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

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.