Andrey Zhigalov: XxXx/5♣6♥6♣10♦/Xx
David Lin: XxXx/A♠- folded on third street
Luke Schwartz: Q♥7♦7♣/Q♦7♠4♣10♣
Andrey Zhigalov brought in, David Lin completed, and Luke Schwartz two-bet. Zhigalov called, while Lin decided to fold. Schwartz bet on fourth street, and Zhigalov called. Zhigalov made an open pair on fifth street and led out, seeing Schwartz call.
Sixth street then checked through to seventh street, where Zhigalov bet again. Schwartz raised, and Zhigalov quickly called.
Schwartz showed sevens full of queens, and Zhigalov mucked what he claimed was a lower full house.
The Jaka Coaching founder had a memorable exit from poker's most prestigious tournament Wednesday evening when he turned aggressive play with seven-deuce into a cooler. PokerNews was, as always, there to capture the crazy hand on video.
Andrey Zhigalov: XxXx/4♥6♦8♥
David Lin: XxXx/2♠K♥5♥ - folded on fifth street
Andrey Zhigalov completed and David Lin raised. Zhigalov called and they went to fourth street.
Zhigalov then bet and Lin called. Zhigalov bet again on fifth, leaving himself just one big bet behind, and Lin spent some time making sure the bets already in the pot were correct before giving up his hand.
Qinghai Pan: A♥10♣4♥/8♠6♠J♣9♥
David Lin: Q♣10♥6♣/10♠7♣9♣3♥
Qinghai Pan completed, David Lin raised, and Pan called. Fourth street checked through to fifth street, where Pan check-called a bet from Lin. The same occurred on sixth street, after which seventh street was checked down.
Pan had missed his draws, leaving Lin victorious with a pair of tens.
Andrey Zhigalov: A♠7♥6♥/4♣Q♦8♥3♣
Qinghai Pan: XxXx/Q♥2♥10♣5♣- folded on sixth street
David Lin: A♥A♦2♦/7♦9♦5♦8♣
Andrey Zhigalov brought in, Pan completed, and Lin and Zhigalov called. Pan continued betting on fourth street, seeing both opponents call. Pan slowed down on fifth street and checked. Lin tossed in a bet, and both Zhigalov and Pan called.
Lin made four to a straight on sixth, and he bet again. Zhigalov stuck around with a call, but Pan decided to get out of the way. On seventh street, Zhigalov check-called a final bet from Lin.
Lin tabled aces and an eight-low, and Zhigalov took half the pot with his seven-low.
With four players remaining, tournament officials have called an early end to Day 3. The final four will come back at noon tomorrow to play down to a champion.
Stay tuned for chip counts and a recap of the day's action.
An early end was called to Day 3 of Event #77: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship as the clock crept past midnight and still four players alive with a chance to win the World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
Qinghai Pan ended the day in the same place he started it, atop the leaderboard with 5,265,000. The California native already has two WSOP bracelets, both online, and will be looking for a live title to add to his resume when play resumes tomorrow at noon local time. With WSOP cashes dating back to 2009, he’s already matched his best-ever finish in a live WSOP event.
Day 3 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Bets
1
Qinghai Pan
United States
5,265,000
26
2
David Lin
United States
3,135,000
16
3
Luke Schwartz
United Kingdom
1,965,000
10
4
Andrey Zhigalov
Russia
795,000
4
David Lin, no stranger to Stud Hi-Lo final tables, sits in second with 3,135,000. Lin already made the final table of the $1,500 version of this event earlier this series, where he finished in seventh place, but he's the only one of the four remaining players without WSOP gold already on their career record.
Luke Schwartz was once one of the rising young stars of the game, a fixture on television during the poker boom. While the UK pro has stepped back from the game in recent years, he’s come back triumphant so far in 2025. This event marked his first WSOP cash since 2019, when he won his lone bracelet in the $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Championship. He aims for bracelet No. 2 and enters the extra Day 4 in third place with 1,965,000.
Luke Schwartz
Andrey Zhigalov ended up as the short stack with 795,000. Zhigaov is looking for his second bracelet this summer after taking down the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E., his second career victory in that same tournament.
Day 3 began at 1 p.m. local time with 15 players remaining out of a starting field of 186. Phil Hellmuth was in fourth place to begin the day and firmly in the hunt for bracelet No. 18 as he got off to a fast start, making a straight against Jordan Siegel’s rolled up queens to briefly take the chip lead. But it was all downhill for Hellmuth from there, accompanied by his usual profanity-laced rants. Pan was his favorite target throughout the day. “This f**king guy is running like God. He’s going to blow all those chips to somebody else later,” Hellmuth said while knocking over a chair after losing one pot to Pan.
Hellmuth was down to his last 160,000 and blamed it on his headphones, looking for a trash can to throw them in before depositing them onto a nearby table. Viktor Blom then ended up with trip fives and Hellmuth left in 13th place, his headphones still lying unclaimed on the table.
Phill Hellmuth
Jose Paz-Gutierrez (15th), Sachin Bhargava (14th), Siegel (12th), and Christopher Claassen (11th) also fell short of the final table. Blom then got in his last chips against Zhigalov, who ended up with a pair of nines. Blom couldn’t beat it and tossed his cards into the muck on his way to the rail in 10th place.
Zhigalov had taken the chip lead with 3,070,000 at the start of the nine-handed final table, with Pan in second with 2,760,000, followed by Lin at 2,190,000. Paul Zappulla was eliminated on one of the first hands by Lin’s trip kings. Jared Rubin, who spent most of the day hanging by a thread with a short stack, finally succumbed in eighth place when Tomasz Gluszko spiked a straight to beat his jacks. “You played awesome. You could not hold your head low on that,” tablemate Tim Frazin consoled him afterward.
Schwartz had fallen to the short stack before scooping a pot off Lin to double up. He then spiked a flush and got paid on seventh street by Zhigalov to take down a big pot and move up close to 2,000,000. Alex Livingston had dropped down to just 150,000 at one point, and while he managed to double up a few times, he eventually ran into Lin’s aces up to bust in seventh place.
Frazin livened up the final table with his one-liners and quick quips as he tried to battle back from a short stack, lamenting his inability to scoop a pot. He finally got his last chips in and was called by four players. Pan, Lin, Zhigalov, and Gluszko built a massive side pot that ended with Pan making a flush and low to scoop the entire pot, sending Frazin to the rail in sixth place. “That was an insane pot. You don’t see that ever,” Schwartz, the lone bystander at the table, said.
Pan moved up over 5,000,000 and into a massive chip lead over the remaining five players. Gluszko was eliminated in fifth place when Lin had tens and deuces to beat Gluszko’s pair of aces. The final four battled on through the rest of the level before tournament officials ordered an end to the day. The players protested, with Schwartz arguing to at least play one more level so he could jump into the $10,000 8-Game tomorrow, but to no avail.
Final Table payouts
Place
Player
Country
Earnings
1
$411,051
2
$274,023
3
$188,105
4
$132,423
5
Tomasz Gluszko
Poland
$95,665
6
Tim Frazin
United States
$70,970
7
Alex Livingston
Canada
$54,105
8
Jared Rubin
United States
$42,421
The action on Day 4 picks up on Level 25 with limits of 100,000/200,000. The players have locked up $132,423, with tomorrow's chamouin $411,051.
PokerNews will be back following all the action as the final table resumes tomorrow and a new champion is crowned.
