HomeDay 1A wrapped up with 38 players making the cut into Day 2. Leading the pack is Sam Nee with 165,500 chips followed by Mike Takayama with 133,200 chips, and running third in chips is Tsuji Yasuyuki with 128,800 chips.
Congratulations to all the qualifiers! We will be back tomorrow at 1pm for Day 1B!
It’s a close battle for the chip lead for Day 1A but it appears Sam Nee is on track to take it after busting out another player during the final three hands of the night.
The opponent still had around 25,000 but put it all to the middle anyway thinking he needs to double up for a better shot in Day 2. Unfortunately, Nee and his pocket aces were waiting and obviously, it was an easy call.
The board blanked for the opponent and Nee climbed to roughly 150,00 after the hand.
After having one of the bigger stacks in the first half of Day 1A, Christine Hia’s main event run is over. Hia moved all-in her final 24,500 or so and got a quick call from Ivan of Russia.
Ivan: A♣ 9♦
Hia: A♠ 6♣
Flop J♠ 4♣ 7♠ turn 5♣ and river 10♣ and Hia can’t get the bad beat to survive.
Eric Sia took a chunk of Lee Wai Kiat’s stack when was all in preflop against Kiat.
Sia: 7♣ 7♦
Kiat: Q♣ Q♦
Though Kiat was ahead, the flop landed 7♠ K♥ 4♠ giving Sia a sick set. Then with the turn of 2♦ and river of 3♠, Kiat failed to improve and Sia doubled up to almost 100K chips.
Short stacked Benjie Bustillo got all his chips in the middle and was paid off when his A♣ A♠ pocket nuts landed an even sweeter nuts with the board running 8♥ 3♣ K♣ A♦ A♥ for quads! Too bad he didn’t have more chips. Bustillo is now up to 38K.
Jay Lubas laid out his remaining 13200 chips and was called by Lourdes Fernandez.
Lubas: 7♦ 8♦
Fernandez: A♣ J♦
When the flop landed 10♠ 6♠ 9♦, Lubas rejoiced at his nut straight, but when he saw the turn land 8♣, he began to worry. His fears were as he expected, a Q♦ slapped on the river burning his hand as Fernandez connected with a higher straight.
We did not catch the hand but we saw New Zealander Brent Schlaadt walk away from the tournament area– not for a break but because he’s eliminated. The guy responsible for his bust out is Mun Fei Chow– the same guy who was responsible for getting a huge part of his stack in an earlier hand.
Mike Takayama is steam rollin’ with a recent double up. The action began with utg player Mun Fei Chow min raising to 1600, Takayama called, but button player reraised to make it 6100 to play. Chow quickly folded while Takayama chose otherwise and called. At the flop of 3♥ K♥ 10♦, Takayama checked, db bet 8500, and Takayama called. Then at the turn of J♦, Takayama moved all in with his 24,700 chips sending the db player deep into the tank. Time was eventually called and at the final second, Takayama was called. Takayama had J♣ 10♣ for two pairs against db’s A♣ K♣ top pair. With the river card of 6♦, Takayama was awarded the hefty pile of chips and sits with around 80K chips.