kain and Jack Stanton. Photos by Kenneth Lim Photography.

The APPT Seoul festival at Paradise Walkerhill Casino runs until Monday, June 27th. Full details are available on the official APPT website page.

This week's Super Tuesday, the weekly $1,050 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament on PokerStars, saw another big turnout of 361 players create a $361,000 prize pool well exceeding the $300K guarantee. That group would need almost 12-and-a-half hours to find a winner, with Argentina's Marcelo "CHELitw" Garcia Gonzalez eventually being the one to outlast everyone to claim the victory and a handsome $69,275.90 first prize.

It took just about five-and-a-half hours for the field to be whittled down to 54 players, at which point RODRIGUES491 led the counts as the only player with more than 500,000.

About two-and-a-half hours after that they were down to 18 with RODRIGUES491 having slipped to fall in 38th ($1,985.50) and Bespont the new chip leader with more than 1 million. 

Bryan "bparis" Paris (18th), cmontopdeck (17th), and carozo1959 (16th) were the next knockouts, each earning $3,249. They were followed by Diego "Die Ventura" Ventura (15th), majkl1812 (14th), and drupa-lucker (13th), each of whom took away $3,971. Then bern4udov1c (12th), former leader Bespont (11th), and progre69 (10th) were successively eliminated, earning $4,693 apiece.

With 9TRU the new leader with almost 1.8 million, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: no control A (Cyprus) -- 1,003,738  
Seat 2: Daniel "nagayama0" Nagayama (Brazil) -- 1,126,376  
Seat 3: 9TRU (Russia) -- 1,798,404  
Seat 4: Jon "luckyfish89" Clark (United Kingdom) -- 682,757  
Seat 5: GadMO (Israel) -- 765,429  
Seat 6: Ruppert80 (Germany) -- 877,664  
Seat 7: agnaton (Israel) -- 537,790  
Seat 8: Bryan "Brryann" Ruiter (Netherlands) -- 1,494,741  
Seat 9: Marcelo "CHELitw" Garcia Gonzalez (Argentina) -- 738,101  

Soon after the final table began, GadMO open-raised all-in from the cutoff for 266,578 (not quite nine big blinds), and after agnaton reraise-shoved from the small blind Bryan "Brryann" Ruiter folded the BB. GadMO had [Kh][9s] and agnaton [Kc][Qh], and following a [6c][8s][Js][6d][3d] runout, GadMO was done in ninth.

Less than five minutes later, the blinds were still 15,000/30,000 when leader 9TRU raised to 78,000 from the small blind, Jon "luckyfish89" Clark reraised all-in from the big blind for 544,537, and 9TRU called. Clark had [2s][2d] and hoped the small pair would hold versus 9TRU's [As][Jd]. But the flop came [Jc][4d][9s] to give 9TRU jacks, and after the [3s] turn and [6d] river, Clark was out in eighth.

Five more minutes passed, then it was no control A open-raising all-in from the small blind and Daniel "nagayama0" Nagayama calling from the next seat to commit the 297,063 he had left after posting the 35,000-chip big blind. Nagayama had [Kc][4c] versus no control A's [8s][8d], but the community cards came [6d][2c][3s][9d][Jc] to leave Nagayama unimproved to finish in seventh.

Well over an hour went by, with all six players making it to the break that came at the 11-hour mark of the tournament. Then with the blinds up to 30,000/60,000, Marcelo "CHELitw" Gonzalez opened for 133,800 from UTG and watched the table fold around to Bryan "Bryann" Ruiter who called from the big blind. 

The flop came all hearts -- [2h][3h][6h] -- and when Ruiter shoved all-in with his last 407,711, Gonzalez called. Ruiter had [Ad][2s] for a pair of deuces while Gonzalez had [Th][Tc] for an overpair and flush draw. The turn was the [8c] and river the [Kd], and Ruiter was knocked out in sixth.

About 20 minutes after that agnaton pushed from the small blind for 711,970 (just over 10 bigs) with [Kh][Jc] and was called by Marcelo "CHELitw" Garcia Gonzalez in the big blind who had picked up [9d][9h]. The flop came [Th][2h][Ad] and turn [Ah] to tease agnaton with flush and straight draws, but the [9s] river gave Gonzalez a full house and ended agnaton's run in fifth.

Ten more minutes went by, then with the blinds up to 40,000/80,000 it was no control A open-shoving from the SB. By then 9TRU had become the short stack with just over 400,000 to start the hand, and after posting the big blind 9TRU called to reveal [Qc][Jd] versus no control A's [Ac][Td]. The [Kh][5s][3s][3h][Kd] board missed both players' hands, meaning no control A's ace-kicker to go with the two pair on board was best and 9TRU was finished in fourth.

The remaining three battled onward and were nearly upon the 12-hour mark when Marcelo "CHELitw" Garcia Gonzalez min-raised to 180,000 from the button, no control A three-bet to 480,000 from the small blind, Gonzalez shoved all-in and no control A called with the 1,847,328 left behind.

Gonzalez had [9s][9c] again while no control A had [Ac][Kc], and a [9d][Qs][6h] flop swiftly gave Gonzalez a huge edge with a set of nines. The [8s] turn made the [7h] river no matter, and no control A had to settle for third-place prize money.

