Shchemelev Doubles Cheong, Tang Picks Off Tan, Cates Enters, Greenwood Exits

We missed two casualties before the break with Peter Chan and Vlado Banicevi chitting the rail to take the number of players down to 26, though with the arrival of Daniel Cates this has recently climbed back up to 27.

Play had not long resumed after the break before Cheok Ieng Cheong and two-time Russian WSOP bracelet winner Vladimir Shchemelev clashed in a hand that saw the former earn himself a double up at Shchemelev’s expense.

The hand started innocuously enough with a short-stacked Cheong completing the small blind and Shchemelev checking his option in the big blind to take play heads-up to a monochrome flop of , which Cheong checked over to Shchemelev.

The Russian wasted no time putting Cheong all-in for his last 8,500 with the Chinese player calling instantly and the cards were turned over.

Cheok Ieng Cheong:
Vladimir Shchemelev:

Unfortunately for Shchemelev his queen-high spade flush draw was already drawing dead against Cheong’s flopped nut flush and the Chinese player doubled to 17,500. Shchemelev however, still has plenty of chips and is sitting pretty on a stack of 123,000.

Spades were also good for Devan Tang, though not in the way you would imagine after the following hand played out between him and chip leader Xuan Tan.

Pre-flop the action folded around to Tang in the small blind, who threw in the extra 400 chips before Tan popped it up to 3,000 from the big blind. Tang shot Tan a suspicious stare and threw in the extras and the dealer spread a flop of which brought a check from Tang and a bet of 3,700 from Tan, which was called to keep the action heads-up.

That was it for the betting in this particular hand, with both players checking the turn and the river. Tang turned over for queen-high and a missed open ended straight draw, but this was enough to take the pot when Tang shot him a grin and threw his hand into the muck. Tang climbed to 62,000 while Tan dropped down to 152,000.

While we missed his exit Lucas Greenwood busted just as the dust was settling on this hand and walked straight past the table on his way to the exit as the dealer on the Canadian’s now 5-handed table called ‘player out’ to bring the field back down to 26.