Poipet, Cambodia, July 2017 – A couple of mighty fist pumps flew in the air after Aik Chuan shipped in two enormous pots at Day 2 of the APT Main Event to send his stack skyrocketing. The Malaysian pro closed the day as the chip leader with a commanding 384,800 in chips.

Final Table Chip Leader, Aik Chuan

Chuan’s big day at the felt didn’t quite start on the up side. One hour into the starting buzzer, Chuan paid out a costly double up to Viet Hung Nguyen with pocket aces dominating pocket nines. Another round in, he paid out pocket aces again, this time to Daniel Tan who landed a set on a board of 3♥ 6♣ A♥ 8♣ Q♦ well ahead of hisA♠ 3♠ two pair. While these two hands dragged his stack down to the middle of the pack, he made up ground by ousting the APT Macau 2017 Main Event champion Choong Kian Weng.

It wasn’t until midway through the next level in a hand against Nguyen did Chuan’s game take a big turn. With the blinds at 600-1200 ante 200, Chuan raised to 3K preflop then called Nguyen’s three-bet to 8500. At the flop of 9♠8♥ Q♠, Nguyen continued for a 12K bet then faced a dilemma for his tournament life when Chuan shoved it all in. While Nguyen deliberated, Chuan chimed, “time to get my chips back”, clearly referring to the pocket aces earlier. Nguyen eventually called and opened up A♥ Q♥ top pair ahead of Chuan’s 8♠ 5♠ flush draw.