Not too surprisingly, Minh Nguyen has been opening up a lot of hands at this final table. That has been especially true since he sent Ben Rendall to the rail and moved his stack into the “more than half of all chips in play” territory.
Nguyen recently opened four hands in a row. He only got action on one occasion – when he opened to 20,000 from under the gun and Michael Guzzardi called from the hijack. Nguyen, however, then took down the pot when he put in a continuation bet of 31,000 on the .
The hand immediately after raising four hands in a row saw Nguyen in the big blind and he decided to fold to a single raise from Thomas Ward, which got a few laughs from the table as they questioned him on how bad his hand must have been!
The action started with Minh Nguyen raising to 25,000 from the button. Sam Williams made the call from the small blind before Ben Rendall bumped it up to 80,000 from the big blind.
With the decision back on Nguyen, he paused for a minute before sliding out a raise to 136,000 in chips. Williams quickly got out of the way before Rendall moved all in with 376,000 chips still behind. Nguyen snap called and the cards were tabled.
Nguyen:
Rendall:
Rendall was in bad shape against the over pair and would find no help as the dealer spread out the board.
With that pot Nguyen moves up to 2,500,000 in chips – giving him more than half the chips in play with seven players remaining.
Michael Guzzardi and Jesse McKenzie have recently rumbled.
It started with Guzzardi opening the cut off to 16,000. McKenzie called out of the big blind and the dealer flipped over a flop. McKenzie check-called a bet of 16,000 here and then check-raised the turn to 86,000 after Guzzardi led for 86,000. Guzzardi opted to get out of the way and the chips went to McKenzie.
Thomas Ward raised to 16,000 from under the gun plus and was called by Minh Nguyen in the cut off as well as Michael Guzzardi on the big blind.
The flop came down and Guzzardi checked. Ward threw out a 22,000 continuation bet that saw the end of Nguyen. Guzzardi made the call before the fell on the turn.
Guzzardi checked once more prompting Ward to slide out another bet of 45,000. Guzzardi thought for a minute before announcing all in for 203,000 in chips. Ward looked down at his cards before mucking his hand.
There hasn't been a huge amount of action in the few hands following the first elimination of the day. We did see our first preflop four-bet though. It started with Sam Williams opening to 16,000 from late position. Ben Rendall, on his direct left in the hijack, three-bet to 36,000. The action went back to Williams and he four bet to 91,000. Rendall tank folded and that was that.
It was always going to be a hard task for Stephen Thompson to run up his less than five big blind stack and so it’s perhaps not too surprising that he was just the first elimination at the final table.
Thompson waited until he had the button (folding his small blind and big blind to action behind him) before he played his final hand. Michael Guzzardi had opened to 16,000 from middle position and Thompson went well in for 15,000 on the button. Minh Nguyen called Guzzardi’s raise from the big blind and the dealer flipped over a flop.
Thompson watched on as his opponents checked here and with that, a hit the turn.
This time Nguyen led for 25,000 and Guzzardi folded.
With Guzzardi out it was time to see the cards.
Nguyen had for trip eights, while Thompson had .
The board completed with a and Thompson hit the rail with a NZ$12,500 score.
The third hand of the final table saw Minh Nguyen open to 16,000 from the hijack.
Sam Williams made the call from the cut off before the action fell on Dean Blatt on the big blind.
He paused for a moment before announcing all in for approximately 140,000 in chips. Nguyen quickly folded. Williams took a slight second longer to make a decision before opting to fold.
APPT President Danny McDonagh has given some player introductions and made the call to shuffle up and deal! Blinds are 4,000/8,000 and we play until there is a winner.
![[user162117]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
.
board.
flop. McKenzie check-called a bet of 16,000 here and then check-raised the 
turn to 86,000 after Guzzardi led for 86,000. Guzzardi opted to get out of the way and the chips went to McKenzie.
and Guzzardi checked. Ward threw out a 22,000 continuation bet that saw the end of Nguyen. Guzzardi made the call before the 
flop.
hit the turn.
and Thompson hit the rail with a NZ$12,500 score.
