On the first hand after the break Charles Chua opened with a raise to 33,000 with Tian Chen the lone caller from the small blind.
The flop was . Chen checked, Chua fired out 44,000 and Chen made the call. The turn brough the and both players checked. The free river was the and Chen led out for 40,000 and Chua laid down his hand to give Chen the pot.
Jeppe Drivsholm changed gears and decided to limp into the pot before Edward Sabat raised it up to 45,000 from the small blind. Tian Chen folded in the big blind before Drivsholm made the call.
The flop arrived . Sabat quickly checked and Drivsholm fired 60,000. Sabat called.
The turn was the and this time Sabat led out for 70,000. Drivsholm appeared confused by this strange line of betting and tanked for several minutes before finally giving up his hand, as Sabat finally got things moving in the right direction.
We're now an hour and a half into this final table, and we're not really much closer to determining who the champion will be. Apart from the elimination of So Myung Sim, who started the day extremely short-stacked, there haven't been many other changes in the chip counts. Players are playing extremely cautiously, slowing down the pace of what had, until today, been a tournament characterized by very fast, very aggressive play.
Diwei Huang raised to 35,000 from under the gun. with Edward Sabat and Tian Chen both making the call. The action was then with Jeppe Drivsholm on the button, who popped it up an additional 95,000 as a big pot appeared to be brewing. However all three opponents folded to give Drivsholm a nice preflop pot to put him very close to the chip lead.
Action foded to Dane Jeppe Drivsholm in the small blind. He eyed the stack of Mikael Rosen, in the big blind, for about 20 seconds before limping in. Rosen stole a glance at Drivsholm before checking his option. It was another rainbow flop, . Drivsholm took a stab with a bet of 18,000, bringing a quick fold from Rosen.
Diwei Huang opened with a raise to 35,000 before Kuok Wai Will Cheong re-raised to 100,000 from the small blind. Huang asked for a count of Cheong's stack and was informed that Cheong had around 200,000 more behind. Huang thought better of it and laid down his hand.
Cheong is the lone local Macau player in this field and has plenty of support here today.
Players seem to be a bit more willing to get their feet wet now that the first hour of play has been completed. Diwei Huang put in what is quickly becoming a routine raise, this time to 35,000. He was called by Edward Sabat out of the small blind. Sabat checked the flop over to Huang, who made a half-pot sized bet of 35,000. That brought a call from Sabat, who checked again when the turn was the . He wanted no further part of the hand when Huang fired again for 80,000. Huang has taken down another pot and increased his chip lead.