2023 RGPS Checkpoint Thunder Valley
Level: 20
Blinds: 10,000/20,000
Ante: 20,000
The players are now on their first 15-minute break of the day and action will resume shortly. The yellow 1,000-chips will also be raced off and colored-up at this time.
On a heads-up completed board of Q♠J♦8♣8♠Q♥, the pot was already swelled to 310,000 when Thomas Morris set out a bet of 75,000 after a check from Christopher Rudd.
Rudd then went into the tank for a good 20 seconds before he made the call, but was then shown 7♥8♥ by Morris for a full house.
"Aghh!" Rudd sighed as he tossed his cards into the muck to award Morris the large pot.
Left with only 135,000, Rudd then got it all in the very next hand with 9♣9♦ against the A♠J♥ of Miralem Mujkic. Unfortunately, the board ran out 3♦4♦5♥7♥2♦ to give Mujkic the wheel straight on the river and Rudd was eliminated.
"Well, I play good until I don't," he said as he made his way to the payout desk.
Jose Yumiaco moved all in preflop for 165,000 and action folded around to Borui Zhang who went into the tank for a good while before he decided to make the call to put him at risk.
Jose Yumiaco: 10♠10♥
Borui Zhang: A♣10♦
Yumiaco was in good shape to double up in this spot, but the flop of 7♣5♦A♠ was a gut punch as Zhang hit one of the three aces left in the deck to take the lead. The runout of 9♥7♠ changed nothing and Yumiaco was eliminated while Zhang chipped up to 1,100,000.
Level: 19
Blinds: 8,000/16,000
Ante: 16,000
On a heads-up completed board of 2♠4♦8♠A♣7♦, Elvis Perez Gonzalez led out for 110,000 into the pot of 220,000 and the action was then on Toan Nguyen on the button.
Nguyen went into the tank for over a minute but ultimately made the call, to which Gonzalez tapped the table to signal that he was good and flipped over 7♠10♠ for a pair of sevens after bricking the flush.
Nguyen then proudly flipped over A♥J♠ for a pair of aces and he was awarded the pot to boost him up to 840,000.
Now that the field has been trimmed to 10% remaining (160 players), the level times have changed from 30 minutes to 40 minutes until the end of the tournament.
Level: 18
Blinds: 6,000/12,000
Ante: 12,000
On a heads-up flop of 10♥8♦7♦, Borui Zhang led out for 50,000 from the big blind and Charlen Aseberos made the call from the button to see the turn 6♦.
Both players then decided to check and went straight to the river 4♣, where Zhang checked once more.
Aseberos then slid out a large bet of 150,000 and Zhang thought for a few seconds before he tossed in his cards to award the substantial pot to Aseberos.
Aseberos then showed him the goods of Q♥J♣ for queen high as he began to stack his new chips.