Johnny "Effin" Chan
Johnny Chan recently chipped up in a big way. An early-position opponent raised preflop to 300, bringing a call from two opponents in middle position and Chan on the button. The flop was . The preflop raiser opened the action for 700 before being raised by a middle-position player to 2,200. After the other middle-position player folded, Chan wasted no time in reraising to 5,700. That was enough to take down the pot and increase Chan's stack to 16,600.
Things have not been going very well for APT Manila champion David Saab. In the big blind, he called a raise to 300 from Hai Chen Hong and then check-called a bet of 325 on a flop. When the turn fell , Saab again checked, then called a bet of 800. The came down on the river, bringing a third check from Saab. Hong bet 1,800. Saab called and then mucked when Hong tabled for top pair, top kicker.
Saab is down to 3,400 from his starting stack of 10,000. Hong currently has about 9,800.
Richard En
Richard En recently eliminated an opponent. With the board showing , En's opponent moved all in for his last 2,650. En tanked for about a minute or so, then made the call. His opponent opened for two pair, aces and deuces. En collected the pot with for two pair, aces and jacks.
A few other players were surprised that En took as long as he did to call the river bet. En responded that he wasn't sure how many hands he could beat that would bet the river.
We officially had 103 starters in today's Day 1a flight, with 97 of those still remaining. We'll be playing ten levels before play wraps up this evening, with the dinner break scheduled after the completion of level six.
On the last hand before the break, a big hand went down at J.C. Tran and David Saab's table. A player opened the pot with a raise preflop. Tran, already super short, called all in. Behnam Patros and Saab also called out of the blinds.
The flop was with one diamond and one club. We're not sure of the action, but we do know that all three remaining players wound up committing their stacks.
Patros:
Saab:
Tran: unknown
Preflop raiser:
The turn made the hand a bit more interesting, but the river bricked out. Patros' nut straight held up. After all of the side pots were properly calculated, Saab and Tran were eliminated. Patros shot up to 30,200 and the preflop raiser, who had Patros covered, was left with 6,600.
Todd Brunson
After observing some fellow players enjoying a burger during the break, Doyle and Todd Brunson were overheard chatting away on adjacent tables...
Doyle: "We can get a cheeseburger at home!"
Todd: "I didn't come all the way to China to eat cheeseburgers!"