L-R: Nobuhiro Yabuuchi, Abhishek Goindi

Left with a stack of just over 100,000 Japan’s Nobuhiro Yabuuchi looked down to see Q♣ Q♠ and declares himself all-in and finds an immediate caller in neighbour Abhishek Goindi, who tables A♦ K♥.

It’s down to a good old fashioned race to decide Yabuuchi’s tournament fate and he loses it straight away when the board comes down A♠ 8♣ 6♣ 8♠ 9♥.

Yabuuchi’s elimination halts play for the day and as he departs in 19th place with HKD $41,000 for all his hard work the rest of the players breathe a huge sigh of relief and begin to count up their stacks.

We’ll be back at 12:10pm so join us then to see who will emerge victorious as the first Red Dragon champion of 2012.

While she has been on a bit of a heater as of late Jay Tan is not getting it all her own way. Dong Woo Kang opens the pre-flop betting with a raise to 46,000 from late position and Tan makes the call from the button.

The flop comes down Q♥ 3♠ J♦ and Kang immediately open shoves for 185,000 in total. Tan asks for a count and looks like she is seriously considering a call, before deciding against it and open-folding A♦ K♥. Kang responds by turning over his A♣ K♣ with a smile as he rakes in the pot. Tan still has well over a million in chips though, so this minor setback shouldn’t phase her too much.

Jay Tan

When everything is going your way on the poker table then life is good. Jay Tan is having a great ride and you can tell she is enjoying herself, particularly after this hand where she got all the money in preflop with Tong See Lew.

Tan’s 10♦ 10♠ were slightly ahead of Lew’s A♣ K♦ but when the flop came down 10♣ 6♥ K♦ she streaked miles in front with a set. On the turn 10♥ Tan jumped out of her seat and shouted, “Yes, quads, quads, quads!” and asked “Can I take a picture?” while reaching for her phone. For those who are Facebook friends with Tan, expect a status update with a picture of the hand at any moment.

Lew, meanwhile, heads out in 20th place for HKD $41,000.

Julian Hasse

It’s all got quite cagey at present, and while there is a great deal of stealing and re-stealing going on we haven’t seen a great many flops as of late. A short-stacked Sailesh Verma tries to get the action going over on his table, min-raising to 32,000 from the button into Julian Hasse’s big blind, and the Aussie decides he wants to see a flop and makes the call.

Both players are taking a cautious approach and opt to check the K♠ J♠ J♦ flop, and the dealer burns and turns the 9♥. Both Hasse and Verma checks once again before we finally get a little bit of action with Hasse choosing to take a stab for 73,000 when the K♦ double pairs the board.

Both players have similar sized stacks and if Verma makes the call he’ll be left with around 90,000 or so, which as these blind levels, isn’t very much at all.

However, Verma decides to take the aggressive option and after giving Hasse the eyeball, declares that he is all-in. Hasse quickly gives it up and Verma earns a bit of breathing space and is now up to just over 200,000 with Hasse dropping down to around the same.

Jay Tan

Another former Red Dragon champion has fallen and this time it was courtesy of Jay Tan who is killing it at the moment. From UTG, Patrick Lee makes it 38,000 to go preflop and Tan, in the cutoff, is the only one to call. The flop arrives 7♦ 10♦ 4♠ and Lee bets another 50,000, leaving him about 100,000 behind. Tan takes her time before announcing all in and is quickly called.

Lee has right to believe his K♣ K♥ is in front but Tan has flopped a set with Pocket Fours and looks unstoppable. The turn 5♦ and river A♣ arrive and Tan can’t believe her luck, repeating “wow” and she rakes in even more chips to now have 1.4 million to play with.

Denny Yu

Jay Tan and Denny Yu are butting heads once again and it looks like we have a sizable pot brewing. We caught the action on the flop and with over 150,000 already in the pot on a flop of J♠ Q♦ Q♠ Tan considers her options from the big blind.

She reaches for chips and fires out a bet of 50,000 and Yu grabs pile of 25k orange chips and casually tosses in a raise, making it 115,000 in total. Tan calls pretty quickly, but then checks when the 8♣ falls on the turn.

Tan’s just playing possum though and as soon as Yu takes the bait and bets 165,000 she declares herself all-in. This is now a really big pot, and it will cost Yu another 392,000 more to make the call. He doesn’t look as though he likes this turn of events and with around 475,000 remaining in front of him it is a big, big call.

Yu eventually elects to fold, and Tan flashes him Pocket Aces before raking in a pot worth over 1 million in chips to pass the six figure mark.

Players have just gone on a short 10-minute break, but according to Danny McDonagh we should only be playing one last level after this before calling it a night.