Phanlert Sukonthachartnant Eliminated in 2nd Place (HK$661,000)

While he began play as chip leader and maintained that for the majority of the day until play became short-handed, with a 1-4 chip deficit when play entered heads-up Thailand’s Phanlert Sukonthachartnant had a mountain to climb if he wanted to emerge victorious.

The first few hands of heads-up involved both players either raising or folding for the first 10-minutes and the stacks changed very little before we had our first flop with Chung Yuan Yu making it 65,000 to go from the button and Sukonthachartnant chose to defend his big blind.

Sukonthachartnant checked the flop over to Yu, who did not take too long before firing out a c-bet of 90,000. The Thai player quickly mucked and Yu edged slightly further in front.

The very next hand it was all over. Sukonthachartnant limped the button and Yu decided to put the hammer down and raised to 130,000 in total. However, it looked as though Sukonthachartnant had planned out his play in advance and he quickly stacked up his chips into two towers and pushed them all into the middle for a shove of 350,000 in total.

Yu asked for a count but looked eager to finish things and did not think too long before announcing the call and the cards were turned over.

Phanlert Sukonthachartnant:
Chung Yuan Yu:

As the at-risk player Sukonthachartnant seemed happy to find himself in front and the flop saw the Thai player maintain his slender lead before disaster struck and the hit the turn to cheers from the sizable Taiwanese rail and fist pump and heartfelt “Yeah!” from Yu.

Sukonthachartnant was left drawing to the deck’s three remaining aces but unfortunately, the river was not one of them and Yu’s rail went wild. The Taiwanese player instantly shot to his feet and went over to shake his opponent’s hand before running over to celebrate with his cheerleaders as rousing shouts of “Taiwan! Taiwan!” echoed through the tournament area.

While he may have fallen at the final hurdle and failed to get that all important rub of the green, Sukonthachartnant played a great tournament so can’t be too disappointed in his performance. While finishing in second hurts when you have some so close to winning we don’t think the Thai player will be too disappointed when he wakes up tomorrow and finds himself the best part of US$84,927 better off.

It’s obvious that Yu is happy with the result, however, and after posing for his winner’s picture he headed off to collect his trophy. There will be a full recap to follow so watch this space.