HomeSam Cheong raised to 2700 from the utg seat and Andre Moracchini defended on the big blind. At the flop A♣ 3♥ 3♦, both checked and the turn came 10♠. This brought on some action with Cheong sliding out at 4500 bet. Moracchini check-called and the river J♠ was dealt. Once again Moracchini passed the betting to Cheong who sent bet 7k. Moracchini called. Cheong showed A♦ J♦ two pair and won it as Moracchini mucked.
Yang Peng has just been crippled to a very short stack. A few hands after paying a double up to SJ Kim, Peng went head-to-head against Anson Wong Fuk On. On a raised pot preflop, both players saw the dealer spread J-6-3. Wong bet 13k, Peng raised to 26k, Wong called. On the jack turn, no bets came, but on the 9 river, it was back to action with Wong sending out 21k and Peng tossing in the call. Wong had 9-9 for a full house that was much stronger than Peng’s 10-10 two pair. Peng dropped to around 10k.
Yang Peng entered the day running second in command and held on to it for a good part of the opening two rounds. In this level however, his stack downsized with some of it going to short stacked Soo Jo Kim.
On a turn board of 8♥ Q♣ 9♦ A♠, Kim moved all in with 11.7k, Peng raised to 35k, and the third player in the hand got out of the way.
Kim A♣ 8♣ two pair
Peng J♦ 10♦ straight
When the river spiked an A♦, Kim overtook with a full house while Peng was stunned in disbelief. The APT Main Event champion Kim doubled up to around 50k.
On the first level of the day, APT Korea Incheon Main Event champion Albert Paik was given a second chance with his A-9 both pairing up on the board to double up through Patty Lai with A-K top pair. Since then, he has nursed his stack however it is still below average. We just caught a glimpse of his losing two pots. Both hands had him deep in the tank.
On a complete board showing 3♦ 8♣ 4♦ 8♠ 6♦ and a 41k pot brewed, Tetsuya Tsuchikawa laid out 18.5k. After a couple of minutes, Paik folded.
A couple of hands after, Diego Palma had his 22.3k stack all in on a board of 10♦ 6♠ K♠ Q♣ 9♠ and a pot of 17.3k beside it. Once again, Paik tanked but this time he opted to call. Palma opened up A♣ J♦ straight and Paik paid the double up while showing his K♦[qh} two pair.
One of the past APT Main Event champions has just fallen out of the running. Iori Yogo had it all in with 8♥ 8♦ and was up against Jullian Stanley’s A♥ Q♥. The board ran 3♥ K♥ 2♠ K♠ 10♥ for a winning nut flush to Stanley.
Michael Soyza is looking like the chip leader at the moment having just earned a sizable pot against Andrew An. Packing around 150k at the start of the hand, An and Soyza went on a preflop raise war that saw Soyza three-bet to 7500 then call An’s 24k four-bet.
On the flop J♦ 7♠ 6♠, both players quietly checked and 4♦ came on fourth street. An led for 17k and Soyza smooth-called. On the river 4♣, An fired out 38k, and still couldn’t push out Soyza who called. An showed A♦ K♠ and lost the pot to Soyza’s J♠ 9♠.
Winning a big enough pot preflop was exactly what Zinan Xu was awarded in this hand. Action kicked off with Wim Bos raising to 2k, called by Kenji Hata, three-bet to 7k by Ken Okada on the sb seat, followed by Xu with a shove of 26.7k. No one took the challenge and he scooped it up.
We just lost another player in a pretty sick hand that we only caught as it the chips were being shipped. Big blind player Wai Kiat Lee showed Q-5 suited spades and Kenji Hata with 8-8. The board spread 5-Q-8-3-5 for a full house to both. With Hata holding the higher boat, that ended Lee’s day.
For the players and onlookers of this table, an intense hand just went down between Du Ming Tsai and Victor Chong – the last online Natural8 qualifier remaining.
The hand kicked off with Chong bumping it up to 2k on the utg+1 seat. The button player called followed by big blind Tsai three-betting to 7500. Only Chong called and the flop landed 10♥ 8♠ A♣. Tsai led out for 5k and Chong called. On the 4♠ turn, no bets came; however on the river 5♠, action was steamy with Tsai laying out a 40k bet, enough to cover Chong’s 24k stack. It took some time before Chong decided and he risked it all. Tsai turned over Q♠ Q♥ and Chong mucked.
Tsai now up to 80k in chips.