Event 1: Chino Rheem Talks His Way Into One

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 20: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 373 of 5,018

Chino Rheem (Los Angeles, CA)
Chino Rheem (Los Angeles, CA)

Chino Rheem began the day just below the chip average with 90,000, and he’s since grown that to nearly 600,000 to put himself among the pace setters in the remaining field.

A big chunk of those chips came in a recent heads-up pot against a player a couple seats to Rheem’s left. The decisive action occurred on the turn of a KhJh5cAs board, with about 100,000 already in the pot. Rheem checked to his opponent, who bet 16,000 in position. Rheem said something quietly, then check-raised to 51,000. His opponent said something back, then reraised to 91,000, and Rheem moved all in with the larger stack.

Rheem’s opponent had about 135,000 chips left in front of him, and he slipped deep into the tank. “That’s good,” Rheem eventually acknowledged. “You didn’t snap-call me.” After another minute, he added, “I might need queen-ten to win.”

“There are only two hands that beat me,” his opponent said, appearing to grow a little frustrated as he shuffled the remainder of his shortening stack.

“So you’re saying you have a set of kings?” Rheem pried. “You’re thinking this long with a set of kings?”

With that, his opponent shook his head and slid his cards into the muck, and Rheem stacked the pot into his tall towers.

Chino Rheem – 595,000 (60 bb)