High Rollers Day 1 Summary
As mentioned earlier the Red Dragon main event will have concluded but that not at all finishes the action for the weekend. The 2-day High Roller attracted 59 big spending hopefuls, all stumping up the HK$80,000 entry to swell the prize pool to an outstanding HK$4,439,160.
However, only seven players might be making any money, cashing for at least HK$267,160 with the lions share of HK$1,465,000 going to the player who successfully circumnavigates the tournament minefield.
Just 20 players managed that feat today with Hong Kong's Shashank Rathi taking an early lead after busting India's Prann Sharma on level one after the latter tried to show his pocket Tens right into a bluff at the river on a 9♥9♦K♥9♣A♠ board. Rathi made the decision with K♦T♦ to double as much as 200,000 and didn't look back, leading the sphere for almost all of the day.
Another player who's well in contention is Macau's Shing Fung Rono Lo. With final tables within the EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller and 2013 WSOP APAC High Roller already under his belt Lo is not any stranger to the giddy heights of high rolling success and gave Rathi a run for the chip lead at several points as play progressed.
Malaysia's Daniel Xiong was another who chipped up early his 5♦5♣ flopping a suite and rivering quads in a hand against Asia Player of the Year Jian Yang. While Yang was down he was in no way out, battling back from this early set back to make the cut for Day 2.
However, a final minute misstep from Chunlei Zhou - known better to the web community as 'PatPatPanda' and 'SamRostan' - saw Korea's Eddy Kim edge into the chip lead as play drew to a detailed.
TOP TEN CHIP COUNTS1. Edward Kim (Hong Kong) -- 755,0002. Rono Lo (Macau) -- 698,0003. Shashank Rathi (Hong Kong) -- 653,0004. Quan Zhou (China) -- 518,5005. Daniel Xiong (Malaysia) -- 450,5006. Kunaal Chandra (India) -- 314,5007. Victor Teng (Australia) -- 299,0008. Li-ta Hsu (Chinese Taipei) -- 297,5009. Huidong Gu (Macau) -- 279,00010. Makoto Yoshimichi (Japan) -- 229,000
Other notables to make it through are: 2014 APPT Seoul High Roller champion Quan Zhou and PokerStars Pro Celina Lin.
For an entire break down of the remainder players and stacks click HERE.
Play resumes tomorrow at 4pm local time so join us then for more tournament thrills and spills.
Carnage On the Close
Tournament director Gerardo Gil Alim calls the last three hands prompting an explosion within the action as several players depart in a flurry of cards and chips.
Panda's are an endangered species and Chunlei 'PatPatPanda' Zhou isn't helping their numbers here within the High Rollers by becoming one in every of our last gasp casualties in a slightly unexpected and sizable pot against Korea's Eddy Kim.
Kim opened the action from early position with a min-raise to 18,000 and Zhou, sitting to his direct left, responds with a re-raise to 40,000 in total. Kim doesn't appear to be he's messing around though and promptly moves all-in. However, this doesn't deter Zhou who makes the decision.
Crab is a delicacy and Kim certainly enjoyed a delectable treat when Zhou rolled over pocket Threes, which might be well behind to the Korean's pocket Jacks. There's no miracle three and PatPatPanda goes the way in which of the dodo and heads for the rail.
This last minute hurrah good not was timed better for Kim, who just edges into pole position and takes the chip lead with a stack of 755,000 as play draws to a close.
Rollercoaster Ride For Lin
The field's last female player and sole remaining PokerStars Team Asia pro Celina Lin has endured a rollercoaster ride of an afternoon up to now. Lin managed to run her 100,000 starting stack as much as 150,000 by level 7 but then suffered a couple of set backs and bled all of her 50,000 profit back to the table before getting all of it in on level 9 with A♥J♥ against a brief stack's middle position shove for 50,000.
Unfortunately for Lin her opponent has J♠J♣, which hold to present the quick stack a much-needed double up. Left with just 47,000 Lin was fortunate enough to get up with A♦Q♥ the very next hand after Daniel Laidlaw min-raises from late middle position with T♠8♠.
Lin ships for her last 47,000 and, fresh from his double up against Henrik Tollefson, Laidlaw has chips to spare and makes the decision. While both players miss the flop, Laidlaw pairs his Eight at the turn meaning Lin will need either an Ace or a Jack to mention alive.
Fortunately for Lin this story has a cheerful ending and an Ace at the river sees her climb back as much as just over her original 100,000 starting stack while Laidlaw drops to what looks to be 150,000.
