HomeA middle position player risked his tournament life with A♣ 10♠ and needed a near miracle against Joe Hachem’s A♦ K♠.
That miracle did not come on the flop 2♠ 9♠ 4♥ but it did on turn 10♣ to cut down Hachem’s stack to roughly 14,000.
2013 Manila Millions champ Joseph Cheong can’t seem to find his rhythm tonight. He opened for 550 at the button and found the SB player call.
Flop: 2♥ A♠ 9♠
Cheong fired 1,100 but was re-popped to 1,300 more by his opponent. Cheong made the call. He check-called the turn 3♠ for 2,500 and also the river 4♦ for 3,500.
Opponent showed A♥ 9♣ for the two pairs and Cheong mucked his hand. Cheong drops to below 17,000 after this hand.
Jojo Allado bet 600 preflop and faced a shove worth 4,250 from another player. Easy call for Allado who had the big slick and was up against A♦ 7♣.
The dealer boarded 2♣ 8♠ 8♥ 10♣ 5♣ and Allado sends one player to the rail.
And you can’t blame him if he wants to celebrate a little bit after winning a huge pot. While we did not catch the action street by street, we did hear the loud “yes!” all the way to the media tables.
Apparently, Dereck Leaño won on a set vs. set affair when his pocket kings defeated Mandeep Narang’s pocket queens on a board of 6♣ 7♦ Q♠ K♦ J♥.
Leaño’s loud scream was worth over 40,000 even as Narang dropped to below 4,000.
A few estimated chip counts among our remaining 70 players:
Joseph Cheong – 29,500
Neil Arce – 31,000
Vic de Guzman – 14,500
Joe Hachem – 35,500
Do Hoang Anh – 41,000
Acting from the hi-jack, Ian Brion opened the action to 475 preflop. Both blinds made the call.
The flop 3♥ 9♥ K♥ arrived prompting the SB player to bet first with 1,575. BB player and Brion made the call. The turn 3♣ came and another 3,600 from the SB player. Both players called once again.
With a big pot brewing in the middle, more action came after the river 5♣. First the SB player led out on the last street with a 4,500 bet. The BB player wasn’t contented and re-raised to roughly 19,000. Brion called and the SB player got out of the way.
BB player had pocket nines for the full house but Brion had an even better one: Pocket kings for the bigger boat.
With this huge win, Brion looks like one of our early leaders with around 70K worth of chips.
Big board says it’s 97 players for today’s Day 1A! Let’s see if tomorrow’s Day 1B can outdo this number.
Time for the players to stretch and relax a bit as we’re just halfway from today’s cut-off. We’re playing 8 levels of poker today so they need every bit of rest they can get.
The antes kick in the next level too, surely some serious poker action is coming.
Tommy Le acting from under gun opened to 400 and found 3 callers.
Flop: K♠ 8♦ 3♦
Le continued his story and bet 700 and the mid-position player called as the two others got out of the way.
At the turn A♠, he led out once again this time to 1600, which his opponent called. Le put on the brakes and checked the river 9♣ but faced a 7,000 bet from his opponent. Le made the call and mucked his hand after he was shown A♣ 10♣.
Dropping to near-death levels, Le shoved the very next hand with A♣ 9♣ but was up against Sam Razavi’s J♥ J♠
Flop 10♣ 2♣ 2♦ saw no hope for Le and neither did the turn 10♠ and river 6♦.
Tommy Le joins brothers Nam and Allan on the rail.