HK $1,000,000 Main Event Jour 2 | 2017 Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro

2017-07-19 22:30 UTC+2

Wang Qiang Becomes Main Event Bubble Boy

Niveau 18 : 25,000/50,000, 5,000 ante

Manig Loeser (left) Wang Qiang (centre) Peter Chan (right)

Richard Yong opened the action with a raise to 200,000 from middle postion not long after play restarted but folded to a Chan Wai Leong cutoff shove. Then there was a great deal of pre-flop chip flexing with no significant pots played until there were fireworks 20 minutes into level 18.

Peter Chan’s stack had dwindled to a little 820,000 when he moved all-in from under-the-gun and the action folded around to Manig Loeser in the small blind.

The German player had been pretty active at the final table up until this point, hoovering up any chips not nailed down and decided to isolate Chan by moving all-in from the small blind action was on Wang Qiang, who sat back in his chair and shot Loeser a look.

Qiang had close to 1-million in chips and had a decision to make, tanking for several minutes before he decided to roll the dice and moved all-in to create a huge three-way pot and the cards were turned over.

Peter Chan:
Wang Qiang:
Manig Loeser:

While Qiang had Chan covered, he was trailing to both Chan and Loeser and the German had both of them covered easily.

The rainbow flop missed all three players and the turn did not help anyone. Things were looking distinctly dicey for Qiang and were getting rosier by the minute for Chan and the river saw the Hong Kong player shoot up out of his seat with excitement.

Qiang was also on his feet, but for a very different reason, his Main Event was now over and he headed for the rail empty handed while his chips were divvied up between Chan and Loeser.

With the bubble now burst the clock was paused with 30-minutes remaining of the level while the eight remaining players congratulated each other on making at least HK$1,712,000 (~$219,256). Play will resume at 1pm CET on Thursday 20 July and there will be a full end of day wrap and chip counts to follow so watch this space.

Joueur	Jetons	Progression
Manig Loeser	3,715,000 815,000	815,000

Peter Chan	1,250,000 220,000	220,000
Wang Qiang	Eliminé

Tags: Manig Loeser Peter Chan Wang Qiang

2017-07-19 17:47 UTC+2

Double for Leong, Chan Takes From Behbehani, Behbehani Busts to Tang

Niveau 14 : 10,000/20,000, 3,000 ante

Play had not long resumed following the break before the short-stacked Chan Wai Leong earned himself a double up at Devan Tang’s expense.

Tang limped from middle position and action folded around to Leong on the button who moved all-in for 220,000. After the blinds got out of the way Tang tossed in the calling chips but was not happy to see that Leong had him dominated and uttered an expletive in Cantonese that Salman Behbehani seemed keen to learn.

Devan Tang:
Chan Wai Leong:

Tang was calling for a chop but did not get one when the board ran out to grant Leong a much needed double and he climbed to 450,000 while Tang dropped to 225,000.

Salman Behbehani got a chance to try out his new found linguistic phrase the very next hand against Peter Chan, making it 40,000 from UTG+1 with Chan chosing to defend from the big blind.

Chan checked the flop over to Behbehani, who checked it right back and the hit the turn, which brought a bet of 40,000 from Chan.

Behbehani thought it over for a few seconds and made the call and the completed the hand, but not the betting. Chan fired out a bet of 65,000 and Behbehani made a quick call, but could only muck when Chan turned over for top pair. Chan climbed to 1,040,000 after the hand while Behbehani was looking a little short on 225,000.

This found it’s way into the middle shortly afterward when the US player moved all-in with ace-nine and ran into the ace-jack of Tang and the field is now down to 14.

Joueur	Jetons	Progression
Peter Chan	1,040,000 10,000	10,000
Devan Tang	450,000 -20,000	-20,000
Chan Wai Leong	450,000 175,000	175,000
Salman Behbehani	Eliminé

Tags: Chan Wai Leong Devan Tang Peter Chan Salman Behbehani

2017-07-19 16:50 UTC+2

Holz Bust Out Sets Up Last Two Tables

Niveau 13 : 8,000/16,000, 2,000 ante

Su Hao is no longer in the running and departed midway through the level and Fedor Holz will not be adding anymore trophies until his haul this week either, busting at the hands of fellow countryman Dominik Nitsche in what turned out to be an interesting hand.

Pre-flop it was Nitsche who was the aggressor, opening the action with a raise from the cutoff with Holz making the call from the button. We picked up the action on the river but Salman Behbehani was kind enough to fill us in on the details and according to him Holz check-called Nitsche’s continuation bet on a flop before seizing the initiative on the the turn and leading for 60,000 when Nitsche checked.

Nitsche made the call and the river completed the hand. This is where it got interesting and is where we picked up the action with Nitsche leading out for 130,000 only to see Holz move all in for 327,000 in total.

