James Kim came into the day as one of the chip leaders but now finds his stack cut in half after an unlucky beat delivered by Espen Solaas. Solaas opened the preflop action by raising to 2,500 before Kim re-raised the button to 7,500. Solaas tanked for about a minute before moving all in. Kim quickly called, putting Solaas at risk.
Kim:
Solaas:
Kim didn't seem pleased by the situation, as if he knew that the flop was going to fall . There was no further help for Kim on the turn or river. He had to double up Solaas, cutting his own stack in half in the process.
Karl Krautschneider has been eliminated after pushing all in with on a flop. His opponent made the call with and the turn and river couldn't get the Australian over the line.
At least two players are missing from the tables in the early-going -- and they're both Russian. At Table 7, Alexeen Dmitry has not yet shown up to playthe 29,500 chips that made it through Day 1. Over on Table 9, Alexandr Tikholiz is similarly absent.
The pace has been frenetic to start the day. Calls of "Player out!" and "Seat open!" are regularly ringing across the tournament floor. One recent victim was Karl Krautschneider.
Bryan Huang was all in and called as well, but he survived. Huang opened the pot to 2,600 before fellow PokerStars Team Asia Pro Raymond Wu re-raised to 6,500. Huang called, then insta-shipped for 9,000 on a flop of . Wu, had been dealt , was forced to call what was an obvious stop-and-go from Huang. But Huang's made top pair on the flop, and the board ran out and to give Huang the pot.
Huang gave Wu a friendly clap on the back after the hand.
Bold Uundai was one of the overnight chip leaders from Day 1a. He's seated on what is sure to be an action table, and already is hot under the collar in the early action. Upon unbagging his chips and stacking them to start the day, Uundai noticed that his count was 2,000 less than what he expected. He pitched a fit.
Tournament officials explained to Uundai (through translator Murun Agvaan-ochir) that Uundai himself was the person who bagged the chips, and that the tourament officials do not touch the bags overnight and do not verify the counts. Most likely, tired at the end of a long day of poker, Uundai miscounted his stack when he bagged it.
Uundai, a bit disgruntled, accepted that explanation and moved on with his day.
Celina Lin and Tony Dunst, who were formerly in a relationship, managed to be seated by next to each other, for the second time on the circuit this year.
That was until Dunst busted on the first hand. Dunst got his all in against an opponent with . The left Dunst needing a lot of help. The turn and river were not the cards he needed and he hit the rail.
"I run good" said Celina Lin cheekily, as Dunst made his exit.
Hopefully he doesn't set himself fire again like he did at his birthday...
As the players are filtering into the tournament room, we should highlight what we feel will be a table to watch this afternoon: Table 3. That table includes two of the chip leaders, Brian Bumpas and Bold Uundai, two PokerStars Team Asia Pros in Bryan Huang and Raymond Wu, and the dangerous but short-stacked Michael Shinzaki.