If the rate of attrition continues at this pace, the latest champion on Season 8 of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour will be crowned before dinner and have plenty of time to celebrate the night away.
The pace was set from the very first hand when Yen Han Chen got his chips in holding pocket kings and received a call from Yat Wai Cheng with pocket tens. Chen was at risk and doubled up with the better hand and from there, the final table was ready to rock.
Just a few minutes after Chen’s double up and we lost our first player.
It started with chip leader Thomas Mcgarrity opening from the hijack. The play folded around to Sailesh Verma, he looked down at J♣ Jâ™ and moved all in for just over 400,000. Mcgarrity made the call with A♦ 8♦ , leaving Verma hopeful that he could dodge some cards and start building a stack. But no, that’s not what happened as a 7♦ A♣ Q♣ flop and no help on the turn or river meant Verma was sent home with a HK$198,140 score.
With Verma out the door the eight remaining players moved their chairs slightly around the table to give themselves a little more personal space.
Just moments later they would find themselves with even more room to move.
Yat Wai Cheng’s final hand began with him on the button. A flurry of cards were sent into the muck from all direction of the table before it was on Cheng. He moved all in for 330,000 and Cyril Andre called in the big blind.
Cheng’s K♥ 7â™ didn’t look to impressive against Andre’s A♦ 8♥ , but it looked quite a bit prettier when the dealer flipped over a Q♥ 3♥ 6♥ flop to give him a flush draw. Then the 4♣ turn gave him even more outs as he would need any king, seven, five or heart to stay alive. But the Qâ™ wasn’t one of those cards and so Cheng was sent home with HK$273,000 for his 8th place effort.
Cut to around five minutes after Cheng’s elimination and once again we would hear APPT President Danny McDonagh on the microphone telling the room we had an all in and call.
This time it was Jean-Marie Peyron who had moved all in. He was under the gun and jammed for 265,000. It was folded around to Argyros in the big blind and he squeezed his cards baccarat style, first exposing a J♥ and then a J♦ before instantly making the call.
At this point Peyron showed his A♣ 10♣ and it was revealed that Argyros had exactly the same amount of chips as his competitor. Whoever lost this hand would be going home and on this occasion, the 5♦ 8♠5♥ 7♠2♦ board meant that Peyron was eliminated in 7th place.
So, just like that, we are down to six players! So far the biggest movers have been the bookends of the final table – chip elader Thomas Mcgarrity and Billy Argyros. Mcgarrity has increased his lead, having more than a third of the chips in play, while Argyros is starting to build a stack and is really looking like a threat. Be sure to keep checking the live reports at the top of the APPT8 Macau page!
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