Aces Good for Ma and Zhang

Two players have recently woken up with the pocket rockets and both got paid out. The first man with the best starting hand in poker was Zhi Ma, who had made it 1,000 to go from early position. A player in middle position min-raised to 2,000 and button David Hirst four-bet to 6,200 with Ma the only caller.

The flop saw Ma check the action over to Hirst, who continuation bet for 4,200, which Ma called to bring in the turn. That was it for the betting in the hand, with both players also checking the river, with Ma scooping the pot with .

Over on one of the other tables, we caught Daniel Laidlaw battling in a hand against Yisi Zhang with 5,000 in the pot on a flop of . Laidlaw, sitting on the button, had a bet of 2,000 out on the felt in front of him, but had been check-rasied to 5,500 by Zhang, who was in middle position.

Laidlaw made the call to bring in the turn and that was it for the betting in the hand, with both players checking that and the river. Zhang showed his to scoop the pot and climb to 44,000, leaving Laidlaw with half of his starting stack.