Welcome back to the PokerStars Championship Macau at the City Of Dreams resort for the fifth and final installment of high octane, big buy-in tournament action. The HK$103,000 High Roller Single Re-Entry Shot Clock event will be starting shortly at 12pm local time (GMT+7).
This marks the last of the official High Roller events on the PSC calendar for this particular tournament series. Although there is another HK$103,000 Single Re-Entry beginning tomorrow at 8pm local time, neither PokerNews or the PokerStars blog team will be covering it so this is your last chance to satisfy those cravings for High Roller action, at least until the PokerStars Championship Monte-Carlo rolls around on 3 May.
So far our High Rolling competitors have generated an eye-popping HK$59,959,580 (~US$7,716,616) in prize money with today’s High Roller only guaranteed to add to this already impressive figure.
Once again the shot clock rules will be in effect with levels of 60 minutes each and a starting stack of 50,000, there will also be a 30-second shot clock which activates 5-seconds into every hand. Once this runs down players have three (30-second) time extension chips that come into play automatically once the initial 30-second clock has expired.
If a player has no more time bank chips and is first to act in the hand and there has been no action then they are counted as checking automatically. If there has been action and the player has no more time bank chips once the 30-seconds Shot Clock has counted down then their hand is declared dead – unless of course, they have already acted.
Thursday 6 April saw Germany’s Oliver Weisemerge victorious over the 47-strong (including re-entries) field to earn his largest ever career tournament score of HK$3,130,000 (~US$402,840) after taking down his first major title.
Cards will be in the air shortly so stay with us as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to see who has got what it takes to be the latest PokerStars High Roller Champion.
After losing another big pot to Daniel Dvoress early on, Nan Hong was back in action and clashed in a pot with Nariman Yaghmai. Until the turn, there were some 12,000 in the middle and Hong shoved, Yaghmai snap-called for a reason.
Nan Hong:
Nariman Yaghmai:
Hong was already drawing dead, and that made the river a formality. Dvoress and Yaghmai are among the early chip leaders and the former joked to the latter "sometimes it is really easy, eh?" Yaghmai just smiled back and enjoyed the decent started.
How does it feel? To be on your own? Seven deuce in the hole? Like a High Rollin' stone?
We're back at the City of Dreams and Hard Rock Hotel poker room (hence the Bob Dylan, y'see) in Macau, and today kicks off the $100K HK Single Re-Entry Shot Clock High Roller. Rock and roll merchandise surrounds the players, but there's only one artifact in the room these players want to take home: the winner's trophy.
We caught the action on the flop in a hand between Dan Smith, who is dressed a little more smartly today than yesterday, and Dejan Boskovik Sr with the board reading .
With 2,000 already in the pot Boskovik Sr checked it over to Smith, who reached for chips and bet 800. Boskovik Sr made the call to bring in the turn before checking once more.
Smith tossed out three 1k blue chips for a 3,000 bet and Boskovik Sr again called to bring the action to the river. This brought a third and final check from Boskovik Sr and another 3,000 bet from Smith.
Boskovik Sr thought it over but eventually folded, flashing Smith a card as he did so, but we could not see what this was from where we were standing.
All the usual faces are in attendance here in the HK$103,000 Single Re-Entry Shot Clock and both Isaac Haxton and Nick Petrangelo are chugging along.
Haxton took down a small pot against Ali Reza Fatehi and Petrangelo took down another with a double barrel but one of the bigger hands we have seen so far happened between Mikita Badziakouski and Canada’s Sam Greenwood in a multi-way pot.
Pre-flop it was Greenwood who was the initial aggressor, raising to 725 from under-the-gun. Early positional bets are getting no respect at the moment and Greenwood found multiple callers with Japan’s Shinobu Tanaka, Belarus’ Mikita Badziakouski, and Anthony Diotte all making the call to take the action four-way to a flop of .
Diotte checked from the big blind, as did Greenwood and Tanaka and action came to Badziakouski in late position and the Belarusian announced a bet of 1,400.
While Diotte folded both Greenwood and Tanaka made the call taking the action three-way to the turn. Both players checked to Badziakouski once again and he loaded up the second barrel, firing for 5,300.
Greenwood called and Tanaka took the hint and folded bringing play heads-up to the river. The Canadian took 25-seconds but decided to check it over to Badziakouski for the third time and he announced a bet of 15,000.
Greenwood ran the shot clock down to 3-seconds before throwing in the call, but could only muck when Badziakouski rolled over for a flopped set.
We just witnessed a big hand play out between Isaac Haxton and Sergio Aido that saw the former take a big hit. We missed the pre-flop action though there obviously was some as the pot was already 14,000 with the flop spread .
Sitting in the hi-jack Haxton checked the action over to Aido, who reached for chips and led out for 5,000. Haxton ran the shot clock down to a single second before sliding out a bet, check-raising to 16,500 in total.
It was Aido’s turn to tank but not for long and he tossed out the calling chips to keep the action two-way to the turn.
Haxton took his time once more and the clock ticked down to 3-seconds before the US player moved all-in and Aido made a speedy call.
