The Day 1E field is now down to 27 meaning we need to lose 9 more to wrap things up. One of the field who is hoping he can go the distance is Hong Kong’s Ip Ka Leung, who has just caught a timely double at the expense of an unfortunate player who hit the rail.
Leung moved all in for 32,000 from the button with and his opponent called of fhis last 30,000 from the small blind with . Leung spiked his ace on the flop and the turn and river thinned the field by one more and saw Leung climb to 64,000.
The remaining players are on a 10-minute break and here’s how some of the rest of our Day 1E protagonists are stacking up:
With the elimination of the short-stacked Yu Zhou the field is now down to 34. Another shorty whose chip stacks is moving in the right direction is Tang Wei Cong.
We caught Cong in action against Damaso Garcia. It was the Spaniard who was the initial aggressor, opening the action to 4,200 from the cutoff.
Cong was on the button and took several minutes to think things over before he re-raised to 10,500 and after both blinds bowed out the action was back on Garcia, who made the ‘A’ symbol with his hands to signify he was all-in and Cong made a quick call.
Damaso Garcia:
Tang Wei Cong:
Cong was in the lead with the Cowboys and there was no ace to be seen on the flop. The turn meant Cong needed to fade the deck’s three remaining aces and did so with the river giving him an unnecessary full house and a double up to 58,200 while Garcia dropped down to 70,000.
With over US$3.8 million in career tournament winnings, we think that it’s fair to say that Mexico’s JC Alvarado is one of the more accomplished players in the field. Alvarado was one of the late sign-ups not long before the dinner break but he has already managed to run his 15,000 starting stack up to a decent amount.
However, Alvarado has just shipped some chips the way of Weizhou Zha, who does not look like he needs any as he already has a ton.
It was Alvarado who was the aggressor in this particular hand, making it 3,400 to go from the cut off and, with chips to spare, current frontrunner Zha decided to see a flop in position and made the call from the button to take play heads-up to a monochrome flop of .
That brought checks from both players and the dealer burned and turned the , which again produced no betting.
After Alvarado checked the river Zha eyeballed his stack and tossed out a 5,000 bet, which Alvarado eventually called after thinking it over for a few seconds. Zha turned over for two pairs – sevens and queens – and Alvardo mucked.
It’s getting closer and closer to crunch time for some of the 38 remaining Day 1E players and a lot of the recent poker we have seen has all been decided pre-flop.
Damaso Garcia opened the action from under-the-gun but no one looked like they wanted to tangle with his beefy stack and he took down the blinds and antes uncontested.
Yu Zhou has recently been moved over to Weizhou Zha and Linh Tran’s table, as has Victor Chong who has taken the seat of the recently departed Bart Luyckx.
We caught Zhou in action in a hand and while it was not a very exciting one it seemed to get under Linh Tran’s skin, but that’s down to the amount of time it took to play out to say that very little happened.
Action folded around to a player in the small blind who chose to test the short-stacked Zhou’s mettle and moved all-in. After Zhou had spent around 3 minutes in the tank Tran had had enough and prompted Zhou to do something.
Eventually, after some more procrastination, the Chinese player let it go, to sighs of relief from the rest of the table.
We’re sure with the rising blinds and antes we’ll be able to bring you some action-packed bust outs soon, it is only a matter of time.
We caught Damaso Garcia involved in another sizable pot and picked up the action on the river with over 33,000 in bets, blinds and antes in the pot with the community cards spread .
Garcia’s opponent had just checked from the small blind and the action was on Garcia, who after some time thinking it over, decided to bet out 12,200 leaving himself 37,500 behind.
While he did not look happy about doing so, Garcia’s opponent grudgingly let it go leaving the Icelandic player free to scoop a sizable pot and climb to 83,000 without having to show down.
Weizhou Zha currently sits at the top of the chip counts
China’s Weizhou Zha’s ascension to the top of the table is now complete – all he needs to do now is stay there.
Zha was helped in his climb by a player who gave us his name as ‘NBK’ but we’re pretty sure that’s not what his mother calls him.
The fact is irrespective anyway as Mr. NBK is no longer in the running after opening to 2,600 from under-the-gun and getting raised to the tune of 6,600. Mr. NBK moved all-in for 19,300 in total and with chips to spare Zha made the call.
Mr. NBK:
Weizhou Zha:
The window saw NBK get to his feet and the rest of the flop would not see him re-take it anytime soon. The turn was not the eight he needed to survive, and neither was the river and that was that.
Zha raked in the pot and that puts him right at the top of the table with a stack of 113,000.
Registration for Day 1E is now closed and the official numbers are in. This is by far the busiest of the starting flights so far with 123 entries (including re-entries) and 45 of those players are left in contention for a Day 2 seat.
Only 18 of the remaining 45 players will be successful in that regard so that means 27 of them will be leaving empty handed.
and his opponent called of fhis last 30,000 from the small blind with 
. Leung spiked his ace on the 
flop and the 
turn and 
river thinned the field by one more and saw Leung climb to 64,000.
, won the race for his tournament life against Chong’s 
with the board running out 
.
flop. The 
turn meant Cong needed to fade the deck’s three remaining aces and did so with the 
river giving him an unnecessary full house and a double up to 58,200 while Garcia dropped down to 70,000.
.
, which again produced no betting.
river Zha eyeballed his stack and tossed out a 5,000 bet, which Alvarado eventually called after thinking it over for a few seconds. Zha turned over 
for two pairs – sevens and queens – and Alvardo mucked.
.
turn was not the eight he needed to survive, and neither was the