Thursday, 28th March 2024 20:50
Home / Uncategorized / Macau Millions Day 1f: Levels 10 – 16 (blinds 6,000-12,000, ante 1,000)

Thommy Lam pockets more cash and a big stack on Day 1f

Another long flight of the Macau Millions has come to a close with Day 1f reaching the final 17 after a massive 246 runners started earlier this evening. The Macau Millions has smashed through the 1,000-player mark, still with one more flight to come tomorrow, to officially become the largest ever poker tournament in Asia based on number of entrants.

Thommy Lam made the most of the repechage format, after notching his second cash of the Main Event. He’s improved his stack to now take a big stack through to Day 2 and the chip lead from today’s flight. He also collects another HK$8,000 minimum cash. He’s not the only one to land their second cash, as the quietly confident Sixiao Li has also snagged cash number two.

It’s an interesting group with PokerStars sponsored Neil Arce, Jay Tan, Jee Soo Pyon, Will Cheong and Yucheng Liu all surviving the day.

Thommy Lam (Netherlands) – 303,500
Jee Soo Pyon (Korea) – 238,500
Roy Wan (Hong Kong) – 195,000
Tuck Chew Ho (Singapore) – 192,500
Dong Min Kim (Korea) – 138000
Teo Shi Wei (Singapore) (PokerStars Qualifier) – 132,500
Jennette “Jay” Tan (Hong Kong) – 132,500
Nouman Yousef (Syria) – 128,500
Manuel Regis (Philippines) – 126,000
Yucheng Liu (China) – 115,000
Christopher Koo (Hong Kong) – 106,500
Neil Arce (Philippines) (PokerStars Sponsored) – 99,000
Will Cheong (Macau) – 81,500
Jordan Lo (Canada) – 78,000
Chen Shang Hung (Taipei) – 69,500
Sixiao Li (China) – 56,000

Players will have one last opportunity tomorrow as the seventh, and final, flight of the Macau Millions kicks off at 12:10pm local time (GMT+8). That will be followed by Day 2 commencing at 8:10pm.

Until then, get some rest and we’ll see you bright and early tomorrow! Good night from Macau!

2:45am: We’re finally in the money!

The very next hand Lin Ming Chieh who crippled previously, found himself all in from the big blind. Will Cheong moved all in with A♦ K♠ as Chieh showed 4♥ 6♣ . It was all over on the board of K♥ 9♠ 5♥ K♣ 5♣ as finally we had reached our final 17!

2:40am: Double all in, but no bustouts

With play hand-for-hand on the bubble we just saw a dramatic double all-in but neither short stack was eliminated!

On one table it was Neil Arce all in with Aâ™  K♣ and Thommy Lam making the call, in the dark, in the small blind. Incredibly Lam opened a reasonable 4♣ 4â™  . The board ran out A♦ K♥ K♦ Q♦ Kâ™  giving Arce quads and earning a round of applause from the rail for the double up. He’s up to 90,000 and now looks safe to reach Day 2.

On the other table Lin Ming Chieh moved all in from under the gun with Teo Shi Wei calling the last of his chips with Q♥ Q♣ to be up against Chieh’s A♦ J♥ . The board of 7♣ 3♥ 6♥ 2♦ 10♥ left the Chieh crippled as Wei doubles to 135,000.

2:30am: Lam gets a big call from Arce

Neil Arce opened with a raise to 30,000 from middle position and Thommy Lam defended his big blind with a call to see a flop of A♦ 9♣ 8♥ . Lam checked to Arce who bet 40,000. Lam then immediately announced himself all in to send Arce deep into the tank.

With play hand-for-hand on the bubble, players, fans and media gathered around to build the tension as Arce deliberated for some time. It was an additional 95,100 and after several minutes of thought, he eventually slammed a call into the middle. Lam showed A♥ 9♦ for top two pair as Arce was well behind with his A♠ 2♠ .

The turn was the K♥ and river the 10♣ to give Lam a huge double up to 340,000, leaving Arce short with just 40,000.

2:10am: Buh bye Bobo

Bobo Chen lost a big race with ace-queen against pocket eights before he found his last 30,000 chips in preflop with king-seven against an opponent’s king-queen. The A-J-T flop left Bobo drawing to a chop but it wasn’t to be as the turn and river bricked out.

The popular Bobo is eliminated in 20th place, just short of the money.

2:00am: Roy clubs one

As the clock ticks over to 2am, our field has been reduced to the final two tables with 20 players now remaining in our Day 1f field.

