HomeFour more consecutive passes after a raiser found no callers.
Twice for Chow Mun Fei (both shoves) and twice for Huy Pham. With the blinds at 15000/30000/5000, this is a nice freebie.
Azusa Maeda from Japan is the first casualty of the Final Eight courtesy of fellow Japanese compatriot Tetsuya Tsuchikawa.
During the hand, Tsuchikawa raised double from the button and Maeda called from the big blind. At the flop of 5♥ 6♣ 8♣, both players checked and watched the turn land 2♣. Maeda moved all in and Tsuchikawa snap-called.
Maeda: 7♠ 8♥ top pair
Tsuchikawa: 3♠ 4♠ straight
With the river of 8♠ not good enough to beat Tsuchikawa’s straight, Maeda was eliminated in 8th place. He earns PHP348,000 for his finish at the Main Event.
John Tech opened for 60,000 preflop and had a caller from the small blind Michael Mariakis.
On the flop K♣ K♥ 6♥, Tech fired a smaller 45,000 and Mariakis called. Both checked the turn J♥ and river 5♣.
Mariakis showed A♦ 5♦ for the pair on the river and he nets the nice pot.
On a three-way raised pot on a board of K♦ 5♣ 8♠, Azusa Maeda shoved his final 215,000 and got a caller from Linh Tran, second in chips today. Michael Mariakis (who showed he had pocket tens) got out of the way.
Maeda and Tran both had K? Q? though and we have a split pot.
First, it was Tetsuya Tsuchikaw who opened for 65,000 and found no callers to steal the blinds and antes. Huy Pham did the same with 70,000 and Chow Mun Fei shoved as well– no callers and they get the blinds/antes too.
Sitting at the lower end of the chip stack ladder, Jojo Tech moved all in from the late position and was called by Chow Mun Fei.
Tech: 8♣ 8♣
Fei: A♣ Q♦
Needing to avoid the high cards, the flop ran 3♠ 8♠ J♠, improving Tech to a set, and with the turn of J♦, he had an unbeatable full house. The river of 3♣ was of no consequence.
Tech doubled up bringing him up to 700K while Fei dropped to just over 200K.
We are on a 15-min chip raise break. Current chip counts:
Huy Pham 1,440,000
Eric Sia 695,000
Linh Tran 1,185,000
Jojo Tech 310,000
Michael Mariakis 765,000
Chow Mun Fei 545,000
Tetsuya Tsuchikawa 580,000
Azusa Maeda 285,000
Eric Sia opened preflop for 48,000 and was called by Michael Mariakis from the big blind.
Flop: K♥ 10♥ 4♣
Sie fires yet another 55,000 and Mariakis quickly called. Both players checked the turn 2♣ and river 6♠. Mariakis showed 10♣ 7♦ as Sia mucked his hand. The Australian climbs to around 800,000 after the win.
Jojo Tech tried to defend his big blind against Huy Pham by calling Pham’s raise to 50K preflop.
Flop: 10♠ 2♠ Q♦
Both players checked.
Turn: 6♣
Tech led out for 70K and Pham smooth-called.
River: 7♣
Tech bet 90K but was quickly challenged by Pham’s raise to 200K. Tech folded and lost around 210K off his stack.
Tech falls to 327K chips.