Clements Crushes as 30 Players Advance from the Day 1a Field
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The 2014 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific kicked off on Thursday with the first of ten gold bracelet events. Day 1a of Event #1 $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Accumulator – a tournament that allows players to take through any and all stacks they accumulate in the three starting flights – attracted 197 entries, but after eight one-hour levels of play, just 30 remained with Scott Clements and his stack of 76,575 leading the way.
“The only thing I remember is I fell asleep at the table and had a dream. That’s how tired I am,” Clements replied when asked to describe his Day 1a.
In fact, Clements managed to get a good deal of his stack when he clashed with Dylan Honeyman in the last level of the night. To make a long story short, Clements flopped a straight and Honeyman top pair. The two got it all in, and Honeyman found himself on the rail while Clements established himself as the clear chip leader.
“I had a lot of chips before then, but more after that. That was the big hand,” added Clements, who also revealed he doesn’t plan to play the other starting flights.
The opening event of the 2014 WSOP APAC attracted a mix of local players and establish pros, including 2013 WSOP Main Event champ Ryan Riess. The Michigan native was seated at the feature table most of the day, but fell at the tail end of Level 6 (100/200/25) when action folded to him in the small blind. Riess raised to 600, and Australia's Jonathan "xMONSTERxDONGx" Karamalikis pushed back with a three-bet to 1,400 from the big blind. Riess responded by four-betting all in for right around 5,000, and Karamalikis wasted little time in making the call.
Karamalikis: 
Riess: 
It was a classic flip, but Riess needed to improve to stay alive. The 
flop did little for him, while the 
delivered him a gutshot straight draw. The dealer burned one last time and put out the 
, a blank for Riess. Karamalikis, who finished runner-up in the same event last year, went on to bag up 30,900.
Others who failed to survive Day 1a included Phil Hellmuth, Kitty Kuo, Bruno Potaro, Mohsin Charania, [Removed:17], Jackie Glazier, Jonathan Duhamel, Russell Thomas, Mike Leah, Vanessa Rousso, and Ami Barer.
While many fell, a few notables managed to advance to Day 2 including WSOP Player of the Year contender George Danzer (24,625), Samantha Cohen (19,550), Didier Guerin (15,900), and Gary Benson (14,400), though all are behind the chip leader by a considerable margin. For more on Clements’ Day 1a run, listen to the PokerNews Impromptu he did late in the tournament:
The 2014 WSOP APAC will continue on Friday with two more starting flights from Event #1 $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Accumulator. Day 1b will kick off at 12:10 p.m. local time with Day 1c following later that evening at 6:10 p.m. Of course PokerNews will be providing updates from both, so be sure to check back then.