The break has been extended slightly as Triton founder Paul Phua gave all the Main Event entrants a rousing welcome speech, which earned a loud round of applause from the watching players before the Triton Super High Roller Montenegro 2017 6-Max Champion Fedor Holz was officially awarded his latest piece of silverware.
We were going to write a post about how Fedor Holz was running away with the chip lead, but that is no longer true and while we missed all of the action we passed by Holz table in time to see the German player reordering his much-reduced stack as a monster pot is shipped Chan Wai Leong’s way.
Holz had close to 500,000 not so long ago but that is not the case now and he looked to have around 90,000 while Leong has a massive 827,000 stack.
There have been some more new arrivals with defending champion Koray Aldemir entering the fray in addition to Lauren Roberts and Marius Torbergen to bring the total number of entries up to 28, with 25 of those still in the running.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
827,000
357,000
|
357,000 |
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
||
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
90,000
305,000
|
305,000 |
|
||
We caught Paul Phua and David Peters embroiled in a hand on the river with a mound of chips in the center of the table and the community cards spread 
.
Phua, sitting in the big blind, had just led out for a rather hefty 180,000 bet to put the US pro to the test as, with 123,100 behind, this has Peters’ covered so if he made the call it would be for his tournament life.
“Re-buy, re-buy,” joked Phua light-heartedly. Peters flashed Phua a grin and threw his hand away leaving the Malaysian to rake in a decent sized pot and climb to 268,000.
The field has now grown to 25 entries, 23 of whom are still in the running with 2016 Triton Super High Roller Philippines champion Wai Kin Yong, Richard Yong, John Juanda, Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates and Andrew Robl joining the action.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
268,000
58,000
|
58,000 |
|
||
|
250,000 | |
|
|
250,000 | |
|
250,000 | |
|
||
|
250,000 | |
|
250,000 | |
|
123,100
89,100
|
89,100 |
|
||
Xuan Tan is now in the red for his Montenegrin trip as, despite cashing the Triton SHR 6-Max on Monday 17 July for HK$386,000, the Chinese player has become the second official casualty of the Main Event.
While we missed the hand in question we found out the details from the man who sent Tan to the rail, Malaysia’s Chan Wai Leong.
According to Leong, it was a blind versus blind battle that went poorly for Tan (big blind) who called Leong’s small blind 3,500 pre-flop raise.
Unfortunately for the Chinese player, he flopped two pair holding 
, and while this is usually a good thing, it is less good when your opponent is holding for a set.
All the chips went in on the flop and a dejected Tan headed for the rail while Leong stacked up to 470,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
470,000
174,500
|
174,500 |
|
Busted |
Current chip leader is Mikita Badziakouski following his elimination of Liang Yu, with Fedor Holz the next largest stack and being as the two are seated at the same table and are both pretty active there may well be fireworks at some point.Here's how the field is stacking up so far:
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
512,000
34,000
|
34,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
395,000
59,000
|
59,000 |
|
|
||
|
362,200
25,200
|
25,200 |
|
313,000
63,000
|
63,000 |
|
307,000
47,000
|
47,000 |
|
||
|
|
295,500
45,500
|
45,500 |
|
|
281,300
31,300
|
31,300 |
|
263,000
57,000
|
57,000 |
|
||
|
255,000
5,000
|
5,000 |
|
236,000
8,000
|
8,000 |
|
|
||
|
234,000
16,000
|
16,000 |
|
233,000
7,000
|
7,000 |
|
||
|
224,000
26,000
|
26,000 |
|
224,000
64,000
|
64,000 |
|
|
212,200
12,200
|
12,200 |
|
|
||
|
|
210,000
5,500
|
5,500 |
|
|
||
|
209,000
12,500
|
12,500 |
|
|
174,000
76,000
|
76,000 |
|
149,000
17,500
|
17,500 |
|
|
||
Level: 4
Blinds: 1,000/2,000
Ante: 300
We caught the tail end of a decent sized pot that played out between Alexandros Kolonias and Peter Chan. With the board reading 
Kolonias (cutoff) had checked the action over to Chan (button), who fired out a hefty pot-sized bet of 55,000, leaving himself roughly 85,000 behind.
