Here’s a quick (estimated) count of the chip leaders in each table:
Jason Powers – 70,000
Sammy Bulong – 45,000
Hajime Mogi – 60,000
Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – 50,000
Kenneth Khoo – 120,000
Ferenc Riech – 60,000
Jimmy Johan – 60,000
We’re on the last level of the day so let’s see if these players can keep this up and enter Day 2 as one of the chip leaders.
On a board of 4♠ J♣ 3♠ Ferenc Riech bet 1,475 and saw Yoichi Uesugi re-pop to 3,500. Riech decided to flat-call. Both players checked the turn 7♣ and on the river Q♦, Riech fired 3,000 and was immediately called by Uesugi.
Bad news for the Japanese, who mucked his hand after Rieche showed A♥ A♣
We didn’t catch the action but we did see Christopher Gross scoop a nice pot– about 45,000– holding 2♠ 2♦ on a board of J♦ Q♥ 2♣ 8♦ 7♥. The opponent, who busted out after the hand, had J♥ A♦ and while he hit the jack he just couldn’t beat the set of Gross’ ducks!
After Kenneth Khoo climbed over the century mark, it looks like everyone in the table respects or fear (or both) the Singaporean. A raise from the button had that effect as both the blinds got out of the way and Khoo stole the blinds and antes.
Jason Powers led out post-flop 6♠ 4♥ K♠ with 3,000 and saw Masato Yokosowa stay in the hand. On the turn 4♦, Powers led out once again this time with 5,000. Yokosawa wasn’t going away and made the call. On the river 4♠, Powers meant business and shoved. Yokosawa can’t handle the heat on that bet and folded.
Eemil Tuominen opened the betting pre-flop with 1,000 and saw three callers including both blinds. The dealer boarded J♦ 8♥ Q♣ and all four players checked. Same story on the turn 9♥.
On the river 10♥, it was Tuominen who led out with 4,000. Two players folded except for the man in the big blind, who had J♥ 5♥. Tuominen showed A♣ K♣ for the straight and he wins the pot.
On a raised pot with a flop of 8♦ K♥ 2♦, Judic Kim fired 2,000 to the middle and saw Minh Nguyen flat-call. When the turn K♠ arrived Kim stepped on the brakes and Nguyen smelled the weakness by betting 2,800. Kim folded to give the pot to Nguyen, who climbed to over 40,000 in chips.
Pachara Wongwichit opened with 800 pre-flop but saw Sammy Bolung re-pop it to 2,100. Wongwichit casually called to bring the flop J♣ 2♠ 4♣.
Wongwichit checked while Bolung took a shot at the pot betting 3,000 and it was enough for him to take down the chips in the middle. Bolung was nice enough to show J♦ to the table.
On a flop of 2♣ Q♠ 7♣, a player from the hi-jack led out with 2,600 and was called by Ferenc Riech to bring the turn 3♦.
Riech’s opponent then check-called his bet of 6,600 to bring the river 8♠ where the opponent fired 17,000– more than what Riech had behind.
Armed with just A♣ 9♣ in what was a busted flush draw, Riech called anyway and was shown the good news when his opponent tabled J♠ 9♠ for complete air!
Riech makes the right call and he climbs back to contention with over 50,000 in chips!