We picked up a three-way pot on the flop between Chihwen Chen (small blind), Ivan Leow (big blind) and Albert Paik (cutoff) on a flop of . Both blinds had checked to Paik, who bet 30,000.
Chen check-raised to 85,000 and Leow folded. So it was heads-up to the turn. Chen shoved and Paik folded immediately.
There has been a bit of blind and ante swapping for the last couple of orbits, but with no significant action to speak of. Ivan Leow and Albert Paik played a small pot, with Paik managing to catch a piece of the board to take it down and take some chips from the rampant Leow.
It was Paik who was the aggressor with a raise to 25,000 from the cutoff and Leow defended from the big blind. The flop came down and was checked by both players, as was the turn and river.
Leow turned over and a giggling Paik turned over for a flopped pair of eights, which was enough to win the hand.
The final table is now down to five players, with Victor Chong falling at the hands of Ivan Leow to give the latter a decent chip lead. The action happened extremely quickly with all the chips going in pre-flop, though it looked as though it was Chong the man to shove over the top of a Leow open raise.
Victor Chong:
Ivan Leow:
Chong was behind and at -risk and this did not change when the board ran out . Chong headed for the cash desk, while Leow began stacking his newly minted chips.
Ivan Leow made it 25,000 to go on the button and both Yang Wang and Victor Chong made the call from the blinds. The flop fell and was checked all around.
Wang opened for 30,000 on the turn, Chong re-raised to 80,000, Leow shoved, and both other players folded.
The six remaining finalists are on a 10-minute break.
Ivan Leow and Chihwen Chen played a decent sized pot just before they headed off, with Loew opening from under-the-gun for 22,000 and Chen re-popping him to 80,000 from the big blind. Leow called but folded when Chen shoved the flop, flashing Chen the as he did so.
That meant that Albert Paik edged back into the lead, though not by much.
China's Yang Wang won two back-to-back pots; the first saw him defend his big blind against a late position Albert Paik open to 22,000 and the flop fell . Wang checked, Paik bet 22,000 and Wang check-raised to 72,000, showing down for a big combo draw when Paik folded.
There were fireworks the next hand, however, with the action folding around to Yang in the small blind the very next hand. Wang shoved and Cheng had a decision to make. The Hong Kong player eventually decided to make the call for his tournament life and the card were turned over.
Tony Cheng:
Yang Wang:
Cheng was at-risk but held the narrowest of narrow leads. This all but disappeared on the flop, which saw Wang pull ahead with middle pair and a straight draw to Cheng's bottom pair. The turn brought Cheng no help, and neither did the river meaning there are now six players left. Cheng took home HKD $160,000 for his seventh-place finish.
Ivan Leow and Albert Paik clashed in a previous hand that we did not catch, but caught the next one Leow played against fellow countryman Victor Chong.
We picked up the action on a flop of just as Chong (big blind) checked the action over to Leow, who fired for 20,000, which Chong called. That was it for the betting in the hand with both players checking the turn and river. Chong rolled over , which was enough to win the hand when Leow mucked. Even after losing that pot however, Leow is the current frontrunner.
Albert Paik is not getting things all his own way at the final table, and Ivan Leow has just pulled off a nicely timed squeeze play to win close to 80,000 without a flop being dealt. It was Paik opening the action from the cutoff with a raise to 22,000 with Chihwen Chen making the call from the small blind.
With the action on Leow, the Malaysian player thought things over for a spell before squeezing out a raise to 100,000. Paik folded pretty speedily, and while Chen took a little longer, he too also gave it up. There was a little bit of banter about who folded what, but Leow looked happy enough to rake in the free chips.