3:00pm: Ten-minute break

2:58pm: Van mucks perfect-perfect

Joe Cabret has been eliminated when his last chips were in preflop with Q♦ Q♠ against an opponent’s K♣ K♥ , as Van Marcus claimed to have folded two black tens.

The flop was a rather dramatic 5♣ Q♥ K♦ to give both players a set, but the best was yet to come. The turn was the 10♦ and the river the 10♥ to see Marcus leap out of his seat as he would’ve hit perfect-perfect one-outers for running quads to bust both players! It wasn’t to be, as his cards were safely in the muck as Cabret was sent to the rail.

2:55pm: Edwards starts over

We didn’t see how Luke Edwards wound up with only 11,000 chips in his stack, nor did we see how exactly he got all of those 11,000 chips into the middle with K♠ K♦ . We did, however, see the player in Seat 1 paying off Edwards’ full house on a board of 5♦ J♦ Q♠ K♥ Q♦ . The hand bumped Edwards back up to just more than the starting stack as we approach the first break.

2:50pm: Anunu gets caught

Mishel Anunu has just taken a hit after being forced to turn his top pair into a bluff.

Anunu called a flop bet before both players checked the turn to reveal a board of 9♥ 6♠ K♠ 7♠ 9♠ by the river. From the small blind, Anunu tossed out 5,500 and his opponent shook his head before making a crying call. Anunu didn’t want a call with his K♥ J♦ top pair as his opponent showed the only spade with his 7♥ 8♠ .

Anunu is now back down under starting stack.

2:35pm: Lin saves Huang some chips

We arrived at Table 4, Celina Lin and Bryan Huang’s table, to see the two involved in a three-way pot. At the river 7♦ 4♦ 10♣ 7♣ 9♥ , both checked to the third player in the hand, who bet 5,500. Lin furrowed her brow, seemingly mentally going over the action in the hand, before tossing calling chips into the pot. Once Huang saw her call, he folded.

Lin’s opponent turned up J♣ J♠ for two pair, jacks and sevens. “Jacks?” Lin asked. Upon receiving confirmation, she mucked and slipped down to 14,000. But it didn’t stop her and Huang from smiling and laughing about the hand afterwards.

“You fold, I snap,” said Huang. He noted that he couldn’t beat pocket jacks either but said he thought he might have Lin beat. She wasn’t so sure.

“Could you beat ace-ten?” Huang asked.

“You didn’t have ace-ten!” Lin replied with a laugh. Tablemate Ivan Tan agreed that there was no way Huang had ace-ten. Huang just gave a wry little smile and repeated his assertion that he didn’t thing Lin could beat ace-ten.

PokerStars TV spent some time asking Huang Facebook-submitted questions earlier in the day. Check out what he’s got to say about his inspiration, what poker means to him and how it affects his inter-personal relationships:

2:25pm: Cooler gives Spegar the chip lead

At the other end of proceedings is American Thomas Spegar who has just busted a PokerStars qualifier from Table 2. The action was all preflop with a series of raises that saw Spegar commit his entire stack into the middle. His opponent sat deep in the tank for several minutes before the clock was eventually called. With that, the player made the call and opened K♦ K♣ but his instincts were right as Spegar tabled A♠ A♦ .

There were no surprises in this cooler as the board was spread 5♦ 3♠ 3♦ 9♦ Q♣ to give Spegar the huge pot as he jumps to 55,000 and the chip lead. Table 2 is particularly lop-sided in the early goings as Spegar is sitting next to Aussie John Maklouf who has also worked his way up to 50,000.

Thomas Spegar’s cooler jumps him into the early chip lead

2:11pm: Benton gone

2009 APPT Sydney champion Aaron Benton is going to have to work miracles here in Cebu if he wants to make it to Day 2, never mind win his second APPT tournament. Benton was one of three players to take a flop of 4♣ 10♦ 4♦ at Table 12. The first player to act opened the post-flop action with a bet of 1,200 that Benton called. The button player pushed the price of the turn to 4,000.

After spending roughly two minutes thinking about her action, the early-position player called the raise. Benton, clad in a Grand Lisboa Macau baseball cap, dark sunglasses and a white t-shirt then shoved his whole stack of 16,700 into the middle. He sat motionless, iPod buds in his ears and hands clasped in front of his mouth, as the action went around a second time. The button player folded. It was back to the early-position player. She tanked for another two minutes before calling all in for just less then Benton’s raise.

