20K (SHR) - 8 HANDED ($20,000)

After finishing 7th out of 505 in the Circuit Series Main Event for $16,000 and shipping the 191 player Super High Roller Main Event for $750,000 on Sunday, Stephen Song adds another TLPT trophy and $204,000 to his resume for winning The Lord Poker Tournament $20,000 Super High Roller with a $640,000 prize pool at Jeju Island’s beautiful Landing Resort.

Well the Main Event was more money, but this one feels good cause winning two tournaments in a row is just unreal, especially when they're the two biggest buy-ins I played. It's just really nice for sure.

His journey to victory started as one of the 11 early birds yesterday where he came out of the gates swinging, delivering the first knockout of the day against Ivan Zhang with A♠ A♦ versus Zhang's Q♦ 8♦ in level 1 and axed Dong Chen in level 3 with a 6♦ 7♦ flush on J♦ 2♦ J♠ 3♦ Q♠ when Chen had top pair with the nut blocker A♦ Q♣ that had him sit on a whopping 442BBs at the time. He gave a great summary of his run in the interview right after.

I mean right from the start, I ran really good. I won a nice pot and was able to stack Ivan with aces, which was really good, so I had like 400K right away and then before I knew it stacked Dong Chen who is a really good player too, that got me to 6-700K instantly and then the rest of day I was kind of just cruising a little bit. I took a little bit of hit when I lost jacks - it was for a pretty big pot - but right after I sucked out with eight's vs jacks, like instantly right after and then I had it back. Once I moved to the feature table I started running really good so yeah it was a pretty easy day overall.

Starting Day 2 as chip leader of the 11 players that remained from the 32 total entries he hit the ground running, eliminating four-time bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche in 10th that got the field to the final table with his 108 BB stack far ahead of his competition. He slowly chipped up before delivering the double knockout of short stacks Dan Cates and Gavin with 5♠ 5♦ against A♣ 2♣ and K♣ Q♥ when the board ran 2♠ 5♥ 7♥ 3♣ 7♦ that took the remaining players to the money bubble. After taking a chunk out of Calvin Lee's stack and giving the chips right back by doubling up two of the short stacks he jammed 7♥ 2♥ from the small blind and last woman standing Yisha Chen made a gutsy call with Q♥ 9♥ , but became the unfortunate bubble when the board ran 5♣ T♦ 2♠ T♠ A♠ .

After Song knocked out Lei Yu in 5th it was Calvin Lee's turn to deliver the final blow to James Mendoza in 4th and Song's elimination of Taylor Black got them to an almost even heads-up. The two bracelet winners agreed to an ICM deal and left $10,000 and the trophy to play for.

Well honestly after playing for so many hours, I'm completely shot, I've been sleeping okay, but not amazing. I haven't fully adjusted to the local time and hopefully won't before going back to Vegas. We were almost even stacks. I was pretty delirious, I've been drinking red bulls to stay up so I was okay, but I wanted to play for something so we took off 10K to play for so I can actually at least like try to win you know. It's hard when you take off all the money and solely play for the trophy. I mean the trophy is great too but you know, you got to get extra incentive to try.

After Song took the lead, Calvin Lee limped J♠ 7♦ and Song opted to check T♥ 4♣ for the action flop T♠ 4♥ J♣ to drop. Lee's 50,000 c-bet got called by Song, the 6♠ turn hit the felt and Lee fired another 175,000 before filling up Song's 800,000 raise. Song jammed the river 5♣ and Lee snapped to find out his top pair was no good.

Congrats to all the winners and the SMP Live Updates will continue for the $25,000 Super High Roller in a few minutes.

Right the next hand Calvin Lee limps J♠ 7♦ , Stephen Song opts to check T♥ 4♣ and the flop T♠ 4♥ J♣ drops. Song check-calls 50,000 before check-raising 800,000 on the 6♠ turn. Lee fills up his 175,000 second barrel and snap-calls his last 1,700,000 on the river 5♣ after Song put him all-in. Top pair versus two pair is the end for him, adding another six-figure cash that takes his 2025 live earnings to over $2,000,000 already.

Stephen Song opens 125,000 with A♣ 5♥ and Calvin Lee defends T♥ 7♥ to the flop 6♥ 2♥ Q♣ . Song continues for 75,000 and pays up after Lee check-raised to 250,000. On the turn J♠ Lee fires another 275,000, Song consumes a time banks and ups it to 750,000 with Lee calling. The river 4♠ gets checked down for Song to scoop the pot with ace-high.

