11pm: 20 players left at the end of the day
The twenty aspirants remaining will now battle down to the final six which will comprise the Final Table on Tuesday (November 21st).
More: WPT Sanya Day 3 Recap: 20 players left, Li Yuguang in hunt for first WPT title
9pm: 23 remain including legendary Li Yuguang
Sifting through the Chinese nationals that are still in contention for the championship here in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Sanya Main Event, somuchpoker.com stumbled upon legendary poker shark Li Yuguang who is making a very deep run.
Li, who had the distinction of winning two major Macau Poker Cup (MPC) events in 2015 within hours of each other (the HK$12,000 APPT Red Dragon Event #9—for a payday of $238,200—and right after that the High Roller Event—for $212,037), he is in search of only his second cash of the year after getting ITM in the CPG China Championships last August right here in Sanya.
“I have played in all the WPT Sanya stagings as well as the recent WPT China (in Beijing),” Li said, through the interpretation of WPT Events Manager Cathy Zhao. “My dream has always been to win a WPT title because it is the most prestigious title.”
Li, who also emerged victorious in the European Poker Tour (EPT) Turbo Short Stacks Super Knockout in Monte Carlo last year, has now been moved to the Featured Table as Level 24 (blinds at 12000/24000/4000) rages on.
7pm: Two ladies still in the hunt
With only 30 players remaining in the Main Event, at this point everyone is now guaranteed $6,100. But in an all Chinese affair now, there are still two ladies who are battling; and doing quite well at this point.
Team J88 Poker’s Tian Jin—who won the 2015 WPT Sanya Shooting Star event—is holding her own against her opponents in Table 13 while 27-year-old Tang Ying is presently keeping up with the competition at the Featured Table.
Tian has cashed only once this year, finishing 145th at the Boyaa Poker Tour Main Event in Macau, is hoping for a big payday to end the year and start her momentum once again after a successful 2016 which saw the Chinese stunner get paid eight times, including triumph in the 2016 Super Poker Tournament in Boao where she won the Deepstack event.
Tang is a virtual rookie in the game, having picked up poker only six months ago playing on Ourgame’s PokerWorld site, where she qualified for this tournament.
6pm: Milashevskiy eliminated, 35 left
The last international player standing has now taken a seat at the sidelines as Vasili Milashevskiy of Russia bowed out in 36th place by losing a coinflip for his tournament life.
Suffering hit after hit, Milashevskiy—who qualified for this tournament by topping the PokerWorld Tournament Leaderboard (TLB)—went all-in with pocket fives and lost to an opponent who called him with AK.
The ousting of Milashevskiy, who has cashed twice on the live circuit this year playing in the Belarus Poker Tour, makes this an all Chinese affair at Level 22 (blinds at 8000/16000/3000).
According to Tournament Director Justin Hammer, there are only three levels left. But if the eliminations continue at its present pace, once there are eighteen players remaining Day 3 will come to an end.
5pm: Chen dethroned, 40 remaining in Level 21
Chen Hao, the erstwhile titlist of this event, was railed in the Featured Table as the field now thins to only forty players remaining in Day 3 of the WPT Sanya Main Event here.
While Chen can now only watch from the sidelines, Russian online qualifier Vasili Milashevskiy is slowly picking up steam and is among the chip-leaders here in Level 21 (blinds at 6000/12000/2000).
Tournament Director Justin Hammer explained to Somuchpoker that today’s and tomorrow’s structure for Day 4 will have levels at ninety minutes as opposed to the sixty minutes that was utilized during the first three days of the competition. But only six levels will be played today.
The “Beauty and the Beast” side event (a women’s tourney with men allowed, but their buy-in is tripled) is underway along with the final day of the Open Face Chinese (OFC) Pineapple tourney.
The No Limit Hold ‘Em (NLHE) Hyper Turbo begins at 5:00PM, local time.
Hublot Elite High-Roller prizepool and payouts revealed
The final number of entrants in the Hublot Elite High-Roller tournament is 142 bringing the total prizepool to $642,098 with $179,471 and a customized Hublot timepiece going to the eventual champion.
The top eighteen places will be paid.
WPT Sanya Tournament Director Justin Hammer has informed us that the Final Table of this event will be done at the Featured Table in the main competition area tomorrow (November 20th) with full television/live stream coverage.
Raymond Wu of Team Ourgame is among those still in contention while HKPPA’s Vincent Li—who less than an hour ago just busted out of the Main Event—was among the final entries before late registration officially closed at the end of Level 10.
There are presently 53 players remaining.
The Hublot Elite High-Roller event is presented by Hublot; a renowned Swiss watch maker which has partnered with the WPT, supporting all its international endeavours.
Day 3 now in mention
The last 74 players still in contention for the title and the $242,555 top purse are now in the heat of battle as Day 3 of the Main Event in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Sanya is now officially underway.
Some early casualties have already been reported with HKPPA stalwart Vincent Li hitting the rail not long after the resumption of play while American journeyman Noah Friedenberg followed not long after.
We currently have 58 players left as most of the short stacks hoping to earn double-ups did not fare too at the onset.
Day 2 of the Hublot Elite High-Roller Tournament is also in session and later on the final round of the Open Face Chinese (OFC) Pineapple event will go down.
The intriguing “Beauty and the Beast” side event will also kick off later today with women who join paying the regular buy-in while men who aim to be part of the tourney need to fork out triple. The final side event will be the No Limit Hold ‘Em (NLHE) Hyper-Turbo that begins at 7:00pm local time.
More: Full Event coverage
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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