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 and added some more until late registration closed which got the total entries to 32, resulting in a $640,000 prize pool with $242,000 going to the champion. Eleven players are left standing that will try to make it into the 5 ITM spots for at least $60,000.

Yesterday's SHR Main Event Winner Stephen Song came out on top with 1,315,000 (110BB) Being one of the 11 early birds, 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.

James Mendoza - last night's SHR Main Event runner-up for $450,000 - is chasing Stephen Song once again, bagging 1,180,000 (98BB) in second place.

Carrying the torch for the ladies is Yisha Chen - 2024 Triton Montenegro Main Event 9th place finisher for $478,000 - who ended the day in 3rd with 1,100,000 (92BB).

Day 2 will commence at 13:00 on Tuesday the 20th in level 13 and finish when a champion has emerged.

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

First to act James Mendoza makes it 30,000, small blind Gavin ups it to 81,000 and big blind Istvan Birizdo calls for his last 58,000 before Mendoza fills up.

A friendly check to the river Q♦ 7♦ 7♠ 4♥ 5♣ has Birizdo come out on top with J♠ J♦ and Mendoza wins the side pot with K♠ 5♠ against Gavin's A♣ 2♥ .

With the guaranteed prize pool of $500,000 breached to $640,000 we have 16 out of 32 entries still in the running and late registration is closed. Play will conclude at the end of level 12 today.

The 9♥ ends this setup with Birizdo vacating his seat.