A big part of playing winning poker is minimizing your losses. James Obst provided an excellent example of that in a recent battle of the blinds. He was in the big blind and checked after the small blind completed. The small blind check-called a bet of 600 on the flop, then check-called a bet of 1,000 when the turn fell . On the river , the small blind checked again. Obst thought things over, then slowly tapped the felt to check behind. It was an excellent check -- his opponent showed for trip aces that took down the pot.
Tasha Ellis
Tasha Ellis is now a clear chip leader as we approach the dinner break after she just eliminated three players in the very same hand!
Two short stacks were all in preflop with and , while APPT Seoul champion Yoshihiro Tasaka also moved all in with . Ellis had them all covered but needed to improve as she tabled .
She certainly improved when the flop landed for a pair of aces and a commanding lead in the hand. With Tasaka crying for a nine, the turn was the , giving the short-stack with a glimmer of hope for an unlikely victory with his flush draw. However the river bricked the and Ellis sends all three opponents to the rail in sensational fashion to jump up to 85,000 chips!
Celina Lin
After chipping up early, Celina Lin has been treading water. She recently took down a raised three-way pot again Dimitrios Pappis and one other player by betting 3,000 into a 3,700-chip pot on a flop of . Neither of her opponents wanted to play for that price..
Lin has about 16,000 in her stack as we approach the dinner break.
We're back from the dinner break. Cards are in the air. Seventy players remain. We will be taking a short break after one hour to race off the green (25) chips, and then playing through the last one and a half hours of play after that.
Casey Kastle has been sleepy all day, having just arrived into Manila about an hour before the tournament started. We imagine he probably perked up a bit after flopping trips with on a board of and getting all-in action from The turn and river bricked out to allow Kastle to scoop the pot. When the smoke all cleared, Kastle had increased his stack to about 22,000.
Priscilla Meirelles
Despite being a few minutes late back from the dinner break, Priscilla Meirelles has wasted little time in getting back into the swing of things.
After the flop was checked, Meirelles turned the broadway straight holding and fired 2,200 on the turn and river against Dimitrios Pappis, who cringed on he river before making a call with for two pair.
"I thought you were going to raise!" exclaimed Meirelles.
"I was going to", explained Dimitrios "but I was just so lost in the hand!"
Dimitrios slips under 40,000 while Meirelles jumps up to 30,000.
Faced with an all-in bet from a very short-stacked player for a total of 3,325, Ivan Tan decided to make the call with . He was in the lead against
"Put some pictures on the board," Tan instructed the dealer. "Two pictures. Put two pictures on the board."
"Keep it low!" pleaded his opponent. The dealer spread a flop of .
"There's one," said Tan. "Now put another." The turn was the . "Ok, another." The river wasn't a picture, but it was the . That made a full house for Tan and eliminated his opponent from the tournament.