Following and under-the-gun limp action folded around to Isaac Haxton on the button. Haxton looked keen to up the stakes a little and popped it up to 900, finding a quick caller in the form of Xingbao Zhu in the small blind.
However, Zhu had not counted on Georgios Zisimopoulos still left to act in the big blind and the man currently sitting in 4th on the Greece All Time Money list squeezed to 3,600 in total.
The original limper quickly got out of the way but Haxton still looked interested and made the call, as did Zhu to take the action 3-way to the flop which was checked around.
Zhu checked the turn over to Zismopoulos who now elected to lead out for a tickly 2,200 bet. Both Haxton and Zhu quickly muck and Zismopoulos wins without showdown.
After an open-raise to 400 and a three-bet to 1,500, Lau Man Yuen four-bet to 3,300 in the hijack and his table neighbor Liang Che five-bet to 10,000 in the cutoff. The initial raisers got out of the way and Yuen moved all in for his last 19,400, which Che called.
Lau Man Yuen:
Liang Che:
The flop was rather innocent, but Che picked up a flush draw with the on the turn. Yuen's heart was pumping and he even put his hand up to touch the heart before the fell on the river. Yuen let out a big sigh of relief and doubled back up to more than starting stack.
With on the table and about 2,000 in the pot, Swedish PokerStars qualifier Tim Nicolajsen checked to Finnish PokerStars qualifier Paul Vehvilainen who bet 750. Nicolajsen pushed all in for this last 6,425 and the Fin thought for half a minute before shrugging and tossing in chips to call.
Nicolajsen:
Vehvilainen:
The river was the and Nicolajsen collected the double-up. He now sits on about 15,000 in chips while Vehvilainen still has 48,000 in play.
Maria Ho is visiting Macau for the first time and arrived in the tournament area at the same time as Alex Difelice. Billy "The Croc" Argyros also sat down just before the end of level two and played exactly one hand before the players were sent into the first break of the day.
The seat of Nick Wong is now occupied by another player while Yang Wang's rise continues, the Chinese has already almost tripled up his stack in almost two levels.
In one of the latest hands, Yang check-called a bet worth 4000 by his table neighbor on the flop. Both checked the turn and Yang then bet the river for 1,000. His opponent called and Yang rolled over as winning hand.
Pierre Calamusa was the first into the pot, raising to 450 and getting calls from five opponents. The six players saw a flop of and action checked around.
The turn was the and action nearly checked around again, stopping on the last player to act who was Dong Guo and he bet 2,300. Only Calamusa called.
The river came and Calamusa checked. Guo bet 5,500 and Calamusa thought for a brief moment before pushing all in, making the total 23,025 to call. Guo made the call.
Calamusa turned over for the nut flush. Guo shook his head as he flipped up first the , followed by the , having the second-nut flush.
A black-hooded Lingling Nei opened the action with a raise to 450 from middle position and Sergio Aido opted to play his position aggressively, re-raising to 1,600 from the button.
After a short visit to the think tank, Nei made the call with both players checking the flop. That was it for the betting in the hand and the turn and river came down and respectively.
First to act Nei had to show first and turned over but this was not enough to beat Aido’s and the Spaniard took down the small pot.
High-stakes tournament beast Nick Petrangelo has not long taken his seat but when it comes to seat draws it looks like fate has a funny sense of humor. Petrangelo is seated in the to the direct right of fellow high roller David Peters, Petrangelo in seat 8 and Peters in seat 9.
Why is this an unusual quirk of fate you may ask – the two were in almost exactly the same positions in one of the starting flights in the recent Aussie Millions Main event and butted heads numerous times.
Last time it was Petrangelo who enjoyed the rub of the green but Peters is hoping things go differently this time around.
“Hopefully I get a better result than last time,” quips Peters as the two share a chuckle about the draw.