Quan Waves Bye Bye To Chan
Always an entertaining player to watch, China's Quan Zhou has a habit of bidding goodbye to any opponent unfortunate enough to bust at his hand. While this can be amusing for the remainder of the table and the rail it's sure to leave a mark at the player unlucky enough to bust.
The unlucky opponent in question this time around is Wai Leong Chan and despite making the overall table within the Red Dragon main event Chan was unable to get anything going here within the High Roller. Chan's demise came after he open shipped what looks to be around 65,000 or so with K♥T♠ from middle position only to look Zhou snap call from the large blind holding A♣K♣.
The J♥Q♥7♣ gives Chan a glimmer of hope and a few extra outs though the 8♣ takes a few of these away.
"Bink?" utters Chan hopefully because the dealer peels off the river that's... the 8♠ so no bink for Chan who heads for the exit with the salutations of Zhou ringing in his ears.
Laidlaw Cleans Up With Ajax
It looks as if the second one bullet is operating out for Daniel Laidlaw who has just bagged himself a double up on the expense of Henrik Tollefson. It's Rono Lo who lights the blue touch paper with an open limp from early position before Tollefson adds more fuel to the fireplace with a raise to 25,000 from middle position. Laidlaw, sitting on to Tollefson's left, then re-raises all-in for 88,000 in total.
Lo, who easily has both players covered with a stack well over 600,000, asks Tollefson how much he's playing and it seems like the Norwegian has an additional 150,000 behind. That seems a bit an excessive amount of for Lo, who bows out of the hand and after Tollefson makes the decision the cards go on their backs.
Henrik Tollefson: K♦K♣Daniel Laidlaw: A♠J♦
The Aussie is in desperate need of help and receives it immediately when the dealer spreads the flop and the window card is the A♥. The remainder of the flop is distinctly King-less and runs out 7♥4♥3♠T♣ meaning Laidlaw climbs to 190,000 or so, while Tollefson drops all the way down to slightly below the 100,000 starting stack mark.
Chip Counts
Shashank Rathi has managed to grind his long ago into the chip lead with a stack of what looks to be around 730,000. Rono Lo continues to be a great deal in contention with 650,000 and Quan Zhou rounds out our top three with 460,000.
Other notables are as follows:
Daniel Xiong - 450,000Kunaal Chandra - 400,000Chunlei Zhou (SamRostan) - 200,000
12:45am: Level 9 Begins, Blinds 4000/8000 (1000)
Woe Is Wu
We noticed Raymond Wu has exited the tournament but unfortunately missed his exit hand. However, fellow PokerStars pro Celina Lin was kind enough to speak us during the action.
Raymond departed back on level 6 with blinds at 1500/3000 with a 500 running ante after choosing to defend his big blind with A♣4♠ when an opponent raised to 6,500.
The Q♣9♥2♣ flop brings no help for Wu but with 18,000 in blinds and antes within the middle he obviously had plans for a later street and opted to test call his opponents 7,000 continuation bet.
The J♥ turn brings checks from both players and when a 3rd club within the type of 4♣ hits the river Wu decides to make his move and leads out for 13,000 right into a pot of 32,000.
Wu's opponent raises to 50,000 and Wu three-bet jams for his remaining 135,000. Unfortunately for Raymond his timing is somewhat off and he's quickly called by his opponent who has hit the board within the face holding J♣9♣ for a flopped top pair and flush draw, a turned two-pair and a rivered flush and that's the end of Wu's High Roller tournament.
High Point For Lo
It's been a reasonably cagey level so far, but then with the common stack being 218,000 or around 35 big blinds there may be still various play left and we can have another level after this one.
We have a brand new chip leader within the type of Rono Lo who had reached a high point of 710,000, though he has just sent a few of this Celina Lins way. We caught the action on a flop of Q♠7♥T♥ because the field's sole remaining Pokerstars Team Asia Pro check calls a Lo bet of 11,000.
The Q♣ turn brings checks from both players and when the K♣ lands at the river Lin looks to bluff catch along with her K♦T♦ and checks. Lo doesn't oblige however, checking behind before showing one card, the 2♥. This and Lo's other card go into the muck after Lin shows her hole cards to take down the pot and climb as much as what looks to be around 145,000 or so. Lo continues to be our chip leader with just over 700,000 but Shashank Rathi isn't that far behind on around 600,000.
