The dust has settled on day 1A and players are bagging and tagging their chips. Of the 121 players who began the proceedings just 57 successfully circumnavigated the tournament minefield. We’ll be back tomorrow for more tournament mayhem when day 1B kicks off at 2.10pm. Until then, that’s all folks.

Sunny Jung from Korea continues his good form

It seems Sunny Jung has taken this tournament by the horns. We caught his last hand on a board of 6♣ A♠ 8♣ 7♥ and Jung had just bet out 12,000. His opponent held A♥ K♥ and responded with an all-in for around 30,000. Jung quickly called and revealed he had his opponent drawing dead with 8♥ 8♠.

Baring a massive car crash of a hand it looks like Jung will be our chip leader at the end of the session with around 155,000 in chips.

It looks like we’ll be wrapping up shortly as tournament director Danny McDonagh has just announced the last four hands of the day.

Tetsuya Tsuchikawa

Japan’s Tetsuya Tsuchikawa now has a few more chips to play with, at the expense of Sweden’s Ingermar Stahle. We caught the action on the J♣ 8♥ K♣ flop just as Tsuchikawa moved all-in for 22,400 from the small blind.

Sitting in the cutoff Stahle can’t call fast enough and beats Tsuchikawa into the pot, and as the cards go on their backs it’s easy to see why.

Tetsuya Tsuchikawa: A♣ 2♣
Ingermar Stahle: K? K?

Of course, tournament poker being such a cruel game Stahle’s cowboys are gunned down mercilessly when Tsuchikawa immediately hits his flush after the 10♣ lands on the turn. With no pair up forthcoming when the 4♠ floats in on the river Tsuchikawa secures the double-up and is now up to just over 50,000 while Stahle slumps to around 17,000.

Sometimes you witness some amusing hands and this was definitely one of them. It began with a raise from the UTG player to 1300. Another player on the button, who had just shoved the previous hand preflop and won a double up with just 8♠ 7♦ against an opponent’s A♠ K♥, decided to repop it to 3100.

Lester Edoc is in the small blind at seat 9 and takes a look around the dealer at the original raiser’s stack size. He does some mental calculations and four-bets to 9000. But wait! The mysterious player in the big blind, who we can’t seem to find in the player list but gave his name to us as Gong Fang Huang, tanks before shoving his entire stack for around 50,000.

The UTG quickly folds to all this craziness but the button player has a decision to make. He reluctantly folds while showing a few players to his right that he was laying down Big Slick. Lester Edoc then tanks for a few moments before he too folds A♠ K♥ face up. Huang then shows it’s all about position and aggression when he also turns over A♦ K♣ and wins an uncontested pot of almost 15,000 amid hoots and laughter from the rest of the table.

Percy Yung has just seen her Macau Poker Cup Championship dreams go up in smoke courtesy of Haifeng Xue. Looking down to see A♠ Q♣ Yung moved all-in from the big blind for 11,625 in total over the top of a 1,250 Xue raise and found herself racing for her tournament life after Xue made the call holding 10♥ 10♠.

Unfortunately despite hitting her Queen on the turn Yung found herself drawing dead at the same time when the board ran out 5♥ 8♥ K♥ Q♥ 9♦. Yung heads for the exit while Xue moves up to around 60,000.

‘Nicky’ Tao Jin has just popped by the press desk on his way back to his seat after the break and it seems the last level has been kind to him.

He’s managed to chip up from 16,000 to 60,000 courtesy of an unfortunate opponent who managed to run his Pocket Jacks in to Nick’s King Queen on a Queen-high board.

Not content with just this one generous offering he immediately tilt-shoved his remaining chips Jin’s way the very next hand when his ill-timed shove with A♠ 2♠ ran straight into Nicks Pocket Jacks. Sometimes Lady Luck has a sick sense of humour, though it must be nice to be on the receiving end…