Another little loss for Xuan Liu as she raised to 200,000 from the cutoff but faced a shove from Costantino Russo in the small blind for a total of 1,065,000. Liu folded at speed, and Russo is up to 1,435,000 - still in the danger zone.
Rupert Elder raised from the button making it 200,000 to play and Max Heinzelmann called in the small blind. Xuan Liu was in the big blind and is experienced enough to know that both Elder and Heinzelmann have a wide range of hands from these positions. Taking advantage of her situation she made the three-bet squeeze to 585,000. Rupert Elder would have been expecting the raise no sooner had Heinzelmann made the call. His reaction was to four-bet to 1,350,000 and his fellow big stacks both released their hands.
Max Heinzelmann raised to 200,000 and picked up the blinds and antes without any resistance.
Rupert Elder did exactly the same the very next hand.
Heinzelmann made it 200,000 to go but folded when Massimilano Manigrasso moved all in for 1,785,000.
Almost a carbon copy of the previous hand as Heinzelmann once again raised to 200,000 but Francesco De Vivo moved all in for 1,035,000 and again the German folded.
Massimilano Manigrasso raised to 165,000 from the button and won Francesco De Vivo's big blind.
A couple of hands later and Max Lykov thought for a moment before moving all in for his 2 million stack from the small blind. Rupert Elder folded in the big blind.
The next hand saw another blind battle between our two chip leaders, Elder and Max Heinzelmann. It was checked to the turn of a turn where Elder check-called 85,000. The river was the and Elder checked a third time, Heinzelmann fired 320,000, Elder thought for a minute before folding, looking slightly displeased.
Minor big stack on big stack action as Rupert Elder min-raised from the button and Max Heinzelmann three-bet to 405,000 from the small blind. Elder decided it wasn't worth the effort, and folded.
A couple hands later, Heinzelmann min-raised from the cutoff and got a call from Xuan Liu on the button. Heinzelmann continuation bet on the nine-high flop, and again his opponent folded.
Costantino Russo min-raised from the cutoff and it folded to Max Lykov in the small blind who shoved for around 1.7 million. Russo very swiftly gave it up, and Lykov is up to just about 2 million.