Cards are back in the air. We had a special "Shuffle up and deal" to re-commence the action from PokerStars Team Australia Pro Tony Hachem, who got engaged last night. Lynn caught up with him during the break:
Ivan Tan was in position on a board of . By the time we came to the table he had 3,050 chips out as a bet, but we're not sure if he bet that amount or raised that amount after his opponent bet. Regardless, his opponent seemed agonized by his decision on such a straighting and flushing board. Finally, he called.
Tan was clearly not happy to see the call. "King-high," he said, showing a red king. His opponent turned over for top set and dragged the pot.
"I guess that was a good river for me," he joked afterwards.
"Not really," Tan replied. "I was going to bet the river anyway!"
Despite being fairly remote from the U.S.A., there are a handful of Americans in the room. One of them is Johnny Hanes -- "like the underwear," he told us as we scribbled down his name.
Hanes is an incongrous guy, as he's dressed in a Montreal Expos baseball jersey and a University of Texas cap but claims to hail from Alabama. Hanes took shot at playing one of the hyper-turbo super-satellites on PokerStars that funneled into a qualifier tournament for this event. He said he managed to double up early in the qualifier and then coasted from there.
Hanes arrived earlier in the week and played in the Cebu Cup, finishing as the bubble boy. He's hoping to cash in the Main Event so that he can claim that he is the first player from Alabama to cash in the Philippines.
Hanes is off to a good start, having already managed to double his stack.
Tae Jun Noh was all in at risk of elimination earlier in the day and managed to draw out, turning the nut straight. He had no such luck a second time around, getting his chips into the middle with on a board of . His opponent had flopped a set of threes, so the running nines that hit the turn and the river did not improve Noh to the best hand. He's out.
On a flop of , one player checked the action over to PokerStars Team Asia Pro Bryan Huang. He fired out 1,100 and his opponent called after some deliberation. The turn was the , which both players checked. It was the same action on the river. Huang's opponent was diguste to see Huang check behind; he slammed down for the flopped full house!
On a flop of Bouya led out 3,500 with his and had his opponent fire over the top for 7,000. Bouya tanked it, possibly hollywooding, before counting down his opponent's stack and setting him all in. The opponent snap called slapping confidently on the table, before dismaying that he was behind.
All Bouya needed to do was hold up. The turn was fine, but the river gave his opponent a full-house and caused Bouya to punch the table in disgust.