Xia Qing Ji has more than doubled his stack in the past three hands without ever doubling up.
First, it folded to Wayne Zhang on the button and he opened to 23,000. Ji then moved all-in from the small blind for 144,000, and when it folded back to Zhang he let it go.
Then Sangjun Lee min-opened the lojack to 20,000 and it folded to Ji, now on the button. He jammed again, this time for 185,000, and Lee gave it up.
Finally, it folded to Ji in the cutoff and he opened the pot to 23,000. Jiayu Ruan called on the button, and the two went heads-up to a flop. Ji continued for 25,000, and Ruan snap-called to see the turn. This slowed things down with both checking.
The river completed the board, and Ji began counting out chips. He slid out a bet of 65,000, and Ruan folded pretty quickly, dropping his stack down to 160,000.
Ji has gone from 144,000 up to 349,000 after those.
Players are dropping like flies presently and there has been another elimination to bring the field down to 34. The man to fall was China's Duan Shan Jun, who got the last of his chips in the middle with ace-ten from the cutoff.
Big blind Sun Bin made the call before big blind Chang Bo Feng clicked it back with a min-raise, which was enough to take the hand heads-up. Unfortunately for Jun, Feng had woken up with pocket aces and there was not a ten to be seen on the run-out and we lose one more.
Only 24 more bust outs to go to reach the final table.
Wayne Zhang's chip lead didn't last long. He's just been pipped to the post by Yue Fang Pan, who now holds the chip lead after a double knockout.
Liu Wei Gao shoved from under the gun for 100,000, and action folded to the button of Yang Yang. She then moved all-in for 110,000, and Pan woke up in the small blind with a dream hand: .
Naturally that was way ahead of Gao's and Yang's , and it would remain so after the runout. Those two said goodbye, and Pan increases to 900,000.
Korea's Sung Chang Park moved all-in for his last 69,000 from the hi-jack and was looked up by Hong Kong's Kin Fai Chung one seat over.
Sung Chang Park:
Kin Fai Chung
Park was the at-risk player but had the best hand, and while sometimes that doesn't help on this occasion the man with the best hand won when the board ran out to give the field's sole remaining Korean player a much-needed double up.
"Flop the nuts!" said Wayne Zhang, prompting us to investigate.
He wasn't lying. In what was clearly a huge pot against Zhong Qiang Chen, Zhang had flopped a queen-high straight holding , while Chen had hit top pair with . All of Chen's chips were being shipped towards Zhang, and by the time he managed to neatly stack them up, we could see he now has 886,000.
Albert Paik may have turned up late today, but the player from USA-via-South-Korea has certainly made up for lost time.
There was a flop out there when we arrived and Paik had checked it to Hao Chen who then led for 25,000. Paik made the call to see an turn, and he quickly checked again. Chen continued to fire for 50,000, leaving himself around 80,000 behind. Paik then set him all-in, and Chen was happy to call quickly.
If only he knew what Paik held. Unfortunately for Chen, his had been outdrawn by Paik's , and to rub salt into the wound the case landed on the river to give Paik quads.
Chen said his goodbyes, and Paik stacks up 620,000 after that one.
He Yu Jiao opened the action with a raise to 16,000 from early position and the short-stacked Pei Yan moved all-in for 34,000. Being as it was not that much more Jiao quickly tossed in the extras and the cards went on their backs.
He Yu Jiao:
Pei Yan:
The flop came down to keep Jiao in front, but Yan spiked top pair on the turn to seize the lead in the hand, with the river doubling him up to 90,000 while Jiao dropped to 295,000.
The next table over the short-stacked Wu Yuan Ning moved all-in pre-flop and looked disappointed to find no customers, showing the table when all folded, leaving Ning to rake in the pot and pad out his stack a little to 119,000.
Over on table three, Wei Guo Liang tried to get something going on the button with a raise to 20,000 and Shi Zi Xiao (big blind) ummed and ahhed over the call, eventually making it to take play heads-up to a monochrome flop of . Xiao led out for a tickly little 15,000 and Liang folded immediately.
Xiao Ruo Huang has just found a double up through Peng Yeng, leaving the latter very short. On a flop and with around 50,000 in the middle already, Yeng checked and Huang led for 26,000. Yeng then clicked it back, making it 56,000 to go, and after some time in the tank Huang moved all-in for 145,000 total. Call.
Yeng was drawing with [ and would need a club, while Huang was in front with . There was no danger on the turn or river, and Huang dragged this one. Yeng is down to just 60,000 now.