Patrik Demus opened to 85,000 from under the gun and Haobin Wang pushed all in for 495,000 in the hijack. Jiaming Zhao flat-called in the cutoff and the rest of the table folded including Demus.
Haobin Wang: 10♣10♦
Jiaming Zhao: J♠J♣
Wang was fighting an uphill battle when he saw his opponent with the bigger of the two pocket pairs. The board ran out A♦7♠5♣K♦J♥ and Wang was eliminated.
With the money bubble just around the corner, the action at the tables is getting more tense and several shorter stacks are aiming to sneak into the money.
One of them is Taylor Black who defended the big blind against an under-the-gun min raise to 80,000 by Yilu Yuan. He checked the Q♠6♥5♣ flop and then folded when Yuan bet 60,000.
Xiangnan Meng raised to 80,000 from under the gun and Xiangqian Gong three-bet jammed for 410,000 in the big blind, which Meng called after brief consideration.
Xiangqian Gong: Q♣Q♥
Xiangnan Meng: A♣10♣
The suited ace instantly connected with the A♥9♠5♣ flop and Gong couldn't escape on the 4♦ turn nor 4♣ river.
"Happy birthday," Raffaele Sorrentino joked to Meng, who had previously doubled through him.
Shortly after, Charles Chao left the feature table after his A♣J♠ made trips on the A♥9♥2♥8♣A♠ runout only for Quan Zhou to score the knockout with 9♠9♣ for nines full in a preflop all-in on the feature table.
Picking up the action on the turn, Jiaming Zhao was heads-up with Minh Quang Nguyen in a pot of around 300,000 chips. The board read K♦10♦9♥7♠ and Zhao was first to act who counted out a bet of 190,000. Nguyen called in position and the 3♠ completed the board.
Zhao used a time bank before sliding out another bet of 550,000. Nguyen went into the tank and used all five of his time banks. As his time was running out, Nguyen finally released his cards, sending the pot to Zhao.
Xiangnan Meng pushed all-in for 445,000 and was called only by Raffaele Sorrentino in the big blind.
A small rail gathered to witness the flop with Meng's A♠J♠ facing off against 10♠10♥. The A♦Q♦2♥ flop paired up Meng, and he retained the lead throughout the 5♦ turn as well as the K♦ river to stay in contention.
Ivan Zhang raised to 80,000 in early position and Yilu Yuan jammed all in for 245,000 on the button. Marius Gierse flat-called in the small blind and Zhang came along as well.
The flop came J♣8♦3♣ and the two remaining players checked through to the 4♠ on the turn and the 9♥ on the river. Two more checks and all three hands were tabled. Gierse held K♠Q♠ while Zhang showed A♠5♣ for ace-high. However, Yuan held A♣7♣ and his seven-kicker actually played to give him a triple up.
Level: 19
Blinds: 20,000/40,000
Ante: 40,000
The remaining 35 players are going on another 15-minute break as the bubble is now looming just six eliminations away.
Benson Su raised it up from the cutoff and Jiaming Zhao defended from the big blind. The flop came Q♦J♣9♣ and Su continued with a bet of 75,000. Zhao check-raised all in and Su quickly called off his stack of around 370,000.
Benson Su: A♠Q♥
Jiaming Zhao: J♠9♠
Su flopped top pair but Zhao was in the lead with two pair. The 10♥ on the turn gave Su a few added outs but the 2♠ on the river was not one of them.
The live stream table featured another duel of pocket pairs with Jincheng Du at risk against big stack Stephen Song.
Jincheng Du: 3♠3♥
Stephen Song: 8♣8♠
The J♦J♠7♦9♠Q♣ board kept Song ahead all the way and he notched up another elimination.
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