‘WPT WPO Championship’
Level 36 (250,000/500,000/75,000)
Total Entries: 1,171
Players Remaining: 2
Average Stack: 17,565,000
After a back and forth heads up battle, Chris Leong, with some of his supporters behind him, now controls the chip lead heading towards next break.
We’ve seen a few changes to the top of the leaderboard during this heads up battle and now, midway through Level 36, Chris Leong has regained that top spot. He previously held the heads up chip lead right when one on one play began but he’s now holding that advantage again, after winning two sizable pots.
The first saw Leong limp the button for 500,000 and Rafael Yaraliyev check his option in the big blind. Yaraliyev checked the {Ks}{6h}{5h} flop and Leong bet 600,000, only to see Yaraliyev check-raise to 1,500,000. Leong called and after the {5d} paired the board on the turn, Yaraliyev checked for a second time.
Undeterred by his opponent’s flop raise, Leong bet 1,800,000 and Yaraliyev quickly folded, an action that brought a loud roar from Leong’s growing rail. They barely had a chance to settle down before Leong officially took the chip lead, with that hand being picked up with Yaraliyev limping the button.
Leong bumped it up to 1,500,000 and Yaraliyev called to see the {Ah}{Ac}{9c} flop. Both players checked and the {2d} fell on the turn, bringing another check from Leong. Yaraliyev bet 1,700,000 and after some thought, Leong called to see the {5s} complete the board.
Both players checked and Leong tabled {8c}{8h}, with his pocket pair good enough to win the pot. We thought the previous roar was loud but this one was even greater, as the collection of regionally based players started yelling their support for Leong and, we’re not sure what this means, “TIM!”.
Whatever it means, it seems to be working for Leong, who is now playing just shy of 23,000,000 of 35,000,000 chips in play.