A table move was insufficient to get Shi Qiang Lin out of the hot seat, with the Chinese player moving to table one over on the feature podium. Wenling Gao probably wishes he'd stayed where he was previously, with Lin sending her to the rail after the pair clashed in a blind on blind confrontation.
We picked up the action on a flop of after Gao moved all-in from the small blind over the top of a Lin bet. The Chinese player decided to roll the dice and made the call and the cards were turned over.
Shi Qiang Lin:
Wenling Gao:
Gao held a slender lead with top pair against the open-ended straight draw of Lin, and while he didn't hit that, running diamonds on the turn and river gave him a backdoor flush to bring Gao's Main Event run to an end, while Lin stacked up to 730,000 with 68 players remaining.
A big pot played out between Sparrow Cheung and Gary Lam that saw the latter take a big hit and the former earn a critical double-up.
It was Cheung who was the driver in this particular hand, though we missed the amount of his initial opening raise. When we arrived, Lam had three-bet to 50,000 from the big blind and Cheung had pulled the trigger for 152,000 in total.
Both players were on their feet and, sensing something significant was going down, a crowd gathered around. Eventually, Lam made his decision and flicked in a single yellow 1k chip to represent the call, looking crushed when Cheung rolled over , and when Lam revealed his it was easy to see why he might be a little sad.
The runout saw Cheung take down the pot to climb to 304,000, while Lam took the hit stoically to drop to 40,000.
Chi Ming Ma raised to 20,000 from the hijack and Gary Lam shoved for 34,000 in total from the cutoff. Action folded back to Ma who called.
Gary Lam:
Chi Ming Ma:
The flop came to give Ma trip queens. The turn made it even worse for Lam who was now drawing dead as the fell. The on the river was just a formality as Lam was sent to the rail in 66th place.
The next elimination that will take place means that the bubble will commence.
Two quick back-to-back bust outs have brought the 63 remaining players into the money spots. It proved to be a sickening cooler for Hong Kong's Darwin Lai, with Wei Ran Pu the man to benefit from Lai's demise.
Lai was the man to raise first, opening for 12,000 from middle position, with Pu three-betting to 33,000 from one seat over. Lai gave Pu the staredown before deciding to pull the trigger for 162,000 and was beaten into the pot by Pu - a sure sign that he was in trouble.
Darwin Lai:
Wei Ran Pu:
It was a dream spot for Pu and a nightmare for Lai, especially this close to the bubble. The runout saw Lai's Cowboys shotdown in a hail of bullets and he headed for the rail while Pu stacked up to 480,000.
There was no time for hand-for-hand with another hand playing out immediately afterward that saw all 63 remaining players make the money. With the hand coming so soon after Lai's demise, we missed the player in question's bust out but were relayed the details after, courtesy of the winner of the hand, Day 1b chip leader Zhang Chao.
The unfortunate bubble boy moved in pre-flop from mid position with five-six suited and was looked up by Chao with pocket fives, with the case five coming in on the flop, guaranteeing the 63 survivors an HKD 27,900 (~$3,500) payday.
The board read with about 250,000 in the middle already. The bubble was still going on but it was already confirmed that there were 63 players left. Jeho Lee bet 180,000 from the small blind and Jian Han was sitting the tank. After taking his time, Han decided to give the hand up.
In what proved to be an action-packed day, the 247 surviving Poker King Cup Main Event runners were whittled down to the final 62, reaching and breaching the money bubble to guarantee all remaining survivors an HKD 27,900 (~$3,500) payday.
The man dominating the vast majority of the late game action began play as one of the shortest stacks, with just 24,800 in chips, but by the time the seven 60-minute levels were in the books, China’s Shi Qiang Lin sat atop the counts with a gigantic 904,000 stack. This is a full 23 big blinds more than next closest rival, fellow countryman Sun Bin (720,000), with Korea’s Jeho Lee rounding out the top three after bagging up 666,000.
Lin’s ascendance began during the last two levels played as things began to wind down and the bubble approached, gunning down Rui Qin and Wenling Gao in quick succession to snatch the top spot from Yue Feng Tang, who bagged up a stack of 564,000.
While Lin probably wished it to go on forever so he could continue scooping up chips, play around the bubble mirrored the rest of the day’s action. It was fast paced and high variance, bursting so fast the unfortunate bubble boy had hit the exit before the burster, Day 1b frontrunner Zhang Chao, had finished stacking her newly won chips; her flopped set of fives easily besting her opponent's speculative six-five suited. Chao finished play with 258,000.
The lead changed hands multiple times as play progressed, chip leaders rising and falling faster than the value of Bitcoin, with Wen Yao Bao, Liang Song and Tang jockeying for position at the top of the leaderboard, before Lin rose to prominence during the last two levels played. All three former frontrunners would make the Day 3 cut, Song with 623,000, Tang with 564,000 and Bao with 101,000.
Day 2 began with the survivors of Day 1a and 1b starting play for Level 12 at 1pm, while the Day 1c survivors returned at 2pm. The two starting flights were then merged for Level 13, and it was around that time we also got information regarding the prize pool and payouts.
The PKC Main Event attracted 518 runners in total, generating an HKD 7,536,900 prize pool. Everyone returning tomorrow is guaranteed HKD 27,900, but here’s a reminder of what they’re aiming for:
PKC Main Event Top Ten Payouts
Place
Prize (HKD)
Prize (US)
1
1,464,000
187,239
2
1,026,500
131,284
3
660,200
84,436
4
488,400
62,464
5
366,300
46,848
6
293,900
37,588
7
244,900
31,321
8
195,200
24,965
9
147,000
18,800
10
10,7800
13,787
Of course, poker being a zero-sum game and tournament poker being particularly high variance, where some players win the vast majority of the field leave with nothing.
Along the way we lost plenty of familiar names, all departing well before the money with the likes of Benjamin Hamnett, Wenling Gao, Carson Wong, and Darwin Lai all failing to make it into the cash. Lai’s exit was by far the most painful, running pocket kings into the pocket aces of Wei Ran Pu just seconds before Chao hit her set to burst the bubble.
PokerNews will be back at the Venetian Macau Resort Hotel tomorrow at 1pm local time (GMT+7) for Day 3, as we continue to play down to the Final Table. Join us then, and in the meantime scroll down to catch up on all of today’s action.