It’s a quiet Monday afternoon in the Grand Waldo Casino, with the spotlight firmly on the four tables in the heart of the tournament floor for the opening level of the PokerStars.net APPT High Roller. It’s been a frenetic opening with the short stacks quickly getting their chips in looking for an early double up.
The strategy worked for Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein (still in his tai chi uniform from this morning’s workout – he looks more serene than normal), who built his stack to 48,000 with A-Q against Tyler Cornell’s pocket nines on a board of A-J-10-8-6
Top online player Matt ch0ppy Kay, who also hails from Mike McDonald’s hometown of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, was another early mover when he tripled-up with pocket aces against the pocket jacks held by both David Steicke and Nam Le.
Steicke has certainly been the mark for the players at table 14 – Eric Assadourian just tested the chip leader’s resolve with a stone cold bluff while Quinn Do put a further dent in his stack by doubling through with jacks against Steicke’s K 5 on a board of 10 8 2 A A (the money going in after the flop).
Two players have been eliminated – Pakinai Lisawad was sent to the rail when Wei Will Ma showed a higher set (10s against threes) on a board of 4h-3d-10d-5d while Andrew Pantling made a runner-runner flush with Qs-10s against Steve Sung’s Ah-Kd on a board of 3h-Jd-4s-9s-8s to end Sung’s tournament.
The field has just been redrawn after PokerStars Sponsored Terrence Chan was sent to the rail when he pushed in with pocket eights against the pocket kings of Yury Kerzhapkin on a flop of Jh-2d-4d, with the Russian improving to a set on the river.
The approximate chip count after the first hour has David Steicke still in the lead on 142,000 from Mike McDonald (95,400), Eric Assadourian (93,400), Wei Will Ma (80,000) and Saehoon Lee (74,100).
Back to Top