The latest elimination came with thanks to Roy Wan after his Q♥ Q♣ cracked the A♥ A♦ of his opponent. The chips were in preflop as the board ran out J♣ 5♣ 2♣ 8♣ 7♠ to give Wan a flush and a huge pot to climb up to 250,000 chips.

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Roy Wan and his lucky ladies have jumped up the chip count leaderboard

1:45am: Optimism pays for Lam

With a limp and an all in before him, Thommy Lam also moved all in from the small blind with A♥ Q♦ . The limper folded but Lam was going to need some help to get past his opponent’s K♥ K♣ .

It got worse for Lam on the 6♣ K♦ 9♦ flop as Lam’s opponent flopped top set of kings. Ever the optimist, Lam called for a diamond to give him some backdoor outs. It didn’t arrive but the 10♥ offered some hope.

“Ok, how about a jack,” said Lam with some hope, as the dealer burned and bammmm the Jâ™  appeared to give Lam a remarkable Broadway straight and leave his opponent shell-shocked.

Lam is now up to 220,000 with 22 players remaining.

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Thommy Lam and his bright red hair is hard to miss here on Day 1f

1:30am: Arce extends

Neil Arce has increased his chip lead by eliminating another short-stacked player. From the cutoff, the short stack shoved for 26,000 with the marginal 6♠ 5♣ as Arce took the gamble with K♠ 10♠ . It paid off as the board ran out 9♥ J♣ J♦ 3♦ K♣ to jump Arce up to a commanding 260,000 chips.

1:20am: Sixiao cracks sixes

Sixiao Li is getting a bit of a reputation for being a very fierce competitor and tough opponent on the felt. Yesterday she dispatched of Bryan Huang in a very interesting hand, and there are now a few nervous looking boys after Li caught a lucky river to double up and stay alive here on Day 1f.

Li held ace-jack and was racing against pocket sixes with the board running out 7-T-K-4-J. She’s up to 75,000 and a real chance to land her second cash of the Macau Millions.

1:05am: Sparrow and the chicks

Sparrow Cheung has experienced the pain that many of our players have felt today – that is, busting from the same tournament twice in one day.

Cheung’s elimination was extra painful as he was very unlucky with his Aâ™  Kâ™  up against the A♥ Q♣ of Teo Shi Wei. Cheung was hoping for a double up, but the Q♥ Q♦ 9♥ was about as disastrous as it gets. The 10♣ turn did bring a little hope with a straight draw, but the river bricked out the 3â™  .

Cheung is out as Wei is up to 105,000.

1:00am: Big Slick for Jay

Jay Tan is now sitting behind a very healthy stack, much to the delight of the admiring railbirds.

Tan held A♥ K♠ against an opponent J♦ 10♣ with the board running out 7♠ A♣ 8♠ 10♠ 6♣ . Tan is up to 150,000 and looking in good shape.

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Jay Tan is winning a few admirers as well as plenty of chips on Day 1f

12:45am: Final four tables

With 40 players remaining we should mention that play will continue this evening until we reach our final 7% which will be the top 17 players. It’s the biggest field of any of the day one flights so it will be interesting to see if some mega-stacks emerge from this field.

12:40am: Arce claims two

With a short-stack player all in for just 8,000, Roel Pijpers decided to move all in over the top from the cutoff for around 26,000. Only problem was that Neil Arce made the call on the button, covering both players, as the blinds escaped.

The short stack showed 8♣ 8♥ , Pijpers held A♣ 7♦ while Arce showed A♥ Q♣ . The flop of 3♥ 3♠ 3♣ was kind to the shorty but the Q♠ on the turn shifted things firmly in favour of Arce. The river was the 7♣ and Arce sends two players home on his way to a stack of 150,000.

12:25am: Nam out

Nam Le has been bundled out of the Macau Millions after Dong Min Kim once again woke up with pocket kings. The chips were in preflop with Le holding ace-jack and needing some help. He picked up a pair, but it was the wrong one as the board landed 3♠ 2♦ 4♠ J♠ 9♥ .

Le is out as Kim is into the chip lead with around 130,000.

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Dong Min Kim is our chip leader on Day 1f of the Macau Millions after the elimination of Nam Le

12:10am: An Arce double up

Tom Chou didn’t waste any time in getting his newly-found chips to work as he was all in again moments later, and this time in a dominant position with A♦ J♥ against Neil Arce’s A♣ 3♣ .

