Japan's Yasuhiro Sasaki has recently joined the action to bring the total number of entries up to 44, though with the recent departure of Hong Kong's Ho Yin Tai only 32 of these are still in action and the remaining Day 1C players are on their second break of the day, this time for 15-minutes while the green 25-chips are taken out of play.
Thailand’s Phachara Wongwichit opened the action with an under-the-gun min-raise to 1,000 and Hong Kong’s Jeffery Lo, sitting under-the-gun plus one made the call, which encouraged a neighboring player to make the call and the big blind chose to come along for the ride as well.
So, four-way to a flop of which was checked over to Lo. While he took his time about it Lo was not checking and fired out a bet of 1,750 with the big blind the only caller.
The action went heads-up to the turn with the big blind checking once more. Lo showed no such restraint and barrelled again, this time for 2,600, which the big blind again called.
The river brought in a possible backdoor diamond draw and completed a possible straight so when the big blind checked again Lo checked it back and the cards were turned over. The big blind was evidently not a believer and rolled over for top pair, but this was not enough to best Lo’s and he climbed to 27,000.
Joey Wong’s tournament appears to be working out the way he wants it at present, and the Hong Kong player has just padded out his stack a little further at the expense of Hon Cheong Lee.
It was Wong who was the initial aggressor, making it 1,250 to go from early position and action folded around to Lee in the cutoff, who decided he wanted to up the stakes and re-raised to 3,200.
Wong made the call and it was heads-up to a flop of , which was checked over to Lee, who continuation-bet 2,500. It did not take Ho long to make the call and the turn saw the action go check, check.
Needing no further prompting Ho led the river for 6,000, which brought a swift fold from Lee who dropped down to 10,025 while Wong climbed to around 29,000.
Malaysia’s Michael Soyza has recently joined the action to bring the total number of Day 1C entrants (including re-entries) up to 43 with 34 players still left in the hunt for a Day 2 Seat.
A player lit the blue touch paper with an under-the-gun open to 900 with Japan’s Hiromitsu Katsumi making the call from the hi-jack and Malaysia's Wai Kiat Lee coming along from the small blind to take the action three-way to a flop of .
Lee checked the action over to the original raiser, who didn’t seem all that keen on it and checked it over to Katsumi. The Japanese player liked it fine and fired for 1,200, only to see Lee check-raise squeeze to 3,700 in total.
That was enough to get the original raiser to give it up, but not Katsumi, who made the call to take the action heads-up to the turn, completing a possible straight.
Lee took his time about it before deciding the right amount to bet was a tickly little 2,800 and action was on Katsumi, who quickly announced raise and made it 5,600 to go.
Lee was a lot quicker to act this time, immediately jamming for 12,450 in total and Katsumi now had a decision to make. He chose to call and the cards were turned over.
Wai Kiat Lee:
Hiromitsu Katsumi:
While Lee was making a cheeky squeeze play with second pair on the flop he had improved to two pairs and was now leading Katsumi’s ace-queen and the river improved Lee’s hand further. Lee climbed to 25,350 after that timely catch while Katsumi dropped down to 6,400.
There have been several new arrivals over the last level to bring the total number of entries up to 41, of whom 32 still remain in the running.
The new faces belong to Malaysia’s Chin Sun Tan and Wai Kiat Lee, Hong Kong’s Chung Chuen Co, Kevin Choi and Nick Wong and Japan’s Hiromitsu Katsumi.
Macau’s Ka Meng Ho has also re-entered for a second time and will be hoping to run better than he did on his first bullet, as will Percy Chao, who has also just re-entered.
Wei Tso (right) spikes his jack on the river for a huge payday
We are not sure what the pre-flop action was but there was already 9,500 in bets, blinds, and antes in the pot as we arrived in time to see a massive three-way pot brewing between Hong Kong’s Wei Tso, Joshua Zimmerman and a third player sitting in the cut-off.
With the flop spread Tso, sitting in the small blind, had led out for a bet of 4,350 only to see Zimmerman pull the trigger and move all-in for 15,000 in total. The player in the cutoff made a quick call for his tournament life and slid his 9,725 stack over the line and the action was back on Tso, who had a big decision to make.
Eventually, after a minute or so in the think tank Tso decided to roll the dice and made the call and the cards were turned over.
Wei Tso:
Joshua Zimmerman:
Cutoff:
While he may have had the best hand pre-flop Tso was trailing to the cutoff’s flopped set of threes and Zimmerman was drawing live for the side pot with two overcards and a queen-high flush draw.
The turn card saw Zimmerman edge in front for the side pot but the poker gods were just playing with everyone’s emotions and the landed on the river to give Tso the best hand with a set of jacks.
Tso sent his two unfortunate opponents to the rail and stacked up to 59,000 after that timely catch – which makes him the current chip leader by quite some margin.