Join us from midday today as we bring you all the action from the USD$15,000 "High Rollers Event" here at the Grand Waldo Casino in Macau. Some of the huge names in Poker have been here all week and will be playing, including Joe Hachem, Liz Lieu, Scotty Nguyen, John Juanda, Bill Chen and Isabelle Mercier, along with some other top pros who flew in last night, including Kirk Morrison and Barry Greenstein.
We will be bringing you all the action as it unfolds, stay tuned......
The players are starting to filter in and take their seats. There's much less hullabaloo surrounding the high roller's event than there was at the start of the main event, though rest assured - the play will be equally good, if not significantly better, as many of the top tournament players in the world are expected to turn out.
Take a look at some of these names: Barry Greenstein, Jeff Lisandro, Liz Lieu, Scotty Nguyen, Joe Hachem, Gary Benson, Travis Rice, Lee Nelson, Isabelle Mercier, Chad Brown, Kirk Morrison, Emad Tahtouh, Nick Schulman, Van Marcus, Dan Schreiber, Masa Kagawa . . . and that's not even all of them!
The field is packed full of sharks and whoever wins this tournament will certainly have earned it.
Tournament director Matt Savage just announced over the microphone that John Juanda has already doubled up, drawing a number of "Huh?!"'s and "What?!"'s from the other players in the field.
On a board reading , Cailin Jin checked to Juanda who made it 3,000 to go. Jin then went into the tank for what seemed like an eternity before eventually moving all in for a total of 6,900. Juanda made the call and turned over for top set; Jin tabled pocket aces.
The river blanked out () and Juanda scooped the 30,000 pot, sending Jin to the rail as the first casualty of the afternoon.
The tournament staff has released the prizepool and payout information that applies to a field of 64 players. Pending no late entrants to the tournament, the top eight players will be paid today. 1st place will receive $368,640 and $27,648 goes to eighth.
On a board showing , Emanuel Seal led out with a 600 bet. Christoffer Stahle then raised to 2,300 and was met by a 14,600 all-in bet from Seal. The bet sent Stahle into the tank for a solid five minutes before he eventually made the call.
At the showdown, Seal turned over the for flush and gutshot straight draws, while Stahle tabled for trip fives. The last card off the deck was the , completing Seal's flush and leaving Stahle with just 2,700 in chips.