Sometimes you find yourself having to work backwards in a hand to figure things out. In this one, Chuanshu Chen had a bet of 19,000 in front of him from middle position, while Huang Qien had an all-in bet of 35,900 in front of him from the small blind. It would be a safe bet to assume then that Chen had opened, Qien had three-bet, Chen's 19,000 was a four-bet, and Qien's shove was a five-bet.
Whatever the action prior to our arrival, Chen would end up making the call.
Chen:
Qien:
They say that deuces never loses, but it did this time after an runout. That takes Chen down to 62,000, and doubles Qien up to 74,000.
It wasn't on the schedule, but the players are now taking one last ten-minute break. When the final 80 return, they'll play one more 40-minute level and then we're done for the day.
Day 1a of the Oriental Poker Championship (OPC) 2018 Main Event is in the books. A total of 142 players took a shot today, and after 11 40-minute levels that field was more than halved down to 66 survivors. They’ve all now got Friday off, for Day 2 isn’t until Saturday, May 26.
The player who can relax the most out of all of them is Shun Yan Feng, who won a few big pots late in the day to rocket up the counts, ending the day with 186,300. Had Feng not enjoyed some end-of-day run good, it would have been Yang Zhang we’d crown chipleader. Zhang won a huge pot when his ace-king beat Qi Luo’s pocket kings, doubling him up. He ended the day with 146,600 - good for second place.
Li Cheng Bei had a solid day, bagging up 133,000 when all was said and done. Others who ended well include Yongbin Wang - an early chipleader today - with 132,300, Shu Zhang with 116,600, and Andy Chan with 104,200.
Other notable chip counts to make it through include former chip leader Ning Sun (84,300), Phanlert Sukonthachartnant (84,200), Dong Guo (68,600), Sam Cheong (52,000), and down near the bottom of the counts, Dzmitry Rabotkin (14,500).
As for those who didn't make it through - including Joshua Zimmerman, Shiqiang Lin, Hongjun Zhao, and Zhao Yanchao - they can take another shot as this tournament has unlimited re-entries.
All 66 survivors will return on Saturday at 1 p.m. (check out the full chip counts below), but for now, our attention turns to tomorrow’s Day 1b. That kicks off at 1 p.m. on Friday, and at the end of it, we’ll know our entire Day 2 field. See you back here tomorrow.