The second major title up for grabs today is in the HK$250,000 High Roller Event. Play began today with 15 players still in contention and a short time ago, they formed the official final table.
Aidan Tam has been the big mover today as he now enters the final table with the chip lead. Tam got most of his chips thanks to a fortunate two-outer against overnight chip leader Brandon Meyers. The two committed preflop with Tam's [jc][jd] in trouble against Meyers' [as][ad] but a jack on the flop gave Tam the crucial double. Tam bubbled the ACOP Warm-Up event earlier in the week, so he's hoping to turn his fortunes around here in the High Roller event.
The defending champion Jonathan Karamalikis is also in good shape in the defence of his crown in the ACOP High Roller event. Karamalikis took care of the last remaining member of Team PokerStars in Eugene Katchalov.
It was Katchalov's [ac][qh] up against Karamalikis' [qd][qc] as the board bricked out to send the red spade to the rail.
With Kyle Cheong's pocket aces cracked as they were forming the final table of nine, now just eight players remain in contention. Here's how they will line up:
ACOP High Roller Final Table Line Up
Seat 1: Brandon Meyers - 225,000
Seat 2: Jonathan Karamalikis - 2,200,000
Seat 3: Aidan Tam - 2,525,000
Seat 4: James McCarty - 700,000
Seat 5: Senh Ung - 1,375,000
Seat 6: Jeff Rossiter - 575,000
Seat 7: Vladimir Troyanovskiy - 1,750,000
Seat 8: Predrag Lekovic - 1,250,000
With Karamalikis still in contention, he's looking to become the first player to win two "spadies". There are two others today who could also achieve that feat, with fellow Aussies Jeff Rossiter (High Roller) and Edison Nguyen ($8,800 NLHE) also still alive in their events.
Heath "TassieDevil" Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.