European Poker Tour London runner-up Steve O'Dwyer has just been eliminated by Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst. O'Dwyer was all in preflop with the against Selbst's .
Some of the dealers here have rather a slow run out of the cards during all-in situations and make them much more dramatic than they really are. The dealer in this case ran the flop rather slow and O'Dwyer commented, "Ok, just get it over with already," so he could be on his way. The dealer kept at her own pace and first dealt the on the turn before rolling over the on the river.
One of the battles we're going to be keeping a close eye on today is the pairing of Elio Fox and Johnny Lodden. They're on either side of the dealer at Table 16. In the last pot, Lodden called a raise to go heads-up with Fox to the flop. Fox continued out with 15,000, and Lodden raised to 31,500. Fox called, but he would check-fold on the turn. Lodden's bet of 52,500 was enough to take it down, and the two men have essentially swapped starting stacks with that early little pot.
Jean-Philippe Rohr raised to 11,000 from the hijack seat and Jon Spinks reraised all in from the big blind. Rohr took a little time, but made the call with the . Spinks held the .
Joseph Cheong, who turned 25 in June, was born in Seoul, South Korea, but immigrated to the United States at the age of six. He attended the University of California at San Diego and graduated with a degree in psychology last year. Cheong, who now lives in California, is no stranger to poker.
In 2010, Cheong made his biggest splash by making the World Series of Poker November Nine. He went on to finish in third place in that event for $4,130,049 after playing the largest pot in WSOP history against eventual champion and Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel.
Outside of his big, multi-million dollar score, Cheong has $673,726 in lifetime tournament earnings and should easily add to that in this event barring a nearly impossible collapse. He holds six other WSOP cashes and also cashed in the WSOP Main Event this year -- finishing 114th for $54,851.
While on hiatus from the WSOP Main Event in 2010, Cheong went on to place second in the EPT London £10,000 High Roller Turbo for £162,280 and then win the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event at the Festa Al Lago for $142,635. He also holds one WSOP Circuit gold ring. Needless to say, Cheong's done quite well for himself.
Here in San Remo, Cheong has done extremely well in setting himself up for a super deep run. He's entering the day with 158 big blinds, although he has been up and done for most of the tournament so far. Cheong has never cashed in an EPT Main Event and his only in-the-money finish on the tour was that High Roller runner-up result.
We'll have our eyes locked on Cheong all day today and you should, too. He's one of the brightest young superstars in the game with a free, aggressive style that is sure to have the chips moving.
Welcome back to Day 3 of the 2011 PokerStars.itEPT San Remo Main Event. From the starting field of 837, 482 players returned to play yesterday for Day 2. The day was long and lasted seven levels, but that should make for some short days to come.
Remaining from the field are just 144 players and Joseph Cheong leads them all with 623,000 in chips. Daniel Neilson (584,500), Mustapha Kanit (577,000), William Thorson (508,500) and Sergey Tikhonov (504,500) round out the top five. Those are the only group of players above half a million in chips.
Team PokerStars Pro has a few of players still in the mix, but none of them hold a larger stack than Vanessa Selbst. She holds 497,000 in chips. Lex Veldhuis is the second largest stack out of the Team Pros with 341,000, Johnny Lodden comes in third at 287,500 and John Duthie rounds out the group with 147,500.
Outside of all the aforementioned players, 2011 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champion Elio Fox sits 11th overall while former EPT champions Kevin MacPhee and Mike McDonald will enter the day with 283,500 and 265,000, respectively.
The cards are set to be in the 1400 CET (0500 PDT) so be sure to be here for when they hit the players' hands. It's going to be a fast and furious day of action and the money line is set at 128 players.