A second pot in a row has been shipped to J.C. Tran. Tran completed his option from the small blind in front of Adrien Allain, who declined his option. The flop came all small cards, . Tran bet 15,000, then called Allain's raise to 40,000.
The turn seemed not to change much, falling . Tran checked to Allain's aggression, then called a bet of 45,000. Both player checked the river, with Tran tabling to take down the pot.
David Steicke limped from the small blind and J.C. Tran checked his option in the big blind.
They took a flop of and both players checked. The free card on the turn was the and Steicke took a stab at the pot with a bet 12,000. Tran made the call.
The river brought the and Steicke checked to Tran who fired a bet of 16,000 which was good to take it down.
When you have chips to burn you can afford to speculate with some less-than-stellar cards. That appeared to be David Steicke's strategy after Inwook Choi opened to 22,000. Steicke was in the big blind and called the extra 12,000 to a flop of . Both players checked, with Steicke then betting 24,000 on the turn. Choi called.
Both players checked the river. Steicke showed down , having rivered a Broadway straight. It was good enough to take down the pot.
The mayhem continues at this APT Macau final table with our fourth elimination of the day within the first twenty minutes of play.
Adrien 'zlatan35' Allain has now been responsible for three of those after Michael Woo pushed his short stack with into the of Allain.
The flop gave Woo some hope but ultimately the board left Allain's kings in front to eliminate Woo in 6th place for $52,223 in prize money. Allain is now up over 800,000 chips.
With five players having fewer than 15 big blinds in their starting stacks we expected play to move rapidly to start the day. But we didn't expect three eliminations in the first twenty minutes!
Christer Hallberg is the third player eliminated. He opened preflop to 30,000 and was called by Adrien Allain out of the blinds. Allain checked on a flop of . Hallberg moved in for 79,000 and Allain called without much deliberation.
Allain:
Hallberg:
Hallberg was ahead with a pair of eights but had to sweat two cards, with Allain looking for a deuce, four or five. He caught a on the turn to make a five-high straight. The river was a harmless , bouncing Hallberg from the tournament in 7th place.
After David Steicke took down the first two pots of the day, Casey Kastle opened the third pot to 24,000. Action passed to Adrien Allain, who re-raised to 60,000. When everyone folded back to Kastle he moved in for 128,000 total. Allain quickly called with pocket nines but found himself in poor shape against Kastle's pocket kings.
It wasn't to be Kastle's day. The board rolled out to make a jack-high straight for Allain. Kastle, who final-tabled the previous two APT events, is the first player eliminated today. He walks away with $16,966.