12:05am: Level 8 Begins, Blinds 3000/6000 (500)
Chen Looking Short, Laidlaw Rebuys
Since losing around 1/2 his stack to Shashank Rathi APOY leaderboard primary Pete Chen is asking precariously short and has dropped right down to just over 25,000 in chips.
Chen's attempt at a double up also backfires when he moves all-in with K♠Q♣ and is instantly called by Quan Zhou, also holding K♥Q♦. Unsurprisingly the result's a chop meaning Chen stays alive for now, even creating a slight profit at the hand after sharing the blinds and antes with Zhou.
Australia's Daniel Laidlaw has plumped for a rebuy and is sitting at the same table with a brand spanking new 100,000 stack so we'll must see if this second bullet works out for him.
Chip Counts
Shashank Rathi is our runaway chip leader at the moment with well over 650,000 with the typical stack being 190,000. Other notables are as follows:
Daniel Xiong - 370,000Rono Lo - 315,000 Makoto Yoshimichi - 300,000 Chunlei Zhou - 280,000Kunaal Chandra - 270,000Henrik Tollefson - 110,000Jian Yang - 90,000Celina Lin - 90,000
11:25pm: Level 7 Begins, Blinds 2000/4000 (500)
Two More Casualties
Our high rollers haven't been shy about moving the chips across the table today and out of our 59 initial entries just 34 remain. Two of our latest bust outs are Chinese Taipei's Terry Fan and Canada's Cheryl Peng.
While we missed his exit hand the sharply dressed Fan was kind enough to provide us the main points of his demise:
"I picked up JJ and lost to J9 off suit on 589 board,' said a dejected Fan, 'All the chips went in at the Ten turn and a 9 at the river gave my opponent the unbelievable two-outer 9..."
Peng fell to the panda power of Chunlei Zhou, her pocket Tens not enough to best Zhou's pocket Queens.
The clock have been paused briefly because the remaining 34 players move over to the opposite side of the cardboard room to flee the live music blaring out of the Hard Rock Café but will play resume shortly for level 7.
Welcome To The Shashank Show
The High Roller tournament is instantly becoming the Shashank Rathi show, a fact Australia's Daniel Laidlaw has just discovered to his cost. Laidlaw has struggled to achieve any traction here at PokerStars Macau thus far today and things only got worse when he opened for 6,500 in middle position.
Rathi three-bets to 15,000 from the large blind and being as he was quite active on the table and shown down a variety of hands Laidlaw decides to shove for his remaining 65,000 or so with A♣K♣. Unfortunately for Laidlaw though, Rathi has the products and quickly calls with A♥A♠.
The case Ace hits the flop and with just a single club in sight because the board runs out A♠3♥Q♥2♠6♣ that's all she wrote for Mr Laidlaw.
"Easy game..." quips Rathi's tablemate Pete Chan because the Hong Kong player scoops in one more pot to bring him as much as 640,000 in chips and additional extend his lead.
It's A SUITE Up...
Sometimes it may be tough to win even a single hand in poker, a fact China's Chao Chen has just discovered to his cost. A late arrival to table three Chen has found himself seated between Jun Zhou and Cheng Ho and his tournament isn't quite going as planned.
Despite Chen's 8♣8♠ dominating Rono Lo's 2♥2♣ pre flop, a kindly flop of undercards to his pair on a board of4♥5♥7♦ AND turning a suite when the 8♥ lands at the turn Chen can only manage a chop when the 6♠ hits the river.
To rub further salt into the wound Chen manages to run into Jun Zhou's flopped set of Fours a scant few hands later meaning his 100,000 starting stack slips to a far diminished 50,000. Jun then again has seen his earlier misfortunes reversed and has climbed to the giddy heights of 450,000 in chips.
10:30pm: Level 6 Begins, Blinds 1500/3000 (500)
Rathi Extends Lead
As level five draws to an in depth Shashank Rathi remains to be out in pole position, the Hong Kong player padding out his already ample stack further on the expense of current APOY leaderboard primary Pete Chen. We caught the action at the river on a board reading A♦9♥8♣7♥6♣ and with over 60,000 already in the midst of the table Chen leads out for 22,500.
Rathi calls pretty quickly and despite Chen holding top pair top kicker with A♥K♣ he finds out the bad news - Rathi's 8♣6♠ has just rivered two pair to bring him over the half one million chip mark. Chen slumps to 50,000 while Rathi rises to 550,000.
