Leow Leads Koon, Dwan and Co. into the Final Day
The HKD 500,000 Short Deck Ante-Only brought a turnout of 44 entries including multiple re-entries from several players. The field dwindled to nine remaining contenders after the first 10 levels of play. They're still a few places away from securing a payday with the top five positions paid. The winner will walk away with more than $1 million, taking the HKD 8,470,000 top-prize along with the title.
Ivan Leow min-cashed the HK$100k event earlier today and he is now in good shape to make it two-for-two in Jeju. Leow had a strong finish, taking a huge pot off Rui Cao on the very last hand to establish himself as a huge chip leader. Leow limp-raised with pocket kings and Cao called with ace-jack. Leow hit the top set on the flop but Cao took the lead on the turn where he completed a Broadway. The river, however, paired the board and Leow won a large pot to soar to 3,645,000. He is far ahead of Devan Tang who is currently second with 2,430,000.
The two biggest stars in the remaining field follow in the rankings as Triton Montenegro HK$1 million Short Deck event champ Jason Koon lies in third place (1,720,000) while high stakes cash game phenomenon Tom Dwan sits in fourth with 1,275,000.
Koon managed to hold onto his belongings after the tournament got down to the last table. The random reshuffle brought very different environments on each table. Koon observed that his table boasted 10 million in chips from a total of 13.2 million. But he avoided any big collisions and steadily cruised through, unlike Romain Arnaud and Ben Lamb who have been dispatched in 11th and 10th place, respectively.
Dwan's path to his end-of-day chip count was similar, although he was able to collect some chips in the last level to improve his field position ahead of the final day. But the most entertaining parts of Dwan's appearance came shortly after he entered the event, midway through Day 1. He instantly lost his first bullet but then got it in with ace-jack of hearts against queen-jack of Mikita Badziakouski. Dwan flopped a flush and made six-card Royal Flush on the river to celebrate a sweat double.
Dwan was able to continue on the same bullet for the remaining period and found a bag. There was a period when he got seated right next to Phil Ivey. While they didn't have any major confrontation, Dwan took part in a hand that saw Ivey getting involved in a giant cooler which saw him leave the tournament.
Ivey flopped a jack-high straight but Lamb made a superior straight at the same time. Alan Sass joined the all-in contest with a pair of queens and a lucky runout helped him to scramble out of trouble as he finished with the same straight as Lamb to chop Ivey's stack.
But Sass surely wasn't the player who would dwell on luck during Day 1. He fired no less than six entries to the tournament and would need to make it to the podium to settle in green numbers. There's some hard work ahead of Sass as he parked in sixth place with 800,000 in his bag.
But as the opening HK$100k Short Deck event proved, anybody can get on a winning spree in this high-variance discipline. So make sure to come back to PokerNewson Thursday, July 26 at 2 p.m. local time to see how it unfolds.
Day 2 seating chart and chip counts:
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Tom Dwan | United States | 1,275,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Chan Wai Leong | Malaysia | 635,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Alan Sass | United States | 800,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Gabe Patgorski | United States | 795,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | 555,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Ivan Leow | Malaysia | 3,645,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Rui Cao | France | 1,245,000 |
| 2 | 5 | Devan Tang | Hong Kong | 2,430,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Jason Koon | United States | 1,720,000 |