While the table is being prepared for the heads-up, Stephen Song and Calvin Lee agree to an ICM deal that gives $200,000 to Lee and $194,000 to Song With $10,000 and the trophy left to play for.

No three for Black on the river K♦ sees the 2021 WPT Main Event winner exit in 3rd for a $101,000 payday.

A limped blind battle has Calvin Lee triple barrel 50,000, 200,000 and 1,000,000 on the board K♣ 6♣ 7♠ A♣ T♥ and small blind Taylor Black check-calls all the way with A♦ 7♣ before he has to surrender the pot to Lee's T♣ 3♣ flush.

The $25,000 Super High Roller is in level 4 with 5 out of 7 currently battling it out. Late registration will be open until the end of level 10.

Still stacking some of Stephen Song's chips he won the hand before, Taylor Black defends his big blind against a min-raise from button Calvin Lee to lay eyes on the 8♠ 6♣ T♦ flop. He check-calls a 125,000 c-bet before the turn 3♣ and river J♦ get checked down with Black tabling the winner K♦ 7♥ against Lee's Q♦ 4♦ .

Digging for three outs, Mendoza can't find any of them on the board 8♦ 5♣ Q♦ 7♦ 6♠ that sends him home in 4th and adds another $75,000 to his $450,000 biggest cash ever that he banked for finishing the SHR Main Event as runner-up two days ago.

The remaining three have a six-figure payout guaranteed.

The dealer makes short work of Yu by flipping over 2♦ 9♥ K♥ 2♠ J♣ and we lose our last Chinese contender.

Heartbreak for the last lady on the table when the dealer reveals a two in the window and flips over 5♣ T♦ 2♠ T♠ A♠ , eliminating Yisha Chen on the bubble that grants the rest of the field a $60,000 payday at minimum.

Scooping a small pot on the river against James Mendoza two hands ago, Calvin Lee open-limps his small blind and fills up after chip leader Stephen Song increased to 105,000. Lee check-calls a 60,000 c-bet on 7♦ 6♦ 7♥ and does so again for 180,000 on the J♦ turn. Both players check down the river 2♠ that has Song come out on top with ace-high A♦ 9♥ against Lee's K♦ T♣ king-high.

This takes us to the money bubble with Stephen Song in a perfect position to profit from the shorter stack's ICM considerations.

After chopping a preflop all-in against Cates two hands ago, Lei Yu is back with A♥ A♣ on the button and only calls Calvin Lee's 60,000 raise from +1 who has A♠ K♦ . Lee continues for 55,000 on the flop K♣ 5♥ 7♠ and Yu fills up to see the 6♥ turn hit the felt. Both players are trapping with a check and the board completes 8♦ for a scary four-liner. Lee pulls the trigger with a jam that puts Yu in the tank. He puts all his time banks in front, but lets go of the aces after using only three of them.

An ace in the window on 2♠ 9♦ A♠ puts Chen behind, who can't recover when the board completes J♠ 4♥ making her trade places on the leaderboard with Lee.

Chip Leader Stephen Song picks up A♠ A♥ in +1, raises to 50,000 and takes two interested parties to the flop J♦ K♥ 5♦ that gets rejected for a free J♠ turn. Song's 65,000 delayed c-bet keeps only hijack Gavin around for the board to complete 9♠ . Song fires another 80,000 and Gavin lets go of A♣ 6♣ after using a time bank.

After taking down two single raised pots in the three hands before, Yisha Chen cements her second place on the leaderboard.

After chopping a preflop all-in against Calvin Lee with ace-king for both of them, Yisha Chen raises 50,000 from under the gun with A♥ K♦ and takes hijack Taylor Black with A♠ Q♦ to the flop T♣ 2♥ 6♥ where her 40,000 c-bet gets called. The 5♥ turn gets checked to the river T♦ and Chen's 340,000 lead goes unanswered.

Calvin Lee lays out 40,000 from +1 with Q♦ J♦ and cutoff Gavin takes three time banks before opting to call A♣ 7♣ to see the 8♦ 6♥ K♠ flop where Lee's 40,000 c-bet gets called and the 6♠ turn drops. Lee checks and Gavin uses the opportunity to scoop the pot with a 60,000 bet.

Taylor Black min-raises A♦ K♠ from +1 and button Stephen Song comes along for the ride with 3♠ 3♣ . The flop J♣ T♥ 9♦ gets checked to the turn K♥ where Black check-calls 70,000 to watch the river A♥ hit the felt. Checking again, Black uses a time bank before he folds to another 135,000 bet from Song.

