Dmitrii Andreev

In a family pot, Shih Hsun Lee limped from under the gun, as did Shinya Maeda on the button, Shujiang Zhu in the small blind, and Dmitrii Andreev came along for the ride from the big blind as well.

The flop came 5 2 A and it was checked to Maeda on the button, who took a stab at the pot with a bet of 3,400.

Zhu made the call only for Andreev to pump it up to 7,000. Lee, sat in the next seat, then re-raised to 36,000. Maeda and Zhu got out of the way quickly and Andreev went into the tank before he made the call.

The turn brought the 8 and Andreev checked it to Lee, who thought for a while before he moved all in. This sent Andreev deeper into the tank and he used two time banks before he released his cards to send the pot to Lee.

Korakot Suvarnpridikul limped from early position and Shun Yamamoto also limped from directly behind. Yuki Aoki then raised to 5,600 from middle position and it was folded back to Suvarnpridikul, who called. Yamamoto got out of the way.

Suvarnpridikul checked to Aoki and he bet 2,800 on the J 7 K flop. Suvarnpridikul responded with a check-raise to 8,400 and Aoki called.

Both players checked on the 2 turn, but Suvarnpridikul fired 14,000 into the middle after the 3 completed the board. Aoki didn't take long to call and Suvarnpridikul revealed A K for top pair, top kicker.

Aoki flung his cards into the middle upon seeing it and was left with just 8,500 following the hand. Aoki busted shortly thereafter.

Half-way through the first level of the day, the clock shows a total of 506 players out of 1,280 entries remaining and last year's overall attendance has been all but reached.

Among those to enter recently were Pete Chen, William Li, Liyang Ge, Chunhao Zhang, and Sumate Aramkul.

Among those on the wrong side of variance were Shunsuke Mitsugi, Nan Zhu, Hisashi Yamanouchi, Andrew CHoi, Hai Ha Tran, Chang Liu, and Masayuki Suzuki.

Action was picked up with two players in an all-in situation.

Masao Araki: A A

Daisuke Ariyama: K K

It was a classic battle between rockets blowing up on cowboys and such was the case on the T 5 8 2 9 board. As the dealer pushed the pot to Araki, Ariyama looked displeased running into aces so early in the day.

Nozomi Ota

Nozomi Ota raised to 2,800 and then reluctantly called the all-in of Kotaro Nakayama for 26,500 total.

Kotaro Nakayama: 8 8

Nozomi Ota: 2 2

The superior pocket pair was ahead on the K K T flop and T turn, though, a split pot was now possible with another card of nine or higher. Instead, the river brought the 2 and Nakayama busted with a bad beat story to tell.

Ryuta Nakai

Kenichi Kobayashi opened to 2,900 in hijack and Ryuta Nakai called from the big blind.

The dealer flopped 8 5 2 . Nakai led out with 3,100 and Kobayashi called.

The turn produced 7 and Nakai cranked up the heat with 17,000. Kobayashi continued to hang on to see the river which fell Q .

Both players checked prompting Nakai to show his bluff with 4 3 . Kobayashi table 9 9 then scooped the pot. "One cannot be betrayed....".

Jun Li

Heads-up to the flop of 9 8 3 with about 10,000 sat in the pot and Jun Li check-called Sugai Yusuke's 2,500 bet.

The dealer rolled off the 2 as the turn and Li checked to Yusuke once again, who fired a second bullet of 7,000. Li flat-called once more.

The action went check-check on the A river and Li tabled A 9 for two pair and was pushed the pot when Yusuke mucked his cards.

The chips found their way into the middle preflop and it was a flip for Akira Abe against Jinze Li.

Akira Abe: A K

Jinze Li: Q Q

The Q T 6 flop gave Li top set whereas Abe had the gutshot royal flush draw. He improved on the 7 turn and the 5 river secured his double-up for 34,200.

Naoto Takemura opened to 3,000 first to act and was called by Masanori Yanagimoto in the hijack. Ka Yu Yeung then squeezed to 12,000 from the small blind, and Takemura responded by shoving for approximately 65,000 total.

Yanagimoto quickly got out of the way and Yeung burned up a time bank before sending his cards into the muck as well.

Tatsumi Iwasaki

Three ways to the 6 6 2 flop, Li Ying Fang bet 6,000 and was called by Michel Molenaar and Tatsumi Iwasaki. The 9 turn was checked and Iwasaki then led the 3 river for 18,500 when both opponents had checked to him.

Only Fang called and mucked upon being shown the J T .