The rise of Adrian State has him positioned among the top contenders. State bagged 159,400 on Day 1, and retook his seat at the felt this morning. !

Adrian State

His momentum continued into Day 2 as a hand during Level 12 saw him eliminate Abelard Ma in a flush-over-flush cooler, with State holding the queen of diamonds and Ma holding the jack.

A few levels later, State found himself in one of the biggest pots of the day, a hand that rocketed him into the lead. His surge came after cracking Mathew Wiseman's pocket kings with his pocket jacks after turning the set, pushing his stack to 700,000.

The most recent hand saw him take on Chun Yu Ma. The cards were already on their backs, and Ma's A J couldn't find any help on the Q 9 3 5 7 runout, while State’s pocket tens T T held strong. After the hand, he was sitting on a monster 970,000 stack, the clear current chip leader.

State has been seen in the live poker circuit since 2015, but this is his first presence at an Asia stop. He is one to watch this series as he recently won the € 1,100 No Limit Hold'em - PokerStars Open Main Event in earlier this year, taking home a cool € 363,000 (~USD 395,515). This made up a significant portion of his USD 2,182,222 recorded live earnings.

State has put himself in a great position to reach Day 3, but with three levels still remaining in the day, anything can happen.

Stay with the APT blog as we follow all the ups and down, climbs and falls of this Natural8 Cup event.