Ryan Yu raised to 10,000 from under the gun and Nariman Yaghmai called on the button, as did Morten Mortensen in the big blind. On the flop of and the action checked to Yu, who bet 14,000. Yaghmai called and Mortensen let go.
After the turn, both players checked and the river also went check, check. Yu flashed and Yaghmai claimed the pot with .
Mikita Badziakouski lost the fight with his short stack and he was soon joined on the rail by Ivan Deyra, Michael Egan and Dejan Boskovic Jr. The latter left the tournament area with a bang. Danny Tang opened to 9,500 and Boskovic three-bet to 26,000 from one seat over. Tang squeezed to 45,000 and then had one of the easiest calls in his poker career to date when Boskovic five-bet shoved for around 120,000.
Boskovic Jr showed ace-queen and Tang had that dominated with . The board of changed nothing whatsoever and Boskovic Jr was eliminated.
One hand later, Yang Wang raised to 10,000 and Tang flat-called from one seat over. The flop came and a bet worth 17,500 by Wang did the trick to force a fold, Wang moved up to almost half a million in chips.
Lee Wai Kiat opened the action with a raise to 8,500 from early position and a short-stacked Soichiro Kojiya squeezed his cards and moved all-in for the last of his chips.
Action folded back around to Kiat who asked for a count, but it was not that much more as Kojiya only had 38,000 and Kiat called quickly.
Lee Wai Kiat:
Soichiro Kojiya:
Kojiya’s race was over as soon as the flop fell . Left drawing to the decks two remaining sevens the Japanese players’ chances of survival looked slim and the turn and river brought no help and he headed for the exit while Kiat stacked up to around 180,000.
Kojiya will not be lonely on the rail however and will be joined by Dario Sammartino, Aaron Lim and Georgios Zisimopoulos, the latter of whom got his last 80,000 in with ace-nine and ran into the ace-queen of Martin Kozlov who now has 204,000.
James Chen faced a raise to 9,000 by Tom Alner and three-bet to 25,000, which Alner then met with a reraise to 69,000. Chen called and the flop fell . Alner checked and subsequently called a bet worth 35,000 by Chen before checking again on the turn.
Chen now made it 76,000 to go and Alner eventually moved all in for 99,500 in total. Chen was surprised for a second and asked how much more he had to call, then said "I guess you must have it," and called.
Tom Alner:
James Chen:
The on the river was a blank and Alner was eliminated. In table chat, Chen said "I play with him a lot, and he knows that I bluff here often." Two-times Red Dragon champion Alner joined the rail, while Chen boosted his stack to more than 600,000 as a result.
Ryan Yu raised to 13,000 in the small blind and Masaya Nakagawa called out of the big blind. On a flop of , Yu continued for 12,000 and Nakagawa called before the Canadian then checked the turn. Nakagawa bet 18,000 and was called.
After the river, both players opted to check and Yu was first to show after the button, revealing for a pair of nines. That was good enough to win the pot, as Nakagawa mucked.
The tournament clock was ticking towards the break and while there have been no big pots to speak of that we have seen we do have a couple of small ones for you.
In the first it was Paul-Francois Tedeschi limping in from early position with Adrian Attenborough (middle position) and Daniel Dvoress (big blind) coming along for the ride to take the action three-way to a flop of .
Dvoress checked it over to Tedeschi, who led out for 4,500. Attenborough sat impassively for a few seconds before sliding out the call and Dvoress folded to take play heads-up to the turn.
This brought checks from both players and the river card was the . Tedeschi checked again and after 20-seconds of thinking it over Attenborough decided the right amount to bet was 27,000. That was enough to get it done and Tedeschi folded.
In the second David Peters raised up to 9,000 from the button and Michael Addamo defended from the big blind to take play heads-up to the flop.
Addamo checked it over to Peters, who c-bet another 9,000, which Addamo called to bring the action to the turn. Checks from both players brought play to the river, which Addamo now led for 42,000. Peters quickly mucked and that action brought us to the break.
There are just 33 hopefuls remaining and the top 27 will share a portion of the prize pool. They have been sent into their second 15-minute break of the day.