Sungmi Cho opened the action with a raise to 13,000, and Beth Hall on the button made the call. Then Michael Casella three-bet all in for 157,000. Cho folded, and Hall went into the tank, but eventually counted out the chips to make the call, and put Casella at risk.
Michael Casella: A♣K♦
Beth Hall: 9♠9♥
Hall found the right call, but would need to win the race to knockout Casella. But when the board ran out 4♣2♠Q♠J♥7♣ the pocket nines of Hall remained best, and Casella was eliminated.
Action folded to Sungmi Cho in the cutoff, and he raised to 20,000, before Paul Nguyen on the button, three-bet all in for 280,000. The blinds folded, and Cho quickly put in a chip to call.
Paul Nguyen: K♣J♣
Sungmi Cho: A♠K♦
Nguyen tried to steal pot from Cho, but he had a real hand and Nguyen dominated. Once the board ran out 7♦8♠3♦8♣3♥ the ace high of Cho was still best, to give him the pot, eliminate Nguyen, and burst the money bubble.
Play has concluded for the night as the four remaining players have all bagged up and will return for Day 2 on Sunday September 22 at 11:00 a.m. local time.
Day 1b at The Commerce Casino Hold’em Series in the $1,200 Main Event has been completed. The second of five flights saw 42 entrants, with four players making the money and advancing to Day 2. That brings the total to 69 entrants, and seven players advancing to Day 2 for this event, which has a $300,000 guarantee. The chip leader at the end of Day 1b was Sungmin Cho who bagged 775,000.
Cho has an overwhelming chip lead, which in large part was due to the final hand of the night, when he popped the money bubble after knocking out Paul Nguyen with ace-king, and taking in a pot worth over 550,000. Sitting second in chips is Beth Hall, and third is Robert Natividad.
End Of Day 1b Chip Counts
Place
Player
Country
Chip Count
1
Sungmin Cho
Sourth Korea
775,000
2
Beth Hall
United States
457,000
3
Robert Natividad
United States
300,000
4
Robert Nguyen
United States
147,000
One of the 42 entrants in the field who did not make the money was Michael Nia, who has been featured numerous LA Poker Live Streams. Nia was starting to build some momentum and was up to almost 200,000 chips, but was eliminated prior to the final nine players combining for the last table.
For the Day 1 flights, players will start with 40,000 chips at the 100/200 blind levels. There will be 40-minute blind levels, until the final table where they will play 60-minute levels. Players will have a 15-minute break after every three levels of play.
This event has unlimited rebuys, with registration for this event concluding after the start of Level 10, and Day 1 flights ending after the players make the money. 1 out of 10 players will make the money. Players may play multiple Day 1 flights after bagging to improve their Day 2 stack. Any player who bags multiple times will have their smaller stack taken out of play, and receive a min cash for their stack.
Be sure to follow PokerNews for live updates and coverage throughout the entirety of this event.
