Main Event

After a crushing blow a few minutes earlier, Christopher Mateo managed to recover after calling off his remaining 105,000 against small blind Arberg Mads Andahl’s jam onto his big blind.

Arberg Q♠ 8♦ Mateo Q♣ J♠

Dominated, Arberg forked over the win to Mateo after neither player paired up on board T♠ K♥ 7♦ 6♥ 4♣ .

Cutoff opened to 21,000, called by small blind Christopher Mateo. Big blind Morikawa Yuta put in a raise to 95,000 to which only Mateo completed. On flop 7♣ T♠ 3♦ , both stacks went rushing in with Morikawa revealing J♦ J♣ , behind Mateo’s set 7♠ 7♦ . Drawing slim, Morikawa fortunately spiked a runner 8♣ runner 9♥ to land a straight and steal the pot away.

Utg+1 Sung Hakyoung opened to 11,000 and was met with a three bet to 45,000 from Christopher Mateo. Sung answered with an all-in, alarming Mateo to make the fold.

With a few more eliminations to go, big blind Christopher Mateo put maximum pressure on his opponents and squeezed all-in for 124,000 against an early open and a call. Edwin Dela Cruz with A♥ K♥ put in the chips, leaving Mateo’s 3♠ 2♦ at risk. Still a race, Mateo luckily found a pair on board 2♣ 6♦ 8♣ T♠ 8♠ to survive.

Following a monstrous loss just minutes ago, Edwin Dela Cruz got his last 120,000 in with Q♥ Q♣ and faced opponent Christopher Mateo once more. Unfortunately for Dela Cruz, Mateo had it this time, with his K♥ K♦ remaining to be a huge favorite. The board 3♠ A♠ A♥ 4♥ K♠ sealed the win for Mateo, busting Dela Cruz two spots short of the money.