Benton popped over two queens, Q♠ Q♦ , and was drawing remarkably thin against his opponent’s trips, 4♠ 5♠ . The 5♣ on the turn changed nothing, nor did the 7♠ river. Benton seemed surprised by his opponent’s hand but non-plussed as his stack was decimated, and he was eliminated shortly after.

2:00pm: Level up, blinds 100-200

1:55pm: It’s never too early

Even in these early levels, players yesterday and today have shown no hesitation in flinging chips around. At the back of the room, Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu raised pre-flop to 575 after four players limped into the pot. Three of them called to a flop of 4♠ 10♠ 3♦ . Wu led out for 875. That bet only got one of Wu’s opponents to fold; the other two called.

Wu checked the Q♥ turn, then folded to a bet of 2,000 from the last player to act. He chose caution at this stage, but one table over a player was already all in. That player was behind with Q-10 on a flop of Q-2-5 against an opponent who showed Q♦ 2♦ . The turn blanked but the river came a board-pairing (and counterfeiting) 5 to save the all-in player from a Level 1 departure.

1:50pm: Hachems yet to be seen

Two players who are yet to arrive are the Hachem brothers, Tony and Joe. They were spotted enjoying themselves at the beach party last night, but we believe Joe is feeling unwell while Tony was a little lethargic this morning. Both are expected to arrive around the start of level three.

1:45pm: Neilson possible late arrival

We’ve also just received word that Australian Daniel Neilson will possibly be a late arrival into the APPT Cebu Main Event should he bust out of another event which is currently taking place in Macau. Neilson is chip leader with 18 players left, so he may not make it to Cebu. The PokerStars qualifier will be able to take advantage of the late registration rule here which extends to the end of level five, so if he does happen to bust out in Macau he’ll only be blinded off for one level today, and then can arrive tomorrow at the start of day two with a workable stack.

1:30pm: The list continues

We’ve made a fairly comprehensive sweep of the floor here in the poker tent (which, mercifully, is not nearly as frigid as it was yesterday). With five levels of late registration — a nod to other tournaments taking place in the region which conflict with this one — there’s still plenty of time for late arrivals.

There’s a few other sharks lurking in today’s field with some impressive results to their credit. We’ve spotted ANZPT Darwin runner-up Luke Edwards, ANZPT Queenstown runner-up Andrew Watson, Australian poker stalwart Leo Boxell, ANZPT Player of the Year runner up John Maklouf, young gun Nathanael Seet, German pro Thomas Bihl and the man with the biggest biceps in poker, ANZPT Adelaide champ Rennie Carnevale.

1:11pm: Players filter in

With twelve minutes elapsed in the level, players are still making their way into the poker tent for the start of the tournament. Already here are 2008 APPT Manila champion Van Marcus (whose tournament win was being shown on a large screen in the tent prior to the start of play), 2009 APPT Sydney champion Aaron Benton, 2009 Aussie Millions 4th-place finisher Raj Ramakrishnan and many other regular players from around the Asian and Australian circuit.

We also have several Team PokerStars Pros in today’s field. Tae Joon Noh is at one end of the tournament floor, and in the opposite corner we found Celina Lin and Bryan Huang sitting side-by-side. Also at their table is Ivan Tan.

Not yet in attendance, but expected this afternoon, are two other Team PokerStars Pros: the Brothers Hachem, Tony and Joe. Tony is coming off his second straight ANZPT Player of the Year award. Joe, of course, is a WSOP Main Event and WPT champion.

1:00pm: Let’s get it on!

Players have stumbled their way into the custom-built tent at the Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa for Day 1b of the 2010 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event.

Before play kicked off, we saw a presentation to Raj Ramakrishnan who won last night’s PHP5000 No Limit Holdem side event. APPT Tournament Director Danny McDonagh then kicked off proceedings with the official “Shuffle up and Deal!”

At the moment, the big screen is showing 132 entries, which includes a number of no-show qualifiers, however late registration is once again open until the end of level five today.

Earlier today the PokerStars video team caught up with PokerStars Team Asia pro Celina Lin and APPT Events Manger Luke Lichtenstein as they previewed the day ahead:

APPT Cebu reporting comes courtesy of bloggers Heath “TassieDevil” Chick and Dave “F-Train” Behr.

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