Billy strikes first blow

Ngo doubled up to around 400,000

Not much movement in the first hour of play so far, but the biggest mover is Billy Ngo after he doubled his stack at the expense of Thomas Taubenschuss.

The duo got the money in under predictable pre-flop circumstances, with Ngo spiking the Ace he needed to make his big slick a winner vs the 10s of his rival.

On the other table, the big stacks have been at war and Heinz H. has edged the contest so far, beating Pavlos Xanthopolous to at least two pots to take over the chip lead.

Xanthopolous first lost out with A3 vs pocket 6s when both players made a full house on an 88x-8-3 board, then suffered further damage.

After raising from the button, Pavlos saw Heinz lead out into him on a 2♠6♠Q♣ board and opted to min raise to around 200,000. His opponent called and then bet another 100,000 on the 10♥ turn.

After a spell in the tank, the Greek mucked his cards and left Heinz looking in charge at table 36.