Kolonias tanked long and hard over the decision, but as the astute amongst you must have guessed from the post title, the Greek player made the call only to see Chan triumphantly table 
for the rivered nut flush and the Hong Kong player climbed to 221,500 after that timely catch while Kolonias dropped to 166,500.
It has not taken Fedor Holz long to get things going and we caught the German player embroiled in a hand against Predrag Lekovic in a scene that felt strangely reminiscent of yesterday’s 6-Max final table – a fact Holz also noted.
We picked up the action pre-flop where Lekovic (under-the-gun) had a raise of 4,500 out on the felt in front of him and was contemplating a Holz UTG+1 re-raise of 15,000.
Lekovic mulled it over and eventually counted out the call, bringing a chuckle from Holz.
“We’ve been here before,” quipped the German as the dealer spread the 
flop, which brought a check from Lekovic and a bet of 21,500 from Holz.
The Montenegrin player thought it over but did not take too long to make the call and the dealer burned and turned the 
bringing another check from Lekovic and a hefty 66,500-second barrel from Holz.
Lekovic shot Holz a wry grin before sliding his cards into the muck, dropping to 288,000 while Holz climbed to 336,000.
There have been two more new arrivals to grow the field to 20 entrants, 19 of whom still remain in contention with the new faces being China’s Rui Cao and 6-Max runner up Su Hao.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
336,000
81,000
|
81,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
288,000
23,000
|
23,000 |
|
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
|
221,500
31,500
|
31,500 |
|
|
166,500
96,700
|
96,700 |
|
|
||
We caught a sizable hand on the river between Steve O’Dwyer and Steffen Sontheimer with roughly 50,000 already in the pot and the community cards spread 
.
We missed all the pre and post flop betting aside from the final street unfortunately, arriving just as O’Dwyer had checked the action over to Sonheimer, who fired for close to a pot sized 45,000.
O’Dwyer did not look too happy about it but eventually threw in the call, but could only muck his hand when Sontheimer turned over 
for the turned nut flush. O’Dwyer took a hit and dropped to 226,000 while Sontheimer climbed to 337,000.
The field has increased some more with Hong Kong’s Devan Tang and Triton SHR 6-Max Montenegro final tablist Xuan Tan joining the fray. Tom Dwan has just walked into the poker room with Gabe Patgorski and the two perused the room briefly before walking back out. Whether that means the pair will be signing up later we do not know, but it will be fun finding out…
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
337,000
59,000
|
59,000 |
|
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
|
226,000
70,000
|
70,000 |
|
|
||
Level: 3
Blinds: 800/1,600
Ante: 200
The field briefly grew to 16 with the arrival of Hong Kong’s Tony Cheng, but we have also had the Main Event’s first official casualty with Liang Yu hitting the rail.
The man to show Yu the door, at least for his first bullet, was Mikita Badziakouski with the two playing quite a few pots together every time we walked past their table.
It all came to a head on a 
flop where we picked up the action with over 17,000 in blinds and antes already in the pot. We are not sure what the pre-flop betting was but Yu had just checked the action over to Badziakouski, who led out for 7,000.
Yu check-raised to 17,000, leaving himself 51,600 behind, and Badziakouski thought things over before casually tossing in the call and the dealer peeled off the 
turn.
Yu quickly moved all-in and Badziakouski called instantly, tabling 
. Yu shook his head, laughed and folded immediately, and got up and walked away from the table before the hand was finished.
That shot Badziakouski into an early lead and brought the field back down to 15.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
478,000
203,000
|
203,000 |
|
|
||
|
|
250,000
250,000
|
250,000 |
|
Busted | |
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