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Chou as the flop landed 4â™  6â™  6♣ to bring the possibility of a chop. He repeated the expletive when the 5♣ found its way on the turn to give Arce both straight and flush outs, one of which was the 4♣ which spiked on the river.

Arce gave a fist pump and quickly raked in the chips to move up to 90,000 as Chou hit the rail, telling his bad beat story to anyone in the vicinity.

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PokerStars sponsored player Neil Arce at the Macau Millions

12:05am: AA for Bobo

With a raise to 6,400 in front of him, Bobo Chen popped it up another 10,000 next to speak. The table folded back to the original raiser who considered his options before moving all in. Chen nearly choked on his glass of red wine as he hurriedly made the call and tabled A♦ Aâ™  to be in great position against his opponent’s 7♦ 7â™  .

The community cards fell Q♠ 10♠ 4♦ 2♥ 5♥ to eliminate his opponent and move Chen up to a healthy 85,000.

12:00am: Chou races Roel

The fast-talking Tom Chou has found a double up with his last 16,100 in preflop holding 8♣ 8♥ with Roel Pijpers making the call with Aâ™  J♣ . Chou was calling for and eight but he didn’t need it on the board of 9♣ 6♦ 10♦ 5♥ 10♣ .

Chou doubles to 35,000 with Pijpers down to around 30,000.

11:55pm: Five-bet gives Kim big double up

In a cutoff versus small blind duel that was five-bet preflop has resulted in Korea’s Dong Min Kim capturing a big pot.

After the opening cutoff raise, Kim popped it another 11,000 from the small blind, before his opponent raised another 19,000 with a four-bet. Kim moved all in for an additional 13,600 as the cutoff found himself committed to call with 10♥ 9♥ . Kim had the real deal as he opened K♠ K♦ which held on the board of 5♣ K♥ A♦ 3♠ 3♦ . Kim is now up to 100,000.

11:45pm: Play resumes

11:35pm: Ten-minute break

11:30pm: Huntly can’t watch a double

Gordon Huntly has found a very handy double up as he committed his last 13,800 preflop with A♦ K♥ against an opponent’s A♣ 10♣ . Despite being in a dominant position, Huntly couldn’t watch as he walked away from the table, unaware of the J♣ Aâ™  Q♥ 7â™  3♥ behind him.

It was safe for Huntly to return to find a doubled stack of around 30,000.

11:25pm: The dream is over

Wally Sombero was a recent casualty from Day 1f. After losing a chunk of change to a queen-high straight, Sombero got his final chips in the middle with ace-six but failed to get past his opponent’s pocket queens.

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Wally Sombero is out of Day 1f

11:15pm: Who’s left

There are still several notable players still in contention here on Day 1f including the likes of Nam Le, Bobo Chen, Neil Arce, Dang Quan Dai, Hanbing “Marlboro” Wang and Michael Mariakis who was responsible for the elimination of Celina Lin earlier in the evening.

We also have Sixiao Li and Gaurav Law looking for their second cash of the Macau Millions.

However our chip leader appeared to be Dutchman Thommy Lam who holds around 110,000, largely thanks to his pocket queens recently cracking the pocket aces of Shashank Rathi.

Oh…eff it!

It’s rare we’ve even had to use the letter “f” when describing an opening flight, but here we are, five down, two to go. It’s labelled Day 1f but it kicked off at 7:10pm local time this evening, overlapping the conclusion of Day 1e.

To bring you up to speed on what’s been happening…

Day 1f kicked off with a massive field of 246 players, which is the largest flight we’ve seen so far. This puts the tournament over the 1,000-player mark, and there’s still one more flight to go tomorrow. That means the 2011 Macau Millions will comfortably take the title as the largest poker tournament ever in Asia in terms of number of entrants, with the HK$1,500,000 guarantee set to be smashed.

For the trivia buffs at home, the 190th entrant in Day 1f was also the 1,000th of the tournament. That honour went to Japanese player Takuya Suzuki.

The usual suspects were about once again with the field headlined by Team PokerStars Pros Marcel Luske, Celina Lin and Bryan Huang who jumped straight across after busting out of Day 1e. They were joined by Wally Sombero, Neil Arce, Nam Le, Ivan Tan, David Steicke, Justin Chan, Andrew Scott and Dan Sing to name a few.

We pick up the action at the start of the tenth level of the evening with the blinds at 1,000-2,000 with a 200 ante. There are approximately 80 players remaining.

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