Main Event

Thomas Ward raises it up, big blind Gabriel Carter defends. At the flop J♦ T♥ 9♣ , Ward c-bets 175,000, Carter check-calls. On the turn 6♥ , Ward double barrels 650,000, Carter lays it down.

Action packed preflop opens with utg+1 Anthony Lewis raising 200,000, utg+2 Thomas Ward three-bets 480,000, lojack Sishu Peng four bets 795,000, cutoff Do Tuan Phong shoves 850,000, Lewis and Ward call, and Peng calls for his tournament life. At the flop A♥ A♦ 7♠ , Lewis bets 70,000, Ward folds. Lewis 7♣ 7♦ full house, Peng 9♠ 9♣ two pair, and Do A♦ K♠ trips. The turn 6♥ sees no change but the river K♥ is a higher full house to Do for a massive scoop. Peng is eliminated.

Chip leaders:

Plenty of betting going on initiated by Thomas Ward from cutoff who bumps it up to 100,000, small blind Chang Xiang Guang three-bets 350,000, Ward answers with a four-bet shove (1,350,000), Chang calls with K♥ K♦ . Ward has A♦ J♥ . The board runs T♦ 6♦ 9♦ 8♣ A♥ , Ward finds the river and survives for a double up.

Button Sehoon Jin min-raises, small blind calls, big blind Le Dong Zhou three-bets 200,000, Jin four-bets all in for 835,000, no takers.

Next hand, Thomas Ward raises 60,000 from lojack, cutoff Jin re-raises 175,000, Ward calls, the flop runs K♣ 2♥ 3♦ . Jin c-bets 70,000, Ward check-calls. On the T♦ turn, Jin bets 260,000, Ward check-raises all in, Jin snap-calls and shows K♦ K♥ set ahead of Ward’s T♣ T♥ set. The river 9♥ is a double up for Jin.

Following a 65,000 raise by hijack, Sofia Lovgren-Fullmer re-raises all in from the button 626,000, small blind Thomas Ward calls, hijack folds. Fullmer shows A♠ 3♣ , Ward with T♠ T♦ . The board runs jack-high to end Fullmer’s run in 62nd place.

Four players limp in, flop comes A♦ 6♠ K♠ , utg Sergei Poltavets Q♠ J♠ checks, cutoff bets 26,000, button Thomas Ward 7♣ K♥ calls, small blind Sam Hung 6♣ 6♦ check-raises 82,000, Poltavets three-bet shoves, cutoff folds, Ward four-bets all in, Hung calls with less chips. The turn 7♣ and river K♥ is a boat for Hung to ship it and boot out Poltavets.

Cutoff Anh Tuan Nguyen A♥ J♠ open shoves 975,000, big blind Thomas Ward calls with Q♣ Q♦ , board runs 6♥ K♣ 8♠ 3♠ 2♥ , queens stand, Nguyen eliminated.

After stealing back-to-back blinds and antes, Thomas Ward picks up another pot. From utg+1, he raises 200,000, button Le Giang Nam calls. Both players check the flop and turn 7♠ J♦ 2♦ 8♣ . On the river 4♦ , Ward bets 450,000, Nam calls, Ward has 4♠ 4♥ , Nam mucks.

You Hyun Kim sets the bar at Main Event Day 1A

The opening heat of the highly anticipated USOP Main Event pulled in 366 entries over 10 rounds of registration. After 13 hours of play, the bubble burst leaving 46 players advancing to the ITM round in Day 2. Korea’s bagged the chip lead of 926,000 (77 bb). At his tail was New Zealand’s Thomas Ward with 878,000 (73 bb), and to round out the top three was Vietnam’s Tien Nguyen with 809,000 (67 bb).

Date: March 28 to April 1, 2024 Buy in: VN₫ 30,000,000 (~USD 1,235) Guarantee: VN₫ 15,000,000,000 (~USD 614,500) Day 1A: 366 entries (282 unique) Chips in play: 14,640,000

From cutoff, Thomas Ward opens and big blind defends. Both players check the flop 7♦ 4♠ 3♠ to bring the turn Q♣ . Ward bets 46,000, big blind check-calls. On the river A♠ Ward fires 140,000, he is snap-called. Ward shows T♠ 2♠ and ships it.

Chip leaders at the new level:

Thomas Ward three-bets from the button and initial raiser calls. Both players check the flop J♠ K♠ 7♥ . Then on the 9♠ turn, Ward calls a 60,000 bet. On the river 8♠ , Ward leads out 110,000 and wins the pot.