Linh Tran Elinimated in 8th Place (HK$189,000)

It took 20-minutes of play on the rolled back level 26 before the first significant pot played out, and it was a big one that saw Linh Tran end up with a bowl of rice.

Pre-flop it was Michael Soyza who opened the action with a raise to 90,000 from middle position, with Tran making the call from the cutoff before the UK’s Simon Burns pulled the trigger and moved all-in for 650,000 from the small blind.

Soyza quickly folded but Tran called immediately and the cards were turned over.

Simon Burns:
Linh Tran:

Burns was in bad shape, and would need some help and duly got it when the flop came down to exclamations from the rest of the table, though Tran just smiled wryly.

With Burns now firmly in front it was Tran who would need to hit, but unfortunately for the Vietnamese-Canadian the turn and river were of no help and he was left with just 65,000 in chips.

That’s a bit of a set up hand that’s impossible to get away from for these two similarly stacked players. Burns climbed to 1.5 million after that timely catch.

Tran was all-in for his last 60,000 the very next hand with blinds Zhong Yuan Hang and Huang Qien making the call and checking the board down the whole way.

Hang turned over the mighty and that was enough to win the hand and Tran headed for the rail in eight place for a HK$189,000 payday, becoming the first casualty of the official final table.