Winfred Yu has pulled an escape act to stay alive in this tournament after getting his last chips into the middle with and dominated against the of Joshua Ang.
However the poker Gods often like to have some fun, as they delivered a board of . Yu makes a running flush to double up to 130,000. Ang slips to 200,000.
After raising to 22,500 and then folding for his last 8,500 chips in an earlier hand, Carlos Chang waited another hand or two, before committing his last 7,500 chips with against the of Preetinder Bhayana.
The board was spread and Chang is chopped in 38th place for $8,321 in prize money.
We didn't see where the money went in between Mike Collins and Karl Mahrenholz. Given the tabled hands -- for Collins and for Mahrenholz -- we have to imagine it was on the flop. Mahrenholz needed to improve on his tens. The on the turn gave him a few more precious outs. Any eight, nine or ten would keep him in the tournament. The river, however, was the , making trip jacks for Collins. Mahrenholz therefore reported to the payout table.
Van Binh Pham moved all in preflop for his last chips with but found himself racing when Daniel Hansson made the call in the small blind with .
The flop was not what Pham wanted to see when it fell . The on the turn brought Pham some hope to a chop but the river bricked the and Pham becomes our 36th place finisher. He'll collect $8,321 in prize money.
A huge put between Brandon Demes and Kyle Cheong has seen the mometum swing back in the direction of Demes.
The action was four-bet preflop before they saw a flop. Cheong checked and Demes fired 65,000. Cheong then check-raised to 190,000 before Demes declared himself all in. Cheong tanked for a long time and eventually had to release as Demes stormed to 730,000 and a clear chip lead. Cheong falls to 330,000.
Roger Spets started the day as one of the shortest stacks. He was unable to make it out of the first level of play. Spets was severely short-stacked and called all in from the big blind after small blind Darkhan Botabayev set him in. Botabayev had complete air, against Spets' . Of course, as these things go, three-nine wound up the boss hand on a board of , making trip treys to send Spets to the rail in 35th place.
Four minutes is how long Jicheng Su spent in the think tank. He had bet 20,500 on a flop of in front of Wally Sombero, who moved all in.
"Do you have a big hand?" Su asked Sombero. Sombero nodded his head, prompting Su to stand up out of his chair with a pained expression on his face. He ran his hands through his hair, rubbed his forehead and then jammed his hands deep into his pockets.
"Do you want me to call or fold?" Su asked. "Do you have a big hand?" Again Sombero nodded. "How big?" He didn't wait for an answer before finally calling all in for a total of 120,500.
Su:
Sombero:
Su's two pair, aces and treys, were ahead of Sombero's single pair of aces. They stayed that way with two babies, on the turn and on the river. Su doubled to about 260,000 while Sombero fell to 119,000.
"Couldn't win a race," he replied. "Good luck big guy." It was true. Tran's was up against Shawn Buchanan's pocket fours, all in preflop. Buchanan flopped a set and never looked back to send Tran to the rail.
Fortunately we caught up with Tran yesterday for a quick 60 seconds with Lynn Gilmartin...