Jian Zhang and Kevin Choi have just played a big pot for stacks that saw Zhang hit the rail and Choi chip up to over 400,000 – with ten-high.
That’s not quite a crazy as it seems, but it’s still pretty sick. The two got all the chips in on an flop with Zhang holding and Choi holding . Those ten-deuces have been hitting today, as Ka Ho Sun can attest too, and ironically the Hong Kong player had a ringside seat as he is seated at the same table.
As you can probably tell from the title of this post, neither player hit the flush, meaning Choi’s ten-high was good and he climbed to 400,000 while a disgruntled Zhang headed for the rail.
“That’s why you should play big cards when you go for flush draws,” said tablemate Thomas Lee, and while we agree that’s sound strategy, if everyone did that then we would not have exciting hands like this to write about.
The field’s two ten-deuce masters have finally clashed with the short-stacked Ka Ho Sun and Kevin Choi battling it out in a hand that saw the former bust to the latter. While there was both a ten and a deuce involved, neither player was holding Doyle Brunson’s famous hand this time around.
Down to his last 30,000 in chips Sun shoved in early position with and was called by big blind Choi, who had .
The board saw Sun hit his straight, but this was a moot point as the same turn card also see Choi make a flush. Sun headed for the rail and Choi stacked up to 410,000.
There are 45 Day 2B players still in the running and China’s Yu Dong is still holding the chip lead. Every time we walk past his table we catch him raising but never picking up any callers. Evidently someone has been calling and losing against him though as Dong has run his stack up to 704,000. The next biggest stack belongs to Jesus Fernadez, who has 540,000 with some of the rest of the notables stacking up as follows:
Play is entering the final 60-minutes with Day 2B concluding at the end of this level. The man leading the field is still Yu Dong who has close to 160,000 more in chips than next closest rival Jesus Fernandez so the remaining 45 players have an hour left to play catch up.
The ever elusive Yu Dong continues to dodge our watching eye but we arrived at his table in time to see him raking in yet more chips and the Chinese player is now sitting on a stack of 980,000.
The man closest to catching Dong is the ever-active Zhao Yanchao, whom we caught in action shortly afterward in a hand against Vivian Im that saw Yanchao edge up to second on the chip leaderboard.
It was Im who opened the action with a raise to 13,000 from middle position and a player on the button made the call, before small blind Yanchao squeezed to 35,000.
Im thought long and hard before making the call and the button folded to take play heads-up to a flop of , which Yanchao led for 35,000. Im took her time thinking it over but made the call to swell the pot to 150,000 and the came in on the turn.
Yanchao barrelled again, reaching for big chips this time and splashed out a bet of 63,000. Im really agonized over the decision before choosing to let it go, dropping down to 250,000 while Yanchao stacked up to 790,000.
We caught the tail end of a hand that looked like an interesting one between Japan’s Ken Okada and the Philippines Eugene Co with 60,000 in the pot with the community cards spread .
We arrived as Okada checked the action over to Co, who cut out a stack of chips and bet out 37,000. Okada clearly did not believe the Filipino player and made the call. Co rolled over for trip threes and Okada tapped the table and mucked, dropping to 260,000 while Co climbed to 420,000.
Yu Dong drew the final number of hands for the day and the magic number was five with Day 2B concluding after this. Pete Chen will not be bagging up chips however as his seat is now empty, though one of the field’s other Chen's – Canlin Chen – looks like he should make it as he now has a stack of 190,000.
Justin Chan decided to roll the dice on one of the last hands played with the man to kick start the action Albert Paik, who opened for 15,000 from middle position with a player on the hi-jack making the call before Chan moved all-in from the button for 97,000 in total. Paik made a quick fold and while the other player in the hand agonized over the decision for an eternity he too eventually elected to let it go, meaning Chan lives to fight another day and will be returning for Day 3.
Lu Fei will also be returning for Day 3, but with a much smaller stack as he lost a big coin flip to Linh Tran on one of the final hands of the day. Fei was the initial raiser and Tran moved the last of his chips in over the top and Fei made the call.
Lu Fei:
Linh Tran:
Tran was the at-risk player but will be returning for Day 3 with a much more playable stack after the board ran out . Tran finished play with 310,000 and while Fei did not bust he now has a much-reduced stack of 73,000.
Zhao Yanchao almost came back as the Day 3 chip leader but lost a hand that turned out to be a bit of a cooler right at the close. Fortunately for the Chinese player, his opponent was short. Yanchao, holding flopped the nut straight on a board and was up against a short stack's .
However, running cards on the turn and river saw his opponent fill up to a full house and Yanchao dropped a little to finish with 699,000.
The remaining 38 players are bagging up their chips with China's Yu Dong the man to close out the day as top dog with a stack of 987,000, closely followed by Korea's Je Ho Lee (736,000) with China's Zhao Yanchao (699,000) rounding out the top three. Full wrap and end of day counts to follow.
flop with Zhang holding 
and Choi holding 
. Those ten-deuces have been hitting today, as Ka Ho Sun can attest too, and ironically the Hong Kong player had a ringside seat as he is seated at the same table. 
and was called by big blind Choi, who had 
.
board saw Sun hit his straight, but this was a moot point as the same turn card also see Choi make a flush. Sun headed for the rail and Choi stacked up to 410,000.
, which Yanchao led for 35,000. Im took her time thinking it over but made the call to swell the pot to 150,000 and the 
came in on the turn.
.
for trip threes and Okada tapped the table and mucked, dropping to 260,000 while Co climbed to 420,000.
flopped the nut straight on a 
board and was up against a short stack's 
turn and