Cates evades an ace on 8♥ 7♠ 7♥ 2♠ J♣ to survive another all-in.

A few meters away from the stage, five early birds are already sitting down with the cards about to start flying.

Cates picked up the blinds and Gavin lost a small pot against Istvan Birizdo that leaves him with crumbs.

Jungle stays ahead when the board completes 9♥ 7♠ for more than a triple up.

The previous three min-raised pots went to some of the short stacks before the action gets folded to small blind Dan Cates in the next one. He makes it 30,000 with K♦ 9♥ and Calvin Lee defends 8♣ 7♣ to see the action flop 9♠ K♣ 5♣ . Cates triple barrels 25,000, 125,000 and 375,000 all-in to the Q♦ turn and 6♥ river. Lee snaps for his last 325,000 on the river for a double up with his straight against Cates' two pair.

A min raised three-way pot gets checked to the river T♣ 7♣ 3♠ 2♣ 4♥ with preflop raiser Taylor Black's A♣ K♠ coming out on top against Dan Cates and Stephen Song.

After Lei Yu and Dan Cates picked up the blinds, Istvan Birizdo jams his last 200,000 into Stephen Song's min open and scoops a small pot.

Yisha Chen min-raises from under the gun and takes two players to the flop 9♠ 3♦ Q♥ where her 30,000 c-bet only keeps big blind Stephen Song around for the A♠ turn. Another 40,000 gets the job done for her.

With a few minutes of break left for the live stream production, the players are getting ready for their formal walk in.

Stephen Song extended his lead already, but Yisha Chen drew a good seat in position of him to maybe challenge the American bracelet holder.

No two-outer for Nitsche when the board completes A♦ Q♠ and we have the Final 9 set. Still four places away from the money.

A limped pot between three players gets checked to the turn 6♠ 8♠ Q♦ 3♦ where small blind Gavin tests the waters for 15,000 and takes cutoff Dominik Nitsche to the A♠ river, firing another 20,000 to scoop the pot.

Dominik Nitsche defends his big blind against a 30,000 raise from button Stephen Song, but lets it go against a 25,000 c-bet on the 6♥ T♠ 2♦ flop.

Dominik Nitsche limps from under the gun and quickly fills up after Martin Nielsen declared all-in for 65,000 from the cutoff.

Taylor Black opens 30,000 from the cutoff, but lets it go after Dominik Nitsche jammed his small stack to win his second pot of the day.

Shuffle Up And Deal!

The Lord Poker Tournament $20,000 Super High Roller broke its guaranteed $500K prize pool just before the end of level 10 yesterday and pushed the total entries to 32, resulting in a $640,000 prize pool with $242,000 going to the champion. Today's eleven contenders will have to navigate their stacks into the 5 ITM spots that start at $60,000 for 5th.

Sunday's SHR Main Event Winner Stephen Song will start the day on top with 1,315,000 (87 BB). Being one of the 11 early birds yesterday, he came out of the gates swinging, delivered the first knockout of the Day 1 against Ivan Zhang with A♠ A♦ versus Zhang's Q♦ 8♦ in level 1 and axed Dong Chen in level 3 with a 6♦ 7♦ flush on J♦ 2♦ J♠ 3♦ Q♠ when Chen had top pair with the nut blocker A♦ Q♣ that had him sit on a whopping 442BBs at the time. He gave a great summary of his run in the interview right after.

I mean right from the start, I ran really good. I won a nice pot and was able to stack Ivan with aces, which was really good, so I had like 400K right away and then before I knew it stacked Dong Chen who is a really good player too, that got me to 6-700K instantly and then the rest of day I was kind of just cruising a little bit. I took a little bit of hit when I lost jacks - it was for a pretty big pot - but right after I sucked out with eight's vs jacks, like instantly right after and then I had it back. Once I moved to the feature table I started running really good so yeah it was a pretty easy day overall.

James Mendoza - Sunday's SHR Main Event runner-up for $450,000 - is chasing Stephen Song once again, having 1,180,000 (79BB) to work with in second place.

Carrying the torch for the ladies is Yisha Chen - 2024 Triton Montenegro Main Event 9th place finisher for $478,000 - who will start Day 2 in 3rd with 1,100,000 (73BB).

The Lord Poker Tournament $25,000 Super High Roller with a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool is scheduled to start at 15:00 with 200,000 starting stacks that will give the early birds 200 opening blinds. Intervals are a relaxed 45 minutes and late registration will close at the end of level 10.

The SMP Live Updates will cover the action from start to finish.