Leow Leads Koon, Dwan & Co. into Triton HKD 500K Short Deck Final Day

Name Surname
Live Reporter
3 min read
Tom Dwan

The HKD 500,000 Short Deck Ante-Only brought a turnout of 44 entries including multiple re-entries from several players. The field dwindled to nine remaining contenders after the first 10 levels of play. They're still a few places away from securing a payday with the top five positions paid. The winner will walk away with more than $1 million, taking the HKD 8,470,000 top-prize (~$1,079,586) along with the title.

Day 1 Action

Ivan Leow min-cashed the HK$100k event earlier today and he is now in good shape to make it two-for-two in Jeju. Leow had a strong finish, taking a huge pot off Rui Cao on the very last hand to establish himself as a huge chip leader. Leow limp-raised with pocket kings and Cao called with ace-jack.

Leow hit the top set on the flop but Cao took the lead on the turn where he completed his Broadway straight. The river, however, paired the board and Leow won a large pot to soar to 3,645,000. He is far ahead of Devan Tang, who is currently second with 2,430,000.

Ivan Leow
Ivan Leow leads the remaining nine players.

The two biggest stars in the remaining field follow in the rankings as Triton Montenegro HK$1 million Short Deck event champ Jason Koon lies in third place (1,720,000) while high stakes cash game phenomenon Tom Dwan sits in fourth with 1,275,000.

Koon managed to hold onto his belongings after the tournament got down to the last table. The random reshuffle brought very different environments on each table. Koon observed that his table boasted 10 million in chips from a total of 13.2 million. But he avoided any big collisions and steadily cruised through, unlike Romain Arnaud and Ben Lamb, who were dispatched in 11th and 10th place, respectively.

Dwan's path to his end-of-day chip count was similar, although he was able to collect some chips in the last level to improve his field position ahead of the final day. But the most entertaining parts of Dwan's appearance came shortly after he entered the event, midway through Day 1. He instantly lost his first bullet but then got it in with ace-jack of hearts against queen-jack of Mikita Badziakouski. Dwan flopped a flush and made a six-card Royal Flush on the river to celebrate a sweet double.

Dwan was able to continue on the same bullet for the remaining period and found a bag. There was a period when he got seated right next to Phil Ivey. While they didn't have any major confrontation, Dwan took part in a hand that saw Ivey getting involved in a giant cooler that sent him out of the tournament.

Tom Dwan - Phil Ivey
Dwan bagged, but Ivey didn't survive Day 1.

Ivey flopped a jack-high straight but Lamb made a higher straight at the same time. Alan Sass joined the all-in contest with a pair of queens and a lucky runout helped him to scramble out of trouble as he finished with the same straight as Lamb to chop Ivey's stack.

But Sass surely wasn't the player who would dwell on luck during Day 1. He fired no less than six entries into the tournament and would need to make it to the podium to settle in green numbers. There's some hard work ahead of Sass as he parked in sixth place with 800,000 in his bag.

But as the opening HK$100k Short Deck event proved, anybody can get on a winning spree in this high-variance discipline. So make sure to come back to PokerNews on Thursday, July 26 at 2 p.m. local time to see how it unfolds.

Day 2 seating chart and chip counts:

TableSeatPlayerCountryChips
11Tom DwanUnited States1,275,000
12Chan Wai LeongMalaysia635,000
13Alan SassUnited States800,000
14Gabe PatgorskiUnited States795,000
15Mikita BadziakouskiBelarus555,000
     
21Ivan LeowMalaysia3,645,000
24Rui CaoFrance1,245,000
25Devan TangHong Kong2,430,000
26Jason KoonUnited States1,720,000
Share this article
author
Live Reporter

More Stories

Other Stories