A Tale of 2 Zhou's
It would seem that the second one time's a charm for Quan Zhou. On his second buy-in of the day for his one re-entry Zhou is running significantly better this time around. We arrive at table five just in time to look Zhou value bet the river to the tune of 18,000 on a Jack-high board where all of the draws have missed. His opponent, Liang Yu makes a crying call only to insta-muck his hand when Zhou flips over pocket Kings to take down the 50,000-chip pot. This brings Zhou's stack as much as 227,000 with the common stack size coming in at 146,000.
Zhou's fellow tablemate and namesake Chunlei Zhou (SamRostan) isn't doing quite so well after opting to name Hai Bo Chu's late position shove.
Chu moved all-in from the button for 50,300 with the speculative J♣6♠ with Zhou making the decision from the large blind with A♦5♦. The K♠K♣7♠ brings Chu no help and things are looking grim for the Australian at the 8♠ turn before salvation within the type of the J♦ river brings Chu back to simply over his original 100,000 starting stack while Zhou drops right down to around 160,000.
9:50pm: Level 5 Begins, Blinds 1200/2400 (400)
Chip Counts
Daniel Xiong has just been moved to the similar table as our current chip leader Shashank Rathi, who's sitting to his direct left, which should make things interesting for the young Malaysian...
Other notable big stacks include:
Kunaal Chandra - 400,000Dong Guo - 255,000Makoto Yoshimichi - 250,000Chunlei Zhou (SamRostan) - 210,000Jun Zhou - 200,000Daniel Laidlaw - 125,000
Quadzilla!
As a player you do not see quads all that often, though during a tournament a wide variety of monster hands make an appearance. Unfortunately for Jian Yang the reigning APOY has just found himself at the wrong side of 1 in a hand against Malaysia's Daniel Xiong.
With 35,000 within the pot on a board of 5♥T♣2♦J♥ Yang leads out for 15,500 in early position. Xiong mulls over the verdict before making it 32,000 to move in total, which after some careful consideration Yang calls.
The dealer burns and turns the 5♠ river to pair the board and Yang quickly cuts out a stack of yellow chips for a chance of 30,000. Xiong counts out his chips before restacking them neatly and moving all-in for 62,700 in total. Yang calls almost once Xiong's chips are over the road but can only pitch his cards into the muck and count out the bet when the Malaysian turns over 5♦5♣ for quads.
Yang slips to 140,000 after that little misadventure while Xiong climbs to 134,000.
9:10pm: Level 4 Begins, Blinds 1000/2000 (300)
Stacks
We used the fast break to scout the lie of the land and it looks as if we've a slightly decisive chip leader within the type of Shashank Rathi who's sitting pretty with around 480,000.
PokerStars Team Asia Pros Celina Lin and Raymond Wu both look to be across the 100,000 starting stack, APOY Jian Yang has just over 200,000 as does tablemate Dong Guo.
Both Xiongzhen Wu and Quan Zhou have opted for an additional bite of the cherry and are on their second bullet of the day.
9:00pm: First Break
Wen Crushes Cowboys
The dust has barely settled over on Shing Lo's table before the action heats up over on table two and we now have a pre-flop all-in between Xiong Wen and Alvin Zhang.
It looks as if a blind on blind confrontation and Wen has shipped his 60,000 stack into Zhang and was quickly called and from the look on Wen's face he's knows he might be in a place of bother.
He is indeed, his A♠3♠ trailing to Zhang's K♥K♠ meaning Wen goes to wish some help. He receives slightly help by pairing his three when the board runs out 3♣7♦8♦5♣ after which much more because the A♥ hits the river to a groan from Zhang.
This gives Wen Aces-up and he scoops the 120,000 pot while Zhang is now perilously short with just 12,000 left.
Lo On A High
After despatching the unlucky Quan Zhou earlier Shing Lo's stack is moving within the right direction and he has just padded it out further on the expense of tablemate Jun Zhou.
We caught the action at the activate a flop of Q♠9♥T♣9♠ and it seems like Zhou has opted to defend from big blind pre-flop as, with 92,000 already within the middle, that is shaping as much as be a large pot.
Zhou checks the 9♠ and after tanking for a minute or so Lo follows suit and the dealer rolls over the river, that is the Q♣. Zhou checks again opening the door for Lo to bet and he does so, to the tune of 30,000.
Zhou is getting just over 4-1 should he chose to make the call, and he does so but can only pitch his cards into the muck with an especially unimpressed look on his face when Lo flips over Q♥J♥ for trip Queens. Zhou slips right down to 46,000 and Lo rises to 189,000 making him our current chip leader.
