Super High Roller (14,500,000 KRW)

After surrendering a hand to Martin Zamani on the turn it is go time for Mao Renji in the big blind , jamming 24,000,000 into Zamani's 3,500,000 open. Zamani calls with K♥ T♥ and watches Mao Renji flip over 7♣ 6♣ . The dealer tables 8♥ A♥ 2♥ 2♣ A♣ , granting Martin Zamani the pot and the tournament win, leaving Mao Renji with a decent six-figure consolation prize for a great show.

Hot on the heels of his massive double up that catapulted him into a small lead, Mao Renji opens Q♦ 2♦ from the button for 1,800,000 and Martin Zamani defends his big with 7♣ 6♥ . The flop Q♣ 7♥ 9♦ has Mao continue for 1,500,000 and Zamani check-calls to the turn 8♣ that gets checked to complete the board K♠ where two more checks reveal Mao Renji as the winner.

After Martin Zamani picked up the blinds four times, including a walk, with Aram Oganyan defending and winning a hand on the turn in between, Zamani limps his button with T♦ 5♦, Mao Renji fills up his small blind holding 5♥ 4♦ and Aram Oganyan puts down the hammer with a 3,600,000 squeeze to pick up another pot with K♦ 4♠ .

Yu Lei and Wang Yilong picked up some blinds to bolster their short stacks and Mao Renji took some from Aram Oganyan leaving us with this table dynamic:

Mao Renji opens another hand from under the gun, making it 1,200,000 with T♦ 6♦ this time. Yu Lei flicks in his last 500,000 from the button and big blind Wang Yilong tags along to the flop 3♥ 2♥ 9♥ that gets checked to the turn K♣ . Checked to Mao again, he puts out a delayed 1,200,000 c-bet, Wang calls with Q♠ 9♣ and the board completes 3♠ . Mao Renji jams, Wang goes in the tank, but decides to preserve his last 2,900,000, losing a time bank in the process. Mao picks up the side pot with ten-high, but has to surrender the main pot to Yu Lei's K♠ 5♥ .

After three betting Martin Zamani's open the hand before to take down the pot, Mao Renji opens 1,200,000 from the cutoff and faces Zamani again, who fills up his big blind to see the flop J♦ 9♠ 9♣ . A single 800,000 continuation has Mao pick up the chips once more.

After just limping his small ace from the button last orbit, Martin Zamani opts for a raise to 1,500,000 with A♥ 2♠ and Mao Renji defends big with Q♦ T♦ . The flop 5♦ 4♠ 6♣ gets rejected by both players to reveal the turn 6♦ . Having picked up a flush draw, Mao slides out a big 3,000,000 that ends the hand right there.

After a few pots were decided preflop we see Mao Renji open 1,000,000 with Q♦ J♦ from under the gun to take big blind Wang Yilong to the flop 8♦ 5♠ 9♣ where Mao puts his opponent all-in and scoops the pot.

After collecting the blinds, Martin Zamani open-limps his button with A♠ 4♣ and chip leader Mao Renji waves his option holding 5♠ 2♦ for the flop K♣ 5♣ Q♣ to hit. Zamani leads 850,000 and scoops the pot.

After a few hands of Yu Lei, Martin Zamani and Mao Renji picking up the blinds, Mao min-opens 1,000,000 once more, but faces opposition from button Aram Oganyan pumping it to 2,000,000 with A♦ J♣ . Mao decides to fold T♣ 8♦ against Aram's first play in almost two orbits.

With Martin Zamani picking up the blinds twice, but surrendering some immediately after, it is Mao Renji who min-opens A♠ K♠ from under the gun, Zamani ups it to 2,100,000 with Q♠ Q♦ and a jam and a call puts Mao at risk with 9,300,000. The dealer flips over 3♥ A♥ 8♥ 7♦ 2♠ , granting Mao Renji the biggest pot of the tournament and leaves former chip leader martin Zamani crippled with 2,400,000.

After Xue Song has grown his short stack back to 25BB and the chip leaders all bleeding some, to leave the most active player and chip leader Martin Zamani with 40BB it is everyone's game to win.

Under the gun +1 Mao Renji min-raises to 400,000 with A♦ K♦ and takes big blind Wang Yilong's 9♠ 7♠ to the flop 5♦ A♣ 7♣ . One 400,000 c-bet gets called by Yu for the turn 8♥ that gets checked around to the river 3♦ where a 1,100,000 bet from Mao goes unanswered.

After a total of 123 entries ponied up the KR₩14,500,000 (~USD 9,998) buy-in we got to a total prize pool of KR₩ 1,626,195,300 (~USD1,134,545) with KR₩409,200,000 (~USD285,496) up top and everyone taking a seat later will have KR₩40,700,000 (~USD28,398) guaranteed for 9th place already.

Wang Yilong was the only one breaching the eight-figures bagging 10,075,000 who came back from 2,200,000 just a few minutes before the end last night, starting with a triple up that eliminated Yong Wei Keong in 11th and then bursting the final table bubble, knocking out Xu Qiang in 10th.

Martin Zamani had been chip leader for most of the ITM play, but lost a few in the end, still bringing 9,800,000 to the table in 2nd.

The Final 9 will resume play on level 23 (100k/200k/200k) very even in chips with an average of 34BB at 1pm local on the 22nd of February.

Live updates begin at 1pm local time on February 22, 2025.

Starting the day with 3 levels of late registration still available, we reached a total of 123 entries that ponied up the KR₩14,500,000 (~USD 9,998) buy-in to get us to a total prize pool of KR₩ 1,626,195,300 (~USD1,134,545) with KR₩409,200,000 (~USD285,496) up top and everyone guaranteed KR₩40,700,000 (~USD28,398) for 9th place.

Wang Yilong was the only one breaching the eight-figures bagging 10,075,000 who came back from 2,200,000 just a few minutes before the end, starting with a triple up that eliminated Yong Wei Keong in 11th and then bursting the final table bubble, knocking out Xu Qiang in 10th.

Martin Zamani had been chip leader for most of the ITM play, but lost a few in the end, still bringing 9,800,000 to the table in 2nd.

The Final 9 will resume play on level 23 (100k/200k/200k) at 1pm local on the 22nd of February.

Folded to the button Mao Renji, 500,000 cross the line and big blind Martin Zamani defends to see the flop K♥ K♦ 8♦ where Zamani donk-bets 850,000 and Mao calls. The turn Q♦ and river T♥ are duds, having Mao table the winner A♦ Q♥ against Zamani's 7♣ 4♥ .