Sung Ju Choi completed the blind and Jason Gooch moved all in to set Choi in for his last 36,000 or so. Choi stacked all of his chips after a few moments and slid them in.
Gooch was forced to show and Choi revealed just . The flop mean Gooch could only win with a four but that's exactly what arrived on the turn: . Choi now needed to improve but he did so when the fell to give him the straight.
After a series of preflop raises, Wendy Freedman got all of her 104,500 chips in the middle against an opponent. Freedman was at risk with a pair of jacks against her opponent's .
A queen-high board was placed on the felt and Freedman's pocket jacks held on to win a race. Freedman now holds one of the larger stacks in the room as the field narrows in on the coveted 12% cutoff point.
Down to a nub, Kao Saechao shoved in the small blind with and the big blind called with . The board ran out , so he doubled up.
The next hand, it folded to him again and he shoved all in for just over 18,000. This time, the big blind called with the and it was Saechao holding rags: . He wouldn't survive this time as the community came .
There was a raise to 9,000 from under the gun and the button three-bet to 25,000. Robert Jenkins was in the big blind and shipped all in for around 65,000. The initial raiser also pushed all in for his last 29,300 and the button quickly made the call, having both players covered.
Jenkins tabled , the short stack held and the button turned over the best hand with . The flop came and the pocket kings were still in the lead even though Jenkins picked up a flush draw.
The turn was the which took away some of Jenkins' outs, but the on the river gave Jenkins the nut flush and a healthy pot.
After getting off to such a great start on Day 1a, WinStar poker ambassador Maria Ho's chip stack began to dwindle down the stretch. Ho fell below ten big blinds recently and was unable to spin it back up as she was seen leaving her seat just moments ago.
There was a raise to 6,500 from early position and a call from middle position. Arthur Morris was in the cutoff and moved in his last 35,800 chips. The initial raiser folded but the player in middle position made the call.
Arthur Morris:
Opponent:
The flop fell and Morris quickly fell behind his opponent's pair of aces. The landed on the turn and the completed the board on the river. Morris packed up his bags and headed out the door late on Day 1a.