Nitsche tanked long and hard before making the call and Holz rolled over . While this was no good it was not because Nitsche had an ace, but rather had rivered a set holding . Holz headed for the rail while Nitsche stacked up to over 1 million and play was briefly paused as the third table broke and the players were split between the two remaining tables.

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	1	Paul Phua	Malaysia	200,000
1	2	Chan Wai Leong	Malaysia	275,000
1	3	Daniel Cates	USA	355,000
1	4	Dominik Nitsche	Germany	1,040,000
1	5	Peter Chan	Hong Kong	1,030,000
1	6	John Juanda	Indonesia	400,000
1	7	Salman Behbehani	USA	340,000
1	8	Devan Tang	Hong Kong	470,000

2	1	Manig Loeser	Germany	1,330,000
2	2	Steffen Sontheimer	Germany	760,000
2	3	Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	1,700,000
2	4	Wang Qiang	China	2,300,000
2	5	Antonios Paschalidis	Greece	730,000
2	6	Richard Yong	Malaysia	800,000
2	7	Tony Cheng	Hong Kong	820,000
2	8	Gabe Patgorski	USA	520,000

Paul Phua busted shortly afterward and the players are now on a 20 minute dinner break.

Joueur	Jetons	Progression
Wang Qiang	2,300,000 -250,000	-250,000
Manig Loeser	1,330,000 260,000	260,000

Dominik Nitsche	1,040,000 520,000	520,000

Peter Chan	1,030,000 -70,000	-70,000
Tony Cheng	820,000 -10,000	-10,000
Richard Yong	800,000 200,000	200,000
Steffen Sontheimer	760,000 -50,000	-50,000
Antonios Paschalidis	730,000 120,000	120,000
Gabe Patgorski	520,000 40,000	40,000
Devan Tang	470,000 60,000	60,000
John Juanda	400,000

Daniel Cates	355,000 -165,000	-165,000
Salman Behbehani	340,000 -20,000	-20,000
Chan Wai Leong	275,000 -35,000	-35,000
Paul Phua	Eliminé

Tags: Antonios Paschalidis Chan Wai Leong Dominik Nitsche Fedor Holz Gabe Patgorski John Juanda Manig Loeser Mikita Badziakouski Paul Phua Peter Chan Richard Yong Salman Behbehani Steffen Sontheimer Su Hao Wang Qiang

2017-07-19 16:09 UTC+2

Badziakouski Busts Trickett, Cheng Busts Dwan

Niveau 12 : 6,000/12,000, 2,000 ante

There have been two more casualties, both from the same table interestingly enough, and the remaining 18 players are just 10 bust outs away from the money.

The United Kingdom’s Sam Trickett was the first to fall at the hands of Mikita Badziakouski and tablemate Steffen Sontheimer was kind enough to fill us in on the details.

“Mikita raised big from the button,’ said Sontheimer, ‘and Sam shoved for 33 big blinds and this fish,’ [points to Badziakouski] ‘had no idea what to do.” Sontheimer joked, giving Badziakouski a friendly needle.

Badziakouski eventually made the call with pocket fives and Trickett had ace-queen and lost the race for his tournament life while Badziakouski stacked up to over 1.65 million.

“Maybe say I had eights,’ Badziakouski quipped, ‘it will look better,” the Belarusian said with a cheeky grin.

Tom Dwan departed shortly afterward after losing a blind on blind battle against Tony Cheng. The US player moved all-in from the small blind with and Cheng made the call with , which held to bring Dwan’s Main Event to an end while Cheng stacked up to 680,000.

Joueur	Jetons	Progression
Mikita Badziakouski	1,650,000 250,000	250,000

Tony Cheng	680,000 270,000	270,000
Tom Dwan	Eliminé
Sam Trickett	Eliminé

Tags: Mikita Badziakouski Sam Trickett Steffen Sontheimer Tom Dwan Yat Wai Cheng

2017-07-19 14:34 UTC+2

O’Dwyer and Aldermir Bust; Stack Check

Niveau 11 : 5,000/10,000, 1,000 ante

The field is now thinning out with both Steve O’Dwyer and Koray Aldemir departing in a flurry of cards and chips. O’Dwyer became the first official casualty after getting all the chips in pre-flop with ace-king and found himself racing for his tournament life against the pocket fours of Wang Qiang.

Unfortunately for O’Dwyer he was unable to pair his ace or king and fell at the hands of Qiang for the second time today, though with the re-entry period now over, this will be the last time as well, at least for this particular tournament.

We caught Aldemir’s exit after arriving at the tail end of a hand between the defending champion and Dan Cates. We picked up the action on the river with the community cards spread just as Aldemir moved all-in for his last 130,000 into an already sizable pot.

Cates called instantly and while Aldemir turned over for the flush this was not enough to beat Cate’s turned boat as the US player was holding and Aldemir headed for the rail while Cates stacked up to 905,000.

