There are currently 80 players in action in the Poker King Cup Main Event, spread out over 12 tables. There have been 84 initial entries, four of which have hit the rail already bringing the total number of entrants up to 84 with a further 27 alternates waiting to get in on the action.
A well-timed squeeze play is a great way to pick up chips in a tournament setting, and we have seen several players utilize this move with success so far today to pad out their stack without a showdown.
In the first we caught Oriental Poker Championship final tablist Chuanshu Chen opening the action with an early position raise to 500, picking up two callers before big blind Xie Feng squeezed to 2,500. With the action back on Chen, he took an age to make a decision but eventually decided to give it up with the rest of the table following suit quickly afterward, leaving Feng to scoop in the pot unopposed.
The next sizable pot that we witnessed play out also followed this trend. We picked up the action pre-flop after some heavy betting, with 1,000 in blinds and antes already pulled into the pot. A player in the cutoff had re-raised to 1,200 with Dai Li making the call on the button and the action was on big blind Jiajing Hu.
Hu reached for chips, but not for calling with, and squeezed to 4,200 in total. Only Li made the call, taking the action heads-up to a flop of 
.
This saw Hu flick a 6,000 continuation bet off the top of his stack, which was enough to take down the pot when Li made the fold. Li dropped to 20,000 after the hand, while Hu climbed to 40,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
40,000
10,000
|
10,000 |
|
34,500
4,500
|
4,500 |
|
|
31,000
1,000
|
1,000 |
|
|
20,000
7,000
|
7,000 |
The Main Event players are on their first 10-minute break of the day. With a lengthy queue of alternates mobbing the registration desk and the player numbers on the tournament clock fluctuating wildly it is tough to gauge exactly how many players are currently in the running, but as soon as everything settles down we will update you accordingly.
Level: 4
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 25
Play has resumed after the first break and there are now 116 total entries in the Main Event, with 110 of them still in action spread over 12 tables.
Some of the new arrivals post-break are the USA's Preston Lee and Thailand's most successful tournament player Phanlert Sukonthachartnant, both of whom failed to get anything going in the High Roller so have decided to try their luck in the main.
Another player who is trying his luck is Chilean Francesco Morales, whom we caught in action in the following hand. It was Morales the man driving the action with a hijack raise to 900. A player on the button called and big blind Jeho Lee looked briefly interested but eventually elected to fold to take play heads-up.
The flop fell 
and Morales flicked a yellow 1k chip off the top of his stack for a 1,000 continuation bet, which his opponent called.
The 
turn was the last card dealt in the hand, with a 2,000-chip second barrel from Morales enough to take down the pot and see Morales climb up to 33,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
33,000
3,000
|
3,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
30,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
||
We have only caught Bart Luyckx in two hands so far today with the Belgium player losing both - not that we're bad luck or anything...
Luyckx will have to reenter if he wants to make some waves in the Main Event, as the second hand we caught him involved in saw him hit the rail, with China's Zhongcai Peng the man to send him there.
We picked up the action on a flop of 
with 2,000 in bets, blinds and antes in the pot, just as Peng led out for an enticing bet of 600. Luyckx wanted to play for more and moved all-in for 5,000 in total, sending Peng into the tank, where he remained for several minutes. Eventually, a decision was reached and Peng threw in the calling chips.
"How do you take so long to call there with ace king?" asked a perplexed Luyckx after Peng revealed his 
, with Luyckx rolling over 
.
Peng did not reply and the rest of the board ran out 
and 
respectively to bring Luyckx's first Main Event attempt to an end, while Peng stacked up to 51,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
51,000 | |
|
||
|
Busted | |
Level: 5
Blinds: 150/300
Ante: 25
A few big stacks are beginning to emerge now the players are finding their groove. One of these is Jeho Lee and we caught the tail end of a big pot that saw the Korean player climb close to the top of the leaderboard.
We missed the pre-flop action but were informed by Chile's Francesco Morales that it was a three-bet pre-flop pot. By the time we arrived there was close to 23,000 in the pot with the 
community cards spread face up on the felt and action was on Lee, who was the player in position in the hand.
Lee pulled the trigger for everything in front of him, shoving for 30,000 in total to send his opponent, sitting in the big blind, deep into the think tank, where she remained for several minutes. Eventually, a decision was reached and the call was made.
Lee turned over 
for the rivered backdoor runner, runner straight, something his opponent looked deeply unhappy about and she headed for the rail while Lee raked in his ill-gotten gains to climb to 73,000.
While Lee now has a healthy stack the honor of the chip lead belongs to Hong Kong's Darwin Lai, whom we caught in action in a hand against China's Jason Shao.
The action was all decided pre-flop, but it was a tense standoff that took several minutes to play out to say that no flop was dealt. It was Shao who was the initial aggressor, making it 800 to go from under-the-gun. Action folded around to Lai on the button and he popped it up to 2,000.
Shao responded with a four-bet to 11,000 and action was back on Lai. While he took his time over the decision Lai's response was forceful and the Hong Kong player moved all-in, having Shao covered by quite some margin. After several minutes agonizing over his decision, Shao opted to pick a better spot and pitched his cards into the muck to drop down to 10,000.
Lai did not show, but seemed happy enough to scoop the pot and climbed to 88,000 after the hand, making him the current frontrunner.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
88,000 | |
|
73,000
43,000
|
43,000 |
|
|
10,000 |
We caught the tail end of a chunky pot that played out between Hong Kong's Ben Lai and fellow countryman Kenji Fong that left that latter on life support, with China's Wan Zhang flicking the off switch on Fong's ventilator immediately afterward.
It was Lai who was the initial aggressor, making it 900 to go from the cutoff, with Fong making the call from the big blind to take play heads-up to a flop of 
.
Fong check-called Lai's 1,300 continuation bet and the dealer burned and turned the 
, which was a real action card as will become apparent, but the action went check, check.
The river was where all the fireworks happened, with Fong now leading for 10,000, eliciting a speedy shove from Lai. Fong had him covered by just 200 chips and made the call, only to discover his turned set had been rivered by Lai's speculative with the latter making the wheel to climb up to 60,000.
Fong's last 200 was all-in from the small blind the next hand, with Lai looking to isolate with a hijack raise to 900. However, button Wan Zhang re-raised to 3,200, which was enough to get Lai to bow out and take the hand heads-up.
Kenji Fong: 
Wan Zhang, 
Fong was in bad shape, and while he hit top pair on the 
flop, the rest of the runout came and respectively to send Fong to the rail and see Zhang stack up to 55,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
60,000
30,000
|
30,000 |
|
|
55,000
25,000
|
25,000 |
|
|
Busted |
