In the first orbit of the Warm Up a couple days ago, Yosuke Sekiya, the 2012 Asia Player of the Year, got his chips in with against an opponent who held on a flop. Sekiya was primed to get off to a good start, but then disaster struck as the case spiked on the turn. Similarly, Sekiya just suffered a bad beat here in the Main Event to exit early.
We caught the action in the last hand before the break with the all-in button in front of Sekiya. He was all in for 14,725 while Shingo Cho, who already had 2,700 in the pot, was pondering what to do. He tanked for several minutes prompting many players to exit the tournament floor. A minute or so into the break, Cho dropped in a call.
Cho:
Sekiya:
Cho seemed to regret the decision, and rightfully so as he was a 2-1 dog. According to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Sekiya was a 65.48% favorite while Cho would come from behind 33.68% of the time. Much to Sekiya's dismay, this was one such time as the flop delivered Cho a set to make him a 91.21% favorite. Neither the turn nor river delivered Sekiya the case king, and he became the first elimination of the day.
The cards are now back in the air for Level 2 (100/200 blinds) and we will be playing the remaining hour of this level along with the first hour of Level 3 (100/200/25a) before our next break of the day.
Julius Colman opened to cutoff to 500 and was called by the big blind to see a flop fall. Both players checked as the landed on the turn and Colman fired out 750 which was check-called by his opponent.
The river of the saw both players check and Colman reveal his for virtually the nut-low while his opponent revealed his .
Colman however still sits with more than his starting stack at 32,000.
David Ewing opened for a raise from middle position only to have Ihar Soika, who has been active here in the early goings, three-bet to 1,300 from the small blind. Ewing responded with four-bet to 2,675, which prompted a five-bet to 6,225 from Soika. At that point, Ewing opted for a call and it was heads-up action to the flop.
Soika was first to act and bet 4,550, Ewing called, and the appeared on the turn. Soika slowed down with a check, but he still called when Ewing bet 6,250. When the completed the board on the river, Soika checked for a second time and Ewing announced that he was all in for his last 16,250.
Soika tanked for several minutes before releasing his hand, and that prompted Ewing to show the before pulling in the large pot.
Following Jian Yang's victory last night in the Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) Warm-Up for HK$1,700,000 he has now jumped to the top of the Asia Player of the Year ranking on the back of a victory he had in the ACOP: Platinum Series II Main Event in September.
However with five events remaining on the ACOP schedule, anyone could take that top spot from Yang with an impressive result or two.