With that pot Marcelo "CHELitw" Garcia Gonzalez was able to enjoy a big lead to begin heads-up play with 8,136,044 to Ruppert80's 888,956. Ruppert80 was able to push back, however, and within 10 minutes had gained the advantage. It was around then Ruppert80 addressed Gonzalez in the chat box perhaps to ask about a deal, but Gonzalez typed "sry dude I wanna play" and so they continued on without pausing.

Ruppert80 would only have the lead briefly as Gonzalez immediately grabbed a few pots to regain the advantage, and soon had Ruppert80 all-in and at risk with [Ah][Th] versus Gonzalez's [Ks][Kd]. Three hearts came, however, to save Ruppert80, the double-up giving Ruppert80 a small lead once more. 

Before long, though, it was Gonzalez all-in holding the hand that had done well for him twice before at the final table -- [9c][9d] -- while Ruppert80 had [Ah][Th] again which had just been a winner shortly before. The board ran out [7c][Qc][5d][5c][4h] and the nines held, and Gonzalez was back up close to 8 million with a huge edge.

They played 11 more relatively small pots, and having been chipped down below 460,000 (a little over 4.5 BBs), Ruppert80 open-pushed from the button with [Kd][8h] and Gonzalez called in a flash with [As][Kh]. The board came [6d][6c][6s], then [4h], then [Qc] and it was all over -- Gonzalez had won!

Congratulations to Marcelo "CHELitw" Garcia Gonzalez for topping another big Super Tuesday field and tough final table to win this week's first prize of more than $69K.

6/21/16 Super Tuesday ($1,050 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Entrants: 361
Prize pool: $361,000
Places paid: 54

1. Marcelo "CHELitw" Garcia Gonzalez (Argentina) $69,275.90
2. Ruppert80 (Germany) $51,442.50
3. no control A (Cyprus) $37,905.00
4. 9TRU (Russia) $28,880.00
5. agnaton (Israel) $20,216.00
6. Bryan "Brryann" Ruiter (Netherlands) $15,342.50
7. Daniel "nagayama0" Nagayama (Brazil) $11,732.50
8. Jon "luckyfish89" Clark (United Kingdom) $8,122.50
9. GadMO (Israel) $5,992.60

Welcome to Seoul! One of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour's most breathtaking stops. Not only is there another exciting week of poker in store here but players get the chance to enjoy the rich cultural experience that the city has to offer when they're away from the tables.

Those tables began filling up on Monday when the 2-day Deepstack event signalled the start of this 8-day festival. So far the poker room here at Paradise Walkerhill Casino has been buzzing and the electric atmosphere is sure to continue as players set their sights on the KRW3,000,000 Main Event.

They'll be looking to lift Seoul's poker crown just as Jason Mo did last year. The American overcame a star-studded field of 241 to emerge as champion and collect KRW165,590,200 ($151,359) and the coveted APPT trophy.

Among that field was a strong force of Team PokerStars Pros. That might be putting it too lightly, actually, considering Celina Lin and Bryan Huang both booked final table finishes. Lin ultimately bowed out in 4th place while it was Huang who came up just one shy of victory after a heads up battle with Mo.

The two Team Pros have confirmed they'll be in attendance this week and will undoubtedly be looking to improve on last year's result. And it looks like they'll have some teammates to contend with if this APPT tweet is anything to go by.

"Team PokerStars will be well represented this week at #APPTSeoul!" read the tweet, accompanied by a picture of Lin, Huang, Vivian Im, Kosei Ichinose, Yaxi Zhu and Chen An Lin.

Zhu and Chen An Lin both joined Team PokerStars in September last year so it will be their first time donning the Red Spade for this event. Chen An Lin is in fine form after cashing the APPT Macau Main Event last month, and finishing third in the HK$3,000 event from the same series to pocket HK$57,730. These two and a couple hundred other poker hopefuls will be battling it out over the next five days.

Our final table will begin at midday on Monday before a new APPT champion is crowned. As always we'll have all the action from the felt right her on the PokerStars Blog. We hope you can join us!

Fathers around the world woke last weekend, possibly nudged slightly earlier than hoped by small eager hands, to be presented with various homemade cards and gifts made at school to celebrate Father's Day. 

The debate about whose Dad is the best in the world is moot, despite what it says on the card, on the t-shirt, or the novelty barbeque apron. What's important is that we all have our reasons for thinking it, and that includes small kids, and big ones, including members of Team PokerStars. 

Yesterday members of Team Pro paid tribute to their fathers in short videos posted on the PokerStars USA Facebook page (which you can see by clicking the links highlighted below). These weren't just quick moments of celebration, they were tributes to those people who had been there for them, guided them and stood by them all their lives.  

Jason Somerville credited his Dad for his success. "Hard work is everything," was among what he said, advice which Somerville has turned into a successful poker (and Twitch) career.

Jen Shehade's first game might have been chess, but it was at the the encouragement of her father that she and her brother took up poker. "My Dad was always right behind me," she said, crediting him for helping her to establish herself among the best in both games. 

For Chris Moneymaker, a father himself, his Dad has left a lasting impression on his own life, "always at games, at practices", and, as a poker player, ring side for that famous World Series win in 2003.  

Who's the daddy?: Chris Moneymaker

Then there was Jason Mercier, enjoying a glorious summer at the World Series in Las Vegas, who dedicated a bracelet win to his father to his father Rick, who we wrote about last week on the PokerStars Blog. 

Jason Mercier with his father Rick Mercier

Unique personal messages that at the same time sound familiar to us all. With thanks to all the Fathers out there. 

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