Michael Soyza Leads Action-packed Day 1C of the 2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau
Day 1C of the 2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau was the busiest yet, attracting 42 eager hopefuls, all looking to lock up their Day 2 berth. With the format offering unlimited re-entry, two of those chose to fire a second bullet to bring the total number of entries up to 44.
With 15 percent of the field making it through it took just over fifteen 40-minute levels to whittle this down to seven, with Malaysia’s Michael Soyza the man who climbed the highest.
Soyza bagged up an impressive 174,500 when play concluded in the early hours of Sunday morning, though fellow countryman Wai Kiat Lee was not that far behind, finishing the day with a very respectable 150,000.
Hong Kong’s Percy Chao also had a great day, though it took him until his second bullet to find his run good and Chao bagged up the third largest stack, finishing the day with 114,900.
Soyza came into the final nine as one of the larger stacks and some canny play and well-timed aggression saw him seize a lead he would not relinquish, making him currently the fourth largest Day 2 stack, though it was Lee who was the man to bring the Day 1C action to an end.
On the final hand the Malaysian opened the action with pocket aces and found an easy call when the short-stacked Wei Tso moved all-in over the top of his opening raise with ace-king.
Tso found no help on the flop, turn or river and departed empty-handed while the seven remaining players all earned themselves a HK$6,000 payday and secured their Day 2 berth with the end of day counts and Day 2 draw as follows:
2017 Suncity Cup Finale Macau Day 1C Survivors and Day 2 Draw
| Position | Name | Country | Chip Count | 2A Table/Seat | 2B Table/Seat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Soyza | Malaysia | 174,500 | - | 2-9 |
| 2 | Wai Kiat Lee | Malaysia | 150,000 | 10-9 | - |
| 3 | Percy Chao | Hong Kong | 114,900 | - | 7-5 |
| 4 | Phachara Wongwichit | Thailand | 66,900 | 2-7 | - |
| 5 | Joey Wong | Hong Kong | 59,300 | 8-7 | - |
| 6 | Ho Yin Sau | Macau | 54,200 | 1-4 | - |
| 7 | Ka Ho Sun | Hong Kong | 37,400 | - | 9-2 |
The day began slowly with just four players, but by the time the first break came around at the end of the third level this had increased to 30.
Ironically, it was Tso who became one of the early frontrunners, winning a massive three-way all-in on an all-heart ten-high flop with pocket jacks after fading the flush draw of Joshua Zimmerman and spiking a set of jacks on the river to beat his other opponent’s flopped set of threes.
That timely catch shot Tso to the top of the leaderboard for a spell before he nearly lost the lot and dropped right down to the bottom. However, Tso made a stellar recovery and climbed back near the top when play began to get short-handed.
Another player who started strong but came up agonizingly short was Macau’s Ka Meng Ho, who edged into pole position just before the dinner break after picking off an ill-timed river bluff from Hong Kong’s Yu Fai Wu. While Ho made the final nine he too ran ace-king into the pocket aces of Wai Kiat Lee to depart in ninth place empty-handed.
Lee came close to disaster himself after his pocket kings were out-flopped by the ace-ten suited of Ho Yin Sau as the tournament came close to the final table. Sau spiked his ace and turned his flush to leave Lee with just three big blinds.
However, the Malaysian spiked a set of fives the very next hand to quadruple up, then rivered another set against Joey Wong to bring himself right back into contention. Finding aces twice on the final table also helped of course.
Other notables who could not go the distance included Hong Kong’s Nick Wong and Wingkei Chan, the latter of whom also came up short on Day 1B.
That concludes thePokerNews live coverage for the day with Day 1D getting underway on Sunday 26 November at 1pm local time (GMT+8) so join us then as we see who’s got what it takes to go the distance and earn themselves a berth for Day 2.