Ivan Zalac recently moved to a new table. In his first hand he found himself taking out two opponents, as he rockets up the chip counts.
The action started with a player moving all-in, before Vincent Rubianes did the same for a little more. Zalac then shoved over the top as everyone else got out of the way.
It was the classic vs. vs. scenario. Zalac’s pocket aces were able to hold, as he sent two players to the rail. He now sits on 85,000 in chips.
With a few minutes left before the break, the remaining player's in today's field has dropped below the 100-mark. Barring any bust-outs, 99 will be heading for a much needed break.
The table folded around to Nicky Wong on the button, who opened to 1,750. Matt Carter was next to act, and raised to 3,500, before the big blind moved all-in for his last 16,375. Wong made the call, and Carter folded, as both players tabled their cards.
Wong:
Opponent:
Board:
Wong’s pocket eights were able to hold to send him back up to the top of the leader board. He’ll have some close competition though, with Carter sitting to his immediate left, also sitting behind the same chip-stack.
A big pot on an outer table has seen Nan Hong shoot straight up to the chip lead.
It all started with the player in middle position opening to 1,600 and finding a call from Ted Wang and Minh Nguyen before Nan Hong raised it up to 4,000 from the button. He found three callers, as the flop came down .
The player in middle position tanked for a minute, before leading out 13,000, before being met with an all-in for 50,000 from Wang. Nguyen quickly got out of the way, before Hong moved all-in for his remaining 44,400. The original player also moved all-in for his last 41,100 in chips, and the cards were tabled.
MP:
Wang:
Hong:
The player in middle position found himself in front after flopping top-two pair, with Wang drawing to the flush draw, and Hong looking to hit an ace, five or running straight cards. The missed everyone, but the repeating on the river gave Hong the better two-pair, sending one player to the rail, and crippling Wang down to 6,000 in chips.
With that hand, Hong now moves up to 143,000 in chips.
With 15-minute remaining on the clock, Tournament Director Danny McDonagh has advised the remaining players that they will play out four more hands before the end of play.
The first day of play at the 2013 PokerStars.net Macau Main Event is in the books. Seven, 60-minute levels were played on Day 1a and the field that came out totalled 184 players. Heading the pack at the end of the day was Nahum Lum with 158,500 in chips.
Lum took the lead in the last few hands, when other big stacks forfeited there lead. Some of those include Matt Carter (154,100) and Nan Hong (149,300) who was involved in one of the biggest hands of the day.
Other notables coming out to play on Day 1a were Liam O’Rourke, Jason Lee, Ivan Zalac, Trung Tran, Nick Wong, Dinesh Alt, and Minh Nguyen. They'll all be moving on to Day 2 and enjoy a day off tomorrow.
Some of the players who failed to make it through the day were Oliver Speidel, Sparrow Cheung, Mishel Anunu, Aaron Lim, Michael Kanaan, Celina Lin, Jae Kyung Sim, Vincent Rubianes and Ryan Hong.
Day 1b will kick off on Thursday at 3:00pm local time here in Macau. The magnificent City of Dream and PokerStars Macau will be the host once again as an expected field of around 250 or so players will be out in full force. Be sure to come right back to PokerNews then.
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missed everyone, but the repeating 
on the river gave Hong the better two-pair, sending one player to the rail, and crippling Wang down to 6,000 in chips.
