HomeDay 1B ended with 71 players making the cut into Day 2. Leading the pack at the end of the night is Michael Mariakis from Australia with 135,500 chips followed by Martin Gonzales of the Philippines with 125,500 chips, and running in third is Azusa Maeda from Japan with 113,100 chips. We will be back tomorrow for Day 2. Congratulations to all the qualifiers!!
Two Michaels were at it late in Day 1B with Michael Falcon raising to 2,500 pre-flop with Michael Mariakis calling from the blinds prompting the former to exclaim, “Come on, man!” (It was the last hand of the day).
Flop: K♣ Q♥ 3♠
Falcon fired another 4,500 to the middle and it was enough to convince Mariakis to just walk away from the hand.
Small loss for Mariakis who appears to have the chip lead for Day 1B.
Freshly-minted NLHE side event winner Bede Connelly was in serious trouble pre-flop when the dealer tabled 6♥ A♦ 3♥ 8♥ his pocket sevens was up against the big slick.
The poker gods decided otherwise on the river 7♥ for Conelly’s set and he busts one out in the final hands of Day 1B.
Despite having the biggest stack at the table, Martin Gonzales was not immuned to losing some of his chips to eager takers. Before the end of the day, Gonzales was in a pot against Kodhi Ishihara .With around 20k already sitting heavily in the middle, both players continued to pump up the pot while staring down at a turn board of 5♣ A♥ 9♦ K♦. Gonzales bet 5000, was called by Ishihara, and both went to see the river of 2♠. Gonzales opted to check, Ishihara bet a measly 3000 which sent Gonzales tanking for quite some time. Gonzales eventually folded and Ishihara was shipped a sizable pot.
Keith Seah skyrocketed to over 100K chips when he scooped up a player’s healthy stack just before the end of the day. Seah had K♣ 8♣ versus his opponent’s A♥ Q♥. The board of 8♥ Q♣ 2♦ 4♣ J♣ gave them both good hands but Seah had the better with a flush landing on the river crushing his opponent’s straight.
Aaron Lam was looking down at his 12700 stack and decided it was time to gamble them all when he was dealt J♠ J♥. He was joined by two players who were also all in, one had A♦ A♠ and the other with A♥ K♦. With the board running J♣ 10♣ 7♣ 6♥ 3♥, Lam was awarded a sweet triple up.
Martin Gonzales and Katsuhiro Moto escalated a pot to bring it easily over 20k with a board showing 8♠ J♠ 9♠ 10♣. When the river felted a J♥, Gonzales bet out 9000 and Moto snap-called. Gonzales won the pot with his A♥ Q♥ straight as Moto frustratingly mucked his hand.
Norbert Koh made it 2,000 preflop and from the big blind, William Te called.
Te check-called Koh’s 3,000 bet on the flop 4♦ 3♦ 10♦ and did the same with Koh’s 4,200 on the turn K♣. The river A♣ arrived and once again Te called… This time Koh gave it up and just checked.
Te showed A♦ 10♣ for two pairs and Koh mucked his hand.