Table 30 is no more as it broke just before the end of the level. Not before Kah Seng Sim got paid off nicely by flopping the nut flush with the . The player from Singapore saw an opponent check-call all streets for 6,000, 18,000 and 40,000 with pocket nines, which had made a straight on the river.
In the break we noticed a monster stack of Aaron Lim and the Australian filled us in on the details. He three-bet a raise from the player in under the gun, making it 10,100 to go and was called by said opponent to see a flop of . There was a diamond flush draw and the 9,500-bet of the Australian was check-called.
On the blank turn, the opponent check-raised all in for 55,000 and Lim called with to better the pocket eights of the player at risk thanks to a blank on the river.
Amit Jain raised from under the gun and found three callers including Edwin Hui in the big blind. All four players checked around the flop before Hui check-raised all in after the turn. That was the money card for Jain though, as he had bet 10,500 and snap-called the shove with the .
All other players mucked and Hui's were already drawing dead, the more a slap in the face. Both players are now almost even in chips.
There appears to be a side bet between Rolf Galasen and Svein Jorgen Kristensen, but the details are not fully clear yet. "Oh, it's just for a few beers," Galasen said. He didn't specify however if that was about winning some beers or drinking them while playing. You just never know with these Scandinavians.
Robert Nguyen and Frederick Hernandez were at it in a battle of the blinds and the final shove of the latter was called within five seconds by Nguyen. He tabled the and Hernandez was behind with , but got there on a board of . "Yesss Yesss. I gonna win this," Hernandez said and then complained that he was "slowrolled" after not getting called within a heartbeat.
Nguyen assured that it was within five seconds and the discussion died down after a minute.
Konstantin Pogodin opened for 5,000 and got one caller before Manuel Blaschke three-bet, making it 15,100.
Pogodin four-bet shoved for close to 60,000 and after the original caller folded, Blaschke made a quick call with . Pogodin's was dominated and remained that way on a run out.
Pogodin busted and after collecting his stack, Blaschke, who held the lead for most of Day 1b, is now up among the leaders once again.
Norihito Suzuki defended his blind with the and check-raised all in for less than 20 big blinds on a flop of . Brion immediately looked him up with the and the turn locked up the hand for the Filipino. The meaningless river completed the board and that was it for the Japanese.
After a nearly disastrous start, Dong Il Kim has completely turned things around now.
He joined one caller of a Ching Wei Chen opening raise on the button and the small blind came along for the ride going four-handed to a flop. The small blind checked and Chen c-bet, making it 5,000. The fourth player in the hand folded before Kim raised it up to 16,000.
The small blind folded and Chen called, going heads-up with Kim to the turn. Chen checked and when Kim bet 23,000 he found a fold.
With that hand, Kim became the second player over 300,000, joining chip leader Aaron Lim at the top of the leader board.