Sam Higgs Holds Commanding Lead Among Final Six Players
The halfway tournament of the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific — Event #5 $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha – saw seven players take advantage of the late registration heading into Day 2, which along with the 73 players from Day 1 brought the total field to 80 players. That created a prize pool of AU$376,000 that was reserved for the top eight finishers.
With the late entrants, 26 players began Day 2, but after five and a half levels 20 of them had hit the rail. Leading the final table of six with a commanding 667,000 is Sam Higgs, but others with their eyes firmly fixed on the AU$127,843 first-place prize are Jonathan Duhamel, Jeff Rossiter, Mike Watson, Ismael Bojang and Jamie Pickering.
Dan Heimiller began the day on the extreme short stack, so it was no surprise to see him fall on one of the first hands of the day. One level later, an Australian legend joined him on the rail. It happened when Geoffrey Mooney opened the action with a raise to 4,200 and got called by Richard Ashby on the button as well as Billy “The Croc” Argyros in the small blind and John Dalessandri in the big blind. They all checked down the 
flop and the action was checked to Ashby on the 
turn.
The Brit bet 15,000 into a pot of 16,800 and Argyros eventually called all in for his last 4,900 whereas all other opponents folded.
Argyros: 
Ashby: 
The 
on the river completed the board and Argyros packed his belongings.
As the day wore on he was joined on the rail by the likes of former WSOP Main Event winners Ryan Riess and Greg Merson, who were actually eliminated on the same hand; reigning WSOP APAC champ Daniel Negreanu; 2 Months, 2 Million star Brian Roberts; and Australian Poker Hall of Famer Jason Gray, who exited in 11th place just one day after finishing runner-up to Jeff Lisandro in Event #3 AU$1,650 pot-limit Omaha.
With nine players remaining, the bubble was in full effect, though it didn’t take long to burst. In Level 15 (1,500/3,000) Nathan Pan limped from the hijack and then called when Higgs raised to 10,000 from the cutoff. Both players checked the 
flop, and then Pan bet 24,500 on the 
turn. Higgs raised it and Pan called off what little he had left.
Pan: 
Higgs: 
Both players had flopped trips, but Pan had kicker issues. They didn't get resolved either as the 
blanked on the river. With that, Pan finished as the bubble boy in ninth place while the remaining eight players are guaranteed a minimum AU$15,021 payday.
After the eliminations of Richard Johnston (8th – AU$15,021) and Kahle Burns (7th – AU$17,386), the players bagged and tagged for the night so the final six players could return for the live-streamed final table on Thursday.
Here’s a look at the 2014 WSOP APAC Event #5 final table:
| Seat | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Watson | 145,000 |
| 2 | Ismael Bojang | 44,000 |
| 3 | Sam Higgs | 667,000 |
| 4 | Jeff Rossiter | 63,500 |
| 5 | Jonathan Duhamel | 153,000 |
| 6 | Jamie Pickering | 99,500 |
The finalists will return at 12:10 p.m. local time on Thursday to play down to a winner, and of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to capture all the action from the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.