Alexandru Bot raised to 6,500 in the hijack before Carl Shaw three-bet to 29,000 in the big blind. Bot then moved all in for 120,000 and Shaw snap-called.
Alexandru Bot: 10♠10♥
Carl Shaw: K♦K♠
A round of "oohs" arose from the table when the 10♦K♥4♥ flop gave both players a set, but Shaw still had the lead with his set of kings. Bot was down to one out but couldn't find any miracles on the 9♦ turn or 7♦ river as Shaw took the pot and sent Bot to the rail.
Tom Middleton also busted at the same time at another table.
Daniel Bedson raised to 6,000 in early position before Lin Chen three-bet to 20,000 on the button. Mark Reed then shoved all in from the small blind, Bedson folded, but Chen called for his last 100,000.
Lin Chen: A♥K♥
Mark Reed: A♣A♦
Chen had run into aces with just a few minutes remaining in the day, and the 6♥2♦7♣6♠4♠ board didn't provide him any relief as he was sent to the rail.
Vivian Saliba opened to 6,000 under the gun as action folded to Daniel Laidlaw on the button, who three-bet to 18,000.
Saliba tanked for several minutes before announcing a four-bet to 68,000. Laidlaw then paused for around a minute and looked around the room before mucking.
A star-studded field made their way to the English West Midlands for Day 1b of the £888 888poker LIVE Coventry Main Event, and by the end of the night, one of them ended up as the overwhelming chip leader.
Yiannis Liperis already has more than $3,000,000 in career earnings and put himself in a position to make a deep run here in Coventry. Liperis doubled up late in the night with the nut straight against Matt Davenport on his way to bagging 507,000, putting him atop the 34 players who have booked a ticket into Day 2.
Tan Le busted earlier in the day but reentered and was on the right side of an aces versus kings cooler, ending up with 397,000 and in second place. Paul Ephremsen (352,000) won one of the biggest pots of the day when he had a pair of queens against Keith Littlewood, while Tuan Le (308,000) and Sheng Zheng (302,000) round out the top five.
Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Yiannis Liperis
Cyprus
507,000
169
2
Tan Le
United Kingdom
397,000
132
3
Paul Ephremsen
United Kingdom
352,000
117
4
Tuan Le
United Kingdom
308,000
103
5
Sheng Zheng
United Kingdom
302,000
101
6
Mark Reed
United Kingdom
236,000
79
7
Daniel Laidlaw
United Kingdom
235,000
78
8
Carl Spencer
United Kingdom
227,000
76
9
Vivian Saliba
Brazil
219,000
73
10
Sohrab Tavakkoleet
United Kingdom
219,000
73
888poker Ambassador Vivian Saliba fired multiple bullets on Day 1b before finding kings to double up, finishing with 219,000. Other top stacks include Daniel Laidlaw (235,000), Dean Hutchison (174,000), and Carl Shaw (165,000).
Other members of the 888poker team didn’t fare as well as Saliba. Nick Eastwood, Ian Simpson, Lucia Navarro, Josh Manley, and Aaron Barone all hit the rail on Day 1b, as did Niall Farrell, Tom Middleton, Jose Aguilera, Leo Worthington-Leese, Florian Duta, and the unpredicatable Terry Jordon, who fired five bullets with his erratic style of play. They’ll have to try again tomorrow in order to resume their pursuit of the title.
The 180 total entries on Day 1b combined with 85 on the first starting flight to create a field of 265 through the first two opening days. Just 51 remain in the hunt when Day 2 begins at 11 a.m. on October 28. There is still a Day 1c flight tomorrow and a turbo Day 1d flight at 8 p.m. Late registration remains open until the start of Day 2, so the field should grow exponentially until that time on the way to the £500,000 guaranteed prize pool.
A crop of new and returning hopefuls will be back tomorrow, and PokerNews will follow all the action throughout the remainder of the tournament here in the Coventry Building Society Arena.