HomeDay 1a is over! A total of 34 players survived the day. We will be posting the chip counts shortly. Congratulations to all the qualifiers!
Chip Leaders
Arunas Sapitavicius 103,200
Joven Huerto 99,075
With the last few hands being played, Yen Yau Shern shoved on a completed board of 7♠ 3♠ J♥ A♥ Q♦. He was called by the button player and Yau earned a late double up with his K♠ 10♠. Yau now has around 65k chips.
Tommy Lee went up against Gerald Casey for a hand and claimed the pot with his A♣ 10♣ landing trips on the board of Q♠ 6♠ 10♦ 10♥ 2♦. Lee is now up to around 60k chips.
The field has further dwindled with another short stack hitting the rail. Going all in preflop, Guofu Chen called with A♣ 9♥ and was ahead against Q♦ 8♥. The board bricked and Chen took the pot.
Small betting is no longer the way to go in this final level of the day. On a board showing 6♠ 7♠ 8♦, Dumon checked to the mid position player who bet 3500. The bet was called by the hijack player, but when action swung back to Dumon he raised it up to 45k. Much too much, his opponents folded.
Joven Huerto has been cradling a big stack for a majority of the day and with the last level at hand, he was not ready to chill back and wait for the clock to run. Instead, Huerto got himself in a hand against akemi Kamada. At the flop of 10♠ 5♣ 8♦, Kamada checked to Huerto who bet 4k. Kamada replied with a shove of 26k, and Huerto obliged. Huerto had J♠ J♥ and Kamada had A♦ 10♦. The turn of 2♣ and river of 5♥ were no help to Kamada and she was eliminated from the field. Huerto climbs over 90k in chips.
Although we only caught the action on the river, Marv Dumon laid out a small bet of 8k onto a pot of 32k with the board showing 2♥ 4♦ 5♠ Q♠ 9♥. His opponent, Guofu Chen, didn’t take the bait and folded. Dumon showed his Q♣ Q♦ set instead while scooping in the pot.
Lots of preflop action at one of the tables began with Jessie Leonarez raising to 1250 preflop, called by Johnson Tan and Iori Yogo, then re-raised by Lim Yo Hwan to 4500. Only Yogo called and it was a head to head battle. The flop ran 3♥ 3♣ 4♦. Yogo checked, Hwan bet 5500, and Yogo matched it. At the turn of 4♠, Yogo checked again, Hwan bet 12k, and this time, Yogo let his hand go.
Three players were all in with Tetsuya Tsuchikawa holding the largest amount of chips although still below average. Tsuchikawa had 8♦ 8♠, Kenneth Khoo had 7♥ 7♦, and Kunal Patni had Q♣ 10♣. The board bricked and Tsuchikawa scooped up all the chips while sending two players out of the Main Event.