A raising war in a battle cutoff versus big blind saw Yo Seb Rhee with a squeeze to 17,000 and Edward Yam made it 42,500 to go. Rhee had around 43,000 behind and used one time bank chip to get additional 30 seconds of consideration. That time ran down and Rhee also used his last time bank as well without coming to a conclusion.
With five seconds left on the clock, Rhee sent his cards into the muck and forfeited a decent portion of his stack, along with all his time bank chips.
We caught a small hand between Aki Virtanen and Ken Okada with the latter opening the action from middle position with a raise to 700 and Virtanen defending from the big blind.
However, that was it for the betting with both players checking the flop, the turn and the river. Virtanen turned over but this was not enough to beat Okada who was holding .
In a three-bet pot between Aki Virtanen and Hoang Long Do, the former checked the turn and folded to a bet of 2,650 by Do, flashing .
One hand later, fellow Finnish player Antii Halme raised to 700 and Ken Okada called from one seat over. Van Sang Nguyen three-bet to 2,500 in the small blind and both opponents called. On a flop of , Nguyen made it 3,500 to go and that ultimately won the pot without any further resistance.
The 1990 World Series of Poker Main Event champion and first-ever WSOP bracelet winner from Wales, Mansour Matloubi, has just entered the tournament room with a ticket in the hand. After being explained the rules regarding the time bank chips, Matloubi received 50,000 in chips and headed over to table three to join the event as 22nd player.
Matloubi has more than $2,000,000 in recorded tournament cashes and also came close to a second WSOP bracelet twice, finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively, before racking up a fourth place finish in the 1993 WSOP Main Event.
There are 21 entrants so far in the PokerStars Festival Manila High Roller Shot Clock, with a third of the entrants opting for some high stakes stress relief by bringing fidget spinners.
While current frontrunner Edward Yam is not one of them Finland’s Aki Virtanen is and he has just won a sizable pot from Hoang Long Do.
Maxim Sorokin was the man to open the action with a hi-jack raise to 700 with Yam (button), Do (small blind) and Virtanen (big blind) all making the call to take the action four-way to a flop of .
With so many players in the hand, no one seemed keen to bet and the action was checked around to the . This saw Do take a stab for 1,200 from the small blind before big blind Virtanen re-raised to 4,000 in total.
This was enough to fold out everyone but Do, who burned through almost all of the allotted 30-seconds of time before making the call.
The river paired the board and saw Do check the action over to Virtanen, who bet 6,725. This sent Do deep into the tank where he remained for the full 30-seconds and burned the first of his three time bank chips before making the call.
Virtanen rolled over , which was enough to win the hand as Do mucked.
On the heads-up flop of , the remaining 13,000 chips of Michael Falcon went into the middle of the table and Timofey Asmolov quickly called.
Michael Falcon:
Timofey Asmolov:
Falcon was in desperate shape and needed running sixes for quads to avoid elimination. It was all over after the turn and Falcon grabbed his time-bank chips and tossed them towards the muck while the river officially completed the board. Falcon became the first casualty of the tournament, and Asmolov's recent rise brought him well above the starting stack.
On the turn of a board , Timofey Asmolov checked out of the big blind and Michael Falcon made it 3,500 to go from the button, which Asmolov called. Both checked the river and Falcon's ended up second best to the ace-seven of the Russian. "Straight draw," Asmolov shrugged after Falcon had sighed.
The next hand, a big pot was brewing between Kota Miyakita and Simon Burns in the big blind. The latter checked the flop and check-raised to 6,000 after a bet of 2,500 by Miyakita. Once the Japanese called, the came on the turn and Burns bet 9,000, Miyakita called.
The river completed the board and Burns immediately moved all in for effectively 33,500, as that's what Miyakita had left. It proved to be too much for the Japanese, and he folded to see Burns rake in a big pot without showdown.
Junzhong Loo sits in 11th place on the all-time money list of Malaysia and was the first player from his home country to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. Back in 2014, Loo emerged victorious in a World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific A$2,000 event for a payday of A$107,500.