Chen Moving Up the Ranks
Level 18
: Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante
Zhen Chen opened the cutoff to 26,000 and got called by Ali Al-Kubasi in the small blind and Eyal Eshkar in the big blind.
They went to a flop of 3♦3♣8♥ where it checked to Chen, who fired 23,000. Al-Kubasi then raised to 57,000, Eshkar got out of the way, and Chen called.
A 5♥ dropped on the turn and Al-Kubasi kept up the aggression with a bet of 75,000, and Chen called quickly.
When the J♦ completed the runout, both players elected to check it down with Al-Kubasi showing K♦10♠ for king-high, but Chen held the winner after he paired his five holding A♣5♣.