Welcome back to PokerStars Live at the City of Dreams for Day 4 of the Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) HK$100,000 Main Event.
Yesterday saw 72 players return to the felt and with six levels of play on the cards, many were expecting that we would reach the money by the end of play. However no-one expected the speed of play to be so fast as players were sent to the rail at a high and constant speed.
Unfortunately there would be a stop sign near the end of the road as play screeched to a grinding halt once play was down to the final 27 as it would take several hours before we limped into the money with David Martirosyan losing a flip to guarantee the final 25 a HK$198,000 payday.
Leading the players into the penultimate day of play is American Jonathan Depa who slowly accumulated throughout the day to end with 662,000. PokerStars Team Online members Randy Lew and Naoya Kihara, along with Asia Player of the Year contenders Terry Fan and Yoshitaka Okawa are also in the hunt as well as the two remaining females Cheryl Peng and Yujung Choi.
Top Ten Chip Counts
Player
Chip Count
Jonathan Depa
662,000
Peter Ping San Chan
615,000
Chenxiang Miao
471,500
Randy Lew
420,500
Ro Woong Park
353,500
Yat Wai Cheng
351,000
Aidan Tam
289,000
Ling Tong
272,000
Devan Tang
259,500
Andrew Lam
256,000
Play is set to commence at 3:00 p.m. local time with the PokerNews Live Reporting Team providing continuous live updates as we play down to the final table by day’s end.
Edward Yam opened with a raise only to have Yoshitaka Okawa three-bet the big blind to 18,000. Yam made the call as the dealer spread a flop and Okawa continued for 22,000. Yam moved all in for roughly 78,000 and Okawa made the call.
Yam:
Okawa:
With Yam in the lead, the on the turn would now see him needing to spike a king or seven to stay alive. Unfortunately for the Hong Kong player, the river landed the and Yam was sent to the rail in 25th place for a HK$198,000 payday.
"All in and a call," we heard a dealer yell. By the time we made our way over, the cards were already tabled between Stephane Blouin and Devan Tang on a board reading .
Tang:
Blouin:
We're not sure when the money went it, but we do know that Blouin's day came to an early finish when the blanked on the river.
Jim Sue Pan opened to 8,500 only to have Jonathan Depa three-bet to 19,500 next to act. The action returned to Pan and he moved all in for roughly 110,000 with Depa instantly calling.
Pan:
Depa:
The board ran out to see Pan exit in 23rd place as Depa soars to 735,000 in chips.
PokerStars was represented by two pros at the start of the day in Team Online's Randy Lew and Naoya Kihara, but the latter has just fallen.
It happened when Aidan Tam opened for 8,000 from the cutoff and Kihara three-bet jammed for 49,000 from the button. The blind folded and Tam made a quick call.
Tam:
Kihara:
Kihara's face seemed to indicate that he knew his number had been called, and he seemed resigned to his fate after the flop failed to deliver him options. The turn meant he would need to catch a queen on the river to survive, but it wasn't in the cards as the useless peeled off.
Yat Wai Cheng opened to 10,500 and Jan Bendik called from the big blind to see a flop. Bendik checked and Cheng bet out 7,000 only to have Bendik move all in for 55,000 with Cheng instantly calling.
Bendik:
Cheng:
With Bendik needing a spade, the turn of the and river of the wouldn't be what he was after as he was sent to the rail in 20th place while Cheng moved to over 860,000 in chips.
A short-stacked Satrya Teja, who if you recall finished as the chip leader at the end of Day 1b, moved all in for 49,000 under the gun and cleared the field to Chane Kampanatsanyakorn, who made the call from the cutoff. The rest of the field got out of the way and the cards were turned up.
Teja:
Kampanatsanyakorn:
It was a classic flip, and according to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Kampanatsanyakorn was a 53.71% favorite while Teja would survive 45.92% of the time. The flop didn't hit Teja directly, but it did deliver him a flush draw to go with his overs, which made him a 52.32% favorite.
The turn was no help, and Kampanatsanyakorn jumped back into the lead with a 65.91% chance of ending with the best hand. The dealer burned one last time and put out the . Teja missed and finished in 19th place for HK$247,500.
A sick beat just took place over at Table 3 that resulted in the elimination of Ling Tong.
We didn't catch the action until the turn on a board reading . There was about 100,000 in the pot, and Tong had gotten his last 70,000 or so all in against Yifan Zheng.
Zheng:
Tong:
Tong got his chips in with a full house against the of Zheng. Obviously Zheng's flush draw was no good, and that meant he needed to spike one of the two remaining aces to steal the pot. Well, we told you it was a sick beat, and that's because the peeled off on the river.
The table and railbirds reacted sharply while a shell-shocked Tong sought consolation from his girlfriend on the rail.
The action folded to Yat Wai Cheng in the small blind and he raised to 15,000 before Cheryl Peng three-bet to 40,000 from the big. Cheng then four-bet to 85,000 and Peng instantly moved all in for 103,000 with Cheng calling.
Peng:
Cheng:
The board ran out and Peng was sent to the rail in 17th until another elimination happened on the adjacent table to see her share 16th place with Andrew Lam and chop the 16th and 17th prize money as they both capture HK$272,250.