Here’s how the remaining 25 players are stacking up:

Joueur	Jetons	Progression
Wang Qiang	2,200,000 200,000	200,000
Antonios Paschalidis	1,100,000 270,000	270,000
Peter Chan	980,000 540,000	540,000
Mikita Badziakouski	920,000 77,000	77,000

Daniel Cates	905,000 745,000	745,000
Chan Wai Leong	787,000 59,500	59,500
Manig Loeser	725,000 380,000	380,000

Sam Trickett	690,000 -25,000	-25,000
Steffen Sontheimer	535,000 230,000	230,000
Richard Yong	450,000 180,000	180,000
Tony Cheng	450,000 -350,000	-350,000
Fedor Holz	430,000 297,000	297,000

Paul Phua	420,000 170,000	170,000

Su Hao	370,000 55,000	55,000
John Juanda	320,000 70,000	70,000

Predrag Lekovic	300,000 -40,000	-40,000
Lucas Greenwood	239,000 129,000	129,000
David Peters	200,000 200,000	200,000

Dominik Nitsche	200,000 -155,000	-155,000

Devan Tang	175,000 -35,000	-35,000
Salman Behbehani	170,000 -50,000	-50,000
Alexandros Kolonias	156,000 51,000	51,000

Wai Kin Yong	145,000 -112,000	-112,000
Koray Aldemir	Eliminé

Steve O'Dwyer	Eliminé

Tags: Dan Cates Koray Aldemir Steve O'Dwyer Wang Qiang

2017-07-19 10:34 UTC+2

Day 2 of the Triton Super High Roller Series 2017 Montenegro Main Event; The Road to the Final Table

The penultimate day of the HK$1,000,000 Triton Super High Roller Series 2017 Montenegro Main Event is set to start at 1pm CET. So far 25 players have locked up their Day 2 seat out of a starting field of 47, but with registration open until the end of level 10 at 2pm local time, this figure could well increase.

While there were only 27 unique entries the star-studded field was feeling flush with cash with nine of the field opted for a another bite of the cherry when the cards failed to fall their way. Two of these seven – Germany’s Dominik Nitsche and Triton co-founder Paul Phua – fired not twice but thrice to bring the total number of entries up to 47.

At present, it is the man they call Shanghai Wang – Wang Qiang – who is leading the charge after bagging up a massive 1,040,000 in chips, the only player to break the seven-figure chip mark.

Qiang’s next closest rival is Belarusian Mikita Badziakouski who finished the day on 843,000 after dominating much of the Day 1 early action, with Greece’s Antonios Paschalidis rounding out the top three with a stack of 830,000.

Other notables to make it through including Daniel ‘jungleman’ Cates (776,000), the United Kingdom’s Sam Trickett (710,000), German wunderkind Fedor Holz (386,000) and 2016 Global Poker Index Player of the Year David Peters (249,000) though the latter two had to fire twice to make it through.

Defending champion Koray Aldemir (146,000) and former champion Wai Kin Yong (247,000) are amongst the hopefuls that will return for Day 2 with the seat draw as follows:

Main Event Day 2 Seat Draw

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	7	David Peters	USA	249,000
1	6	Dominik Bosnjak	Austria	85,000
1	5	Antonios Paschalidis	Greece	830,000
1	4	Wang Qiang	China	1,040,000
1	3	Predrag Lekovic	Montenegro	357,000
1	2	Liang Yu	China	473,000

2	7	Salman Behbehani	Kuwait	225,000
2	5	Fedor Holz	Germany	386,000
2	4	Dominik Nitsche	UK	182,000
2	2	Chan Wai Leong	Malaysia	688,000
2	1	Alexandros Kolonias	Greece	289,000

3	7	Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	813,000
3	6	Steffen Sondheimer	Austria	487,000
3	3	Lucas Greenwood	Canada	208,000
3	1	Sam Trickett	UK	710,000

4	7	Manig Loeser	UK	584,000
4	5	Tony Cheng	Hong Kong	706,000
4	4	Wai Kin Yong	Malaysia	247,000
4	3	Peter Chan	Hong Kong	697,000
4	1	Su Hao	China	334,000

5	8	Koray Aldemir	Austria	146,000
5	7	Richard Yong	Malaysia	577,000
5	5	Daniel Cates	USA	776,000
5	3	Steve O'Dwyer	Ireland	440,000
5	1	Devan Tang	Hong Kong	214,000

The action re-commences at level 10 with blinds coming starting at 4,000/8,000 with a 1,000 running ante and will not stop until the official nine-handed final table is reached, though play will be eight-handed for the majority of the day.

As usual, the PokerNews live reporting team will be on hand to bring you all the action as it happens so watch this space as we see who’s got what it takes to successfully traverse the road to the final table.

Tags: Antonios Paschalidis Chan Wai Leong Dan Cates David Peters Dominik Nitsche Fedor Holz Koray Aldemir Liang Yu Manig Loeser Mikita Badziakouski Paul Phua Peter Chan Predrag Lekovic Richard Yong Salman Behbehani Sam Trickett Steve O'Dwyer Wai Kin Yong Wang Qiang