Aymon Hata Leads After Day 4 of PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event
Just one big blind separates Aymon Hata and Dong Guo atop the leaderboard after Day 4 of the PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event. A 37 player field returned at noon on Friday and a little less than seven hours later, that size has been reduced to just 16 hopefuls.
Hata claimed the lead from majority Day 4 chip leader Guo on the final hand of the night.Julius Malzanini open-shoved blind versus blind with queen-five and Hata called from the big blind with pocket sevens. Malzanini was unable to improve and busted in 17th place, halting play.
The pot gave Hata a final count of 2,188,000. Guo, who took the lead early and maintained it for most of the day, finished with 2,160,000. Thibault Blondel (1,388,000), Wenlong Jin (1,296,000), and Yan Li (1,248,000) round out the top five stacks.
Several notables still remain in the hunt including Daniel Laidlaw (1,077,000), Canadian Spin n’ Go qualifier Avraham Oziel (873,000), Elliot Smith (583,000), Fabrice Soulier (472,000), and Winfred Yu (385,000) who will return on Day 5 as the shortest stack.
Everyone still in contention has now locked up at least HK$221,000 but all eyes will be squarely focused on the HK$3,130,000 first-place prize.
The 2016 GPI Player of the Year David Peters was the first player to fall on Day 4. Peters attempted a semi-bluff shove on the turn against Dong Guo who unfortunately for the American pro, had turned a full house. Peters bowed out in 37th place for HK$101,000 and Guo sprung into the lead.
Other familiar faces to see their Main Event run come to an end were Kiryl Radzivonau (34th - HK$101,000), Vitaly Tevis (29th - (HK$130,500), Day 1b chip leader Joachim Bold (24th - HK$130,500), and Day 2 chip leader Pakinai Lisawad (21st - HK$170,000).
The final 16 players will return at noon on Saturday for Day 5. PokerNews' live reporting team will be back on the tournament floor, providing live updates of all the action. Keep your browser locked on this page to stay up to date as the tournament progresses.
flop, taking a big lead with two pair. Li needed a jack or running cards to pause the clock on Day 4 but the turn — 
and river — 
were no help and Hata survived, vaulting up the chip counts.
flop was laid in front of them and Oziel took the betting lead, firing 60,000. Soulier called.
for a flopped set. The Canadian who qualified through a $10 Spin & Go on PokerStars has now joined the others with a seven-figure stack.
and Malzanini doubled to around 600,000.
and Hata checked again. Metalidi made it 144,000 this time and Hata called. Metalidi flipped over 
and Kalev was eliminated in 20th place for HK$170,000.
.
for a pair and the flush draw. Malzanini revealed an overpair with 
.
was essentially a brick, eliminating Radzivonau from the tournament and giving Malzanini a large stack.
and, after Guo and Yu checked, Peters fired out a bet of 52,000. Guo decided to bump it up to 108,000 and just Peters called.
fell on the turn and Gup led for 135,000. Peters called.
, this time for 155,000. Peters jammed all in and Guo snap-called.
