Vladyslav Shovkovyi opened to 175,000 with Q?10?8?7? and He Feng made the call with K?Q?J?3? to see a flop of 5?Q?10?.
Shovkovyi bet out 375,000 top two pair but Feng check-raised all in with his straight and flush combo draw. Shovkovyi quickly called to put him at risk and they were off to the races.
Unfortunately for Feng, the board completely bricked out with 6?8? and he was eliminated in 3rd place while Shovkovyi was shipped yet another pot.
Vladyslav Shovkovyi opened to 125,000 with A?A?J?4? and then Jake White moved all in for 475,000 with Q?Q?10?3?. The action folded back to Shovkovyi who quickly called to put him at risk and they were off to the races.
White would need some help to stay alive against the aces of Shovkovyi, but help did not come on the J?8?8?4?7? runout and he was eliminated in fourth place.
Carl Masters opened to 150,000 from the cutoff with A?K?3?3? and then Vladyslav Shovlovyi three-bet to 525,000 from the small blind with A?9?8?7?. Masters then responded by moving all in for 1,175,000 and Shovkovyi made the call to put him at risk.
Masters was ahead with his pair, but unfortunately for him, the flop of 6?6?7? gave Shovkovyi a better pair of sevens and the runout of 4?5? further improved him to a straight to eliminate Masters in 5th place.
For the second time in a row, Jake White moved all in and Joshua Barney made the call to put him at risk.
Jake White: A?K?4?2?
Joshua Barney: A?K?10?7?
Barney had the lead with his superior holding, but the flop of 9?2?Q? gave White the lead with his deuce. The runout of 9?5? changed nothing and White doubled up while Barney was left with less than one big blind.
Crazily enough, Barney then got it in with A?A?10?4? the next hand and managed to triple up but then fell when he ran 10?10?9?4? into the A?K?9?5? of Liu.
Both an ace and a king appeared on the flop to give Liu a big lead and Barney failed to improve on the runout, eliminating him in 6th place.
He Feng opened to 100,000 under-the-gun with A?K?Q?9? and the action folded to Joshua Barney on the button who moved all in for 275,000 once he looked down at A?K?Q?10?. Feng quickly made the call and they tabled their hands, Barney at risk.
They both held similar hands and sure enough, the runout of 4?4?8?A?K? gave them both ace-king and they chopped it up.
Last February. the 2024 Champions Club Winter Poker Open $1,500 Main Event saw Tommy Zhang hoist the trophy after defeating Spencer Champlin in a lengthy heads-up battle. Along with the trophy and the title, Zhang took home $209,730, while Champlin was awarded the runner-up prize of $164,430.
“It honestly feels like I’m in a dream,” Zhang said after the grueling two-hour heads-up battle,” It’s kind of crazy, actually, because the only tournament I won was ten years ago in Macao, and I told myself at the end of last year that I really wanted to win another one before I die, and I just feel like I manifested this.” This was prevalent throughout all of the stages of the tournament, as he was heard saying that he could just feel like he couldn’t lose.
The UK-born Shanghai resident did not even plan on playing in the tournament, but the private equity broker just happened to be close in Missouri City, where he was tending to a property. “Yeah, 99% of the time, I just play cash, but I saw there was a $1 mil tournament going on, so I just decided to flick it in.”
Joshua Barney opened under-the-gun to 75,000 with A?K?9?7? but then Jake White moved all in for 190,000 with A?A?10?4?. the action folded back to Barney who made the call and they were off to the races.
White was in good shape with his aces, and the flop of A?5?2? was above average as he made top set. The runout of 9?J? changed nothing and he was awarded the pot for the double.