Isaac Haxton:
Sergio Aido:
While both players held top pair, top kicker Aido was free rolling with the nut spade draw and got there when the hit the river to a sigh from Haxton, who dropped to a measly 16,000 when the dust settled while Aido rises to 80,000.
After a three-way flop of , the action was on Johnjin Kim and he bet 1,600 with around 12,800 total. Shuo Li raised to 5,100 and Yang Wang, having everyone on the table covered by far, simply shoved all in from one seat over. Kim called all in, as did Li, and the trio jumped out of their seats for the showdown.
Johnjin Kim:
Shuo Li:
Yang Wang:
Kim's flush draw faced two pair and top pair, and Wang took the lead on the turn, he even got a little excited already. The river then completed the board and Kim was eliminated, while his stack was split between Li and Wang. Many other cards would have resulted in two seat open or a triply up, while Wang remains at the top of the counts towards the end of level four.
A huge hand has just played out between Yang Wang and Sai Wu that left the latter fuming, and destitute.
We caught the action on the flop with 5,000 already in the pot just as Wu checked the action over to Wang on the button. Wang already had a beefy stack and appeared eager to add to it, firing out a bet of 4,400.
Wu quickly check-raised to 10,000 to send Wang into tank mode, but with chips to spare he decided to pay to see the turn, which came down .
First to act in the big blind, Wu quickly announced she was all-in and shipped her 31,825 stack into the middle of the table to send Wang deep into the tank, where he remained for the full 30-seconds, burning the first of his three time bank chips. The shot clock ticked down to 5-seconds before Wang made his decision and slid in the call.
Wu eagerly slapped face up onto the felt, which was leading Wang’s and while she seemed primed for a double Lady Luck chose not to smile upon her and the landed on the river.
Wu was absolutely furious, and while we don’t speak Mandarin it appeared that she was giving Wang a piece of her mind. It’s a wonder she had any left to spare as she spent at least five minutes chewing strips off her unfortunate opponent, who takes the lecture in his stride.
That’s pretty easy to do when you have heaps of chips though. Eventually, Wu finished saying her piece and stalked off haughtily to the rail, leaving Wang to breathe a big sigh of relief and he climbed to 195,000.
A huge hand played out between Rathi Shashank and Manig Loeser that saw the latter hit the rail after a battle of the blinds between the two.
Action folded around to Shashank in the small blind who just completed before Loeser decided to get aggressive and he raised to 1,900, only to see Shashank check-raise to 4,600 in total.
Loeser thought it over for a few seconds before calling and the flop came down a monochrome , which Shashank led for an enticing 2,500. The German made the call to keep the action heads-up to the turn.
Despite the pair up, Shashank fired a second barrel of 6,500 causing Loeser to recheck his cards not once, but twice before he moved all-in for 28,200 in total.
After asking for the count Shashank thought it over until there were just 5-seconds on the clock before throwing in the calling chips and the cards were turned over.
While Loeser, holding had begun the hand with a dominated holding the German had managed to spike trips to pull ahead of Shashank’s . However, the Hong Kong-based player had the spade redraw to fall back on, in addition to the deck’s sole remaining queen and the arrival of a fourth spade on the river saw Loeser bust his first bullet.
Loeser headed for the cash desk to re-enter and Shashank stacked up to what looked to be a little under 80,000.
Canlin Chen raised to 1,600 and Timothy Adams three-bet to 5,600 before the action reached Mustapha Kanit. The Italian moved all in for his last 15,300 and both opponents called.
On the flop, Chen bet 3,500 and Adams called before doing so again on the turn for another 5,000. After the river, Chen now made it 18,000 to go and that proved to be too much for Adams, who ended up sending his cards into the muck.
Kanit tabled ace-king while Chen had the for a turned set to eliminate the Italian. Just one minute later, Kanit was waiting with a new ticket in the hand to start attempt number two.
![[user38873]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
turn, there were some 12,000 in the middle and Hong shoved, Yaghmai snap-called for a reason.
river a formality. Dvoress and Yaghmai are among the early chip leaders and the former joked to the latter "sometimes it is really easy, eh?" Yaghmai just smiled back and enjoyed the decent started.
river. This brought a third and final check from Boskovik Sr and another 3,000 bet from Smith. 
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turn. Both players checked to Badziakouski once again and he loaded up the second barrel, firing for 5,300.
river. The Canadian took 25-seconds but decided to check it over to Badziakouski for the third time and he announced a bet of 15,000.
for a flopped set.
.
turn.
turn, he even got a little excited already. The 
.
and while she seemed primed for a double Lady Luck chose not to smile upon her and the 
, which Shashank led for an enticing 2,500. The German made the call to keep the action heads-up to the 
had begun the hand with a dominated holding the German had managed to spike trips to pull ahead of Shashank’s 
. However, the Hong Kong-based player had the spade redraw to fall back on, in addition to the deck’s sole remaining queen and the arrival of a fourth spade on the river saw Loeser bust his first bullet.
river, Chen now made it 18,000 to go and that proved to be too much for Adams, who ended up sending his cards into the muck.
