Hong Kong’s Felix Lee is one of the bigger stacks in the field at present and we caught him in a hand against Taiwan’s Jack Wu and another opponent with a little over 6,000 in bets, blinds and antes in the pot and the flop spread [.
Lee, sitting in the big blind, had first stab opportunity and took it, leading out for 3,500. That was enough to get the player in middle position to give it up, and after thinking it over Wu too chose to let it go.
We wandered past Christina Lai’s table in time to see here move all-in from early position for 8,800 and action folded around to Laiheng Tse on the button. Tse mulled it over but let it go, as did the small blind and the action was on big blind Canlin Chen.
Chen flashed Lai the but folded so she survives to fight another day, though she will need to get bust soon as the level went up shortly afterward.
An absolutely massive hand has not long played out that brought Hazel Chui’s tournament, or at least her first buy-in in said tournament, to a close. Unfortunately for Malaysia’s Victor Chong he was caught in the crossfire with Gab Yong Kim the man to put the beat down on both.
We missed all the fireworks but both Chong and Kim were kind enough to give us all the gory details. According to the pair, it was Chui who was the initial aggressor, opening the action from middle position with a raise to 2,500 and both Chong and Kim made the call from the small and big blinds respectively.
The flop came down with two spades and this is where the fireworks happened. Chong and Kim both checked and Chui continuation bet 3,200.
Chong then check-raised all-in, Kim re-raised all-in and Chui had a decision on her hands. Poker is no fun if you fold though and Chui made the call with .
Chong had for the nut flush draw and Kim had flopped bottom two with .
The turn and river saw Kim’s hand hold, and he took down the monster pot to climb to 80,000, Chui busted and Chong was left with just 400 chips and was all in and busted the following hand.
The 31 remaining Day 1D players are about to head off on a 40-minute dinner break with registration closing once play resumes.
The current frontrunner is Bobby Zhang, and it appears that the Australian is the man to have finally put a halt to Gao Xing’s rapid ascension through the ranks and while she still has a sizable stack at least 50 percent of her chips are now sitting in front of Zhang.
Gab Yong Kim is a close second after taking down that massive pot earlier and still has close to 80,000 with the next largest stacks belonging to Ping Cheong Fung, Jack Wu and Canlin Chen.
Wu has just shipped a few chips in the direction of Carson Wong in what turned out to be quite an amusing hand. Wong, sitting in the small blind, had not noticed the fact that Wu had opened the action to 3,500 from early position and had moved all-in in an attempt to steal the big blind. After the initial confusion was sorted out Wu made the call and the cards were turned over.
Carson Wong:
Jack Wu:
Wong was not in good shape but he went from zero to hero extremely quickly when the hit the window with the rest of the board running out to give the Hong Kong player a timely double and he climbed to 33,000 while Wu dropped a little down to around 52,000.
Here’s how some of the other players are stacking up:
The 29 remaining Day 1D players are now back in action and registration is now officially closed. A total of 72 players (this includes re-entries) have bought in today, making this the largest of the Day 1 flights so far.
That mean that 11 of the field will be securing themselves a Day 2 berth and a payout of HK$6,000, the other 18 will be leaving with nothing.
There have been a few bust outs in the last 20 minutes, one of whom was Gao Xing who started off strong but could not go the distance, though we missed her exit hand.
Another of the recent bust outs is Chung Chuen Co who got the last of his chips in from the button with . Unfortunately for Co big blind Nevan Cheng (our mystery man from earlier) woke up with and made the call.
The monochrome flop gave Co a faint glimmer of hope, but it was quickly dashed with the appearance of the turn meaning Co needed to hit one of the deck’s two remaining sevens. The river was too little too late and Co headed for the exit while Cheng stacked up to 30,000.
Justin Chan has been all-in the last two times we walked past his table, the first time he found no customers but on the second it looked like he found one in the form of Canlin Chen.
We are not sure when all the chips went in, but we do know that Chan, holding , had just rivered a flush on a board reading . Stacks were being counted down and Chen did not look too impressed and had face-up in the felt in front of him.
Chan looked pretty happy though and stacked up to close to 30,000 while Chen dropped to around 28,000.
.
but folded so she survives to fight another day, though she will need to get bust soon as the level went up shortly afterward.
with two spades and this is where the fireworks happened. Chong and Kim both checked and Chui continuation bet 3,200.
for the nut flush draw and Kim had flopped bottom two with 
.
turn and 
river saw Kim’s hand hold, and he took down the monster pot to climb to 80,000, Chui busted and Chong was left with just 400 chips and was all in and busted the following hand.
and made the call.
flop gave Co a faint glimmer of hope, but it was quickly dashed with the appearance of the 
turn meaning Co needed to hit one of the deck’s two remaining sevens. The 
river was too little too late and Co headed for the exit while Cheng stacked up to 30,000.
, had just rivered a flush on a board reading 
. Stacks were being counted down and Chen did not look too impressed and had 