8:20pm: Level 3 Begins, Blinds 800/1600 (200)
Numbers at the Rise
Despite our two early eliminations player numbers continue to rise and we have now 44 entries, 42 of whom are still in contention. Australia's Daniel Laidlaw is sitting over on table two, high roller Winfred Yu is here, as is high stakes online player Chunlei Zhou, better known to the web as 'PatPatPanda' or 'SamRostan'.
A suited and booted Terry Fan is asking quite dapper in a slightly shiny grey suit over on table three and with the High Roller satellite concluding our seven lucky winners have just entered the fray.
Action Heating Up
The hefty HK$80,000 buy-in and 40-minute levels isn't slowing down the action any, in truth a few of our players have become the chips in with a virtually reckless abandon.
Unfortunately for China's Quan Zhou this has not worked out quite how he would have liked. Short stacked before the beginning of the hand it looks as if Zhou has shipped for his last 20,000 or so from under-the-gun and been looked up by neighbour Rono Lo within the big blind.
Zhou is in great shape, his Ace Queen leading Lo's Ace Jack, until that's the J♠ makes an unwelcome appearance at the river and we lose our second player of the day on just the second one level.
7:40pm: Level 2 Begins, Blinds 600/1200 (100)
Shashank Picks Off Bluff
Player numbers have now climbed to 37 and we even have our first casualty of the day just 35 minutes into the action.
We missed the pre flop betting but there should have been some as there's 12,000 within the middle in a three-way pot between Shashank Rathi, Sharma Prann and Alvin Zheng.
Both Rathi and Prann check the all red 9♥9♦K♥ board and Zhang opts to take a stab for 5,500 from the button, however, this thins the sector by no means as both players make the decision. The 9♣ turn is where things begin to heat up and after Rathi checks from the small blind Prann leads out for an overbet of 40,000 into 28,500.
That's enough to get Zhang to bow out but Rathi goes nowhere and makes the decision for slightly below half his remaining stack.
The river is the A♠ and another check from Rathi prompts Prann to tug the trigger and he quickly moves all-in. Rathi hits the think tank hard and obviously doesn't just like the Ace. He doesn't appear to be a believer though and at last does make the decision for his remaining 46,000 prompting Prann to roll over T♠T♥ for the entire house. It is not enough though: Rathi flips over his K♦T♦ to scoop the rather chunky 200,000-chip pot. This leaves Prann looking decidedly short stacked and he busts shortly afterwards.
Level 1 begins, Blinds 500/1000
With a 100,000 chip starting stack and 40-minute levels there's various play as we kick off level one with 500/1000 blinds.
PokerStars Team Asia Pros Celina Lin and Raymond Wu are expected. Norway's Henrik Tollefson is sitting over on table one in conjunction with Pot Limit Omaha champion Li-Ta Hsu and reigning Asia Player of the Year Jian Yang.
Current APOY leaderboard front runner Pete Chan has just taken his seat over on table two next to Alvin Zhang and if we hit our expected 80 runners there'll be 1,200 player points up for grabs which might see the landscape change drastically. Chan is the third player to take the highest spot this week, but he has a slightly commanding 1,116 point lead so it looks as if he has that locked up for now.
7:00 pm: Show time
Cards are actually within the air within the High Roller. Thus far we've got 25 runners but we think that figure to climb steadily because the evening progresses with late entry open for the following four hours.
Last time there have been two starting tables and we finished with 63 runners and poker players are notoriously late risers. Plus the HK$11,000 satellite continues to be running, in an effort to award an extra seven seats.
Time for the High Rollers!
The Red Dragon will have wrapped up last night, with the title and HK$1,667,000 top prize heading the best way of China's Zhenru Xie, but that does not mean the action has bogged down here on the 21st edition of the Macau Poker Cup. The series runs during until August 17th with several exciting side events set to capture the imagination of locals in addition to visitors who're still in town.
The feature event of the rest schedule is undoubtedly the HK$80,000 High Roller Event. Spread over the approaching two days, the interest level for this event was enormous, so the PokerStars Blog team has been called in to hide all the action.
PokerStars Macau's Fred Leung commented on social media his expectations for the event:
"Predicting a large turnout for the 80K High Roller at MPC21. What number of you ask? Min. 80 with a possibility at 100 runners. You heard it here."
If that is the case, then we're taking a look at a near HK$8 million prize pool!
Day 1 will kick off at 7:00pm so stay tuned for all of the thrills and spills live from the ground of PokerStars LIVE Macau.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Asia Pacific Poker Tour]
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