Sim Somyung and Dong-bin Han got some Korean-on-Korean action happening.
Preflop, Han limped in, Mark Pagsuyuin completed from the small blind and Somyung checked the big blind.
The flop came and it was checked around to the turn. On the turn Pagsuyuin and Somyung both checked to Han who fried out a bet of 55,000.
Before Pagsuyuin had a chance to act, Somyung announced, call out of turn. Pagsuyuin folded and the tournament director ruled that the out of turn action was binding.
The hit the river and again Somyung checked, encouraging Han to bet out 70,000. Somyung called and rolled over . That would beat out Han's .
Somyung dragged the pot, but was assessed a one hand penalty for acting out of turn.
Sim Somyung and Dong-bin Han have shown no reluctance to get chips in the middle this afternoon. They've already been responsible for one double-up each and now Han has doubled up Terry Fan.
Somyung started the action with an under-the-gun raise to 50,000. Fan re-raised to 200,000, then called all in for about 365,000 total after Han moved all in. Fan turned over and found himself up against perhaps a weaker hand than he expected, . The board ran out safely for Fan, . He doubled up to about 800,000.
A big pot has restored a healthy portion of Sim Somyung's stack. After Phillip Willcocks opened from middle position to 45,000, Somyung re-raised from the big blind to 100,000 straight. Willcocks called that bet, then called another 98,000 on a flop of . The turn looked like a blank and brought a check from Somyung. Willcocks walked right into a big ol' bear trap when he bet 200,000, because Somyung's response was to move all in. That was an amount that Willcocks couldn't call. He passed, allowing Somyung to take down the pot.
Dong-bin Han opened from the cutoff to 58,000 and Kevin Clark moved all in from the small blind for 220,000.
Han asked for a count on Clark, and then sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. He tried to probe with a couple of questions, but Clark gave him the stonewall treatment.
Han must have decided that Clark was light, because he made the call with . Clark was happy on the inside as he tabled his .
The board ran out to double Clark through.
The Kiwi is enjoying the company of the Koreans at the final table, his first double up was through Sim Somyung and the second through his compatriot Han.
Sim Somyung's stack has taken as bad a beating as Miguel Cotto. But Somyung started the rebuilding process by taking a small pot from Terry Fan. Somyung raised to 42,000 preflop and Fan called in position. On a flop of , Somyung's bet of 75,000 was enough to win the pot.
Preflop, Kevin Clark moved all in from the hijack for 103,000. Sim Somyung made the call from the button and action passed to Terry Fan in the big blind. After pausing for some thought Fan folded.
Clark:
Somyung:
The flop was not kind to Clark. After the hit the turn, he'd be in need of a picture card to stay alive. The river did the trick, moving him up to 300,000.
One of the key concepts of no-limit poker is the "pressure bet". Sim Somyung just got a refresher course in pressure bets from David Hilton. Somyung opened preflop for 40,000. David Hilton was next to act and made it 110,000, folding everyone else out of the hand. With action back to Somyung, he four-bet to 290,000. As soon as the bet was counted down, Hilton announced he was all in for about 1.4 million total. Somyung would be at risk of elimination if he called, but he folded and conceded the pot to Hilton.
On the flop, there were two checks to Terry Fan who fired out 78,000. Action passed back to Sim Somyung who proceeded to check-raise to 166,000. After contemplating things Fan folded.