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

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.

A limped blind battle leads big blind Gary Thompson to triple barrel 16,000, 29,000 and 74,000 on the board 5♥ Q♠ 6♥ 7♣ 7♠ with Stephen Song calling until the river where he lets it go.

Button Gary Thompson leads 16,000 and big blind Yisha Chen defends to see the flop K♦ A♥ 2♣ where Gary bets 20,000 before folding to a 56,000 check-raise from Yisha.

With a min-raise and a flat in front, cutoff Dan Cates squeezes to 48,000 and only hijack Taylor Black comes along for the ride. The board T♠ J♦ 5♦ 4♦ 9♠ gets checked down with Black showing the winner K♥ T♥ against A♣ ks from Cates.

Hijack Gary Thompson min-raises an double checks his cards before filling up Dan Cates' 21,000 three-bet from the small blind. The flop 2♣ A♣ Q♦ is checked to reveal the turn Q♣ where Cates check-calls 28,000 for the 6♥ river to drop that gets checked again with Cates missing out on value with his K♣ 5♣ flush.

First to act Gary Thompson leads the way with a raise to 5,500 and takes both blinds to the 4♥ 4♦ 2♣ flop. His 6,000 c-bet gets called by small blind Dominik Nitsche before the 5♣ turn is checked to the 6♦ river. A small 8,000 lead from Nitsche is enough to get Thompson to fold.

First to act Gary Thompson leads 5,500 and takes button Nevan Chang to the flop 2♣ 4♣ 4♠ where Thompson starts a triple barrel sequence of 11,000, 13,000 and 55,000 to the turn K♦ and river 7♠ . Chang calls all the way, but mucks after Thompson flipped over K♠ K♣ full house. Both Of them needed a time bank to make their decision on the river.

After opening 2,500 from under the gun, James Mendoza calls an 8,000 three-bet from Gary Thompson in +1. Thompson triple barrels 5,000, 13,000 and all-in on the board A♥ 8♠ Q♥ 2♥ 2♣ with Mendoza calling the first two before surrendering on the river, losing two time banks in the process.

Under the gun Nevan Chang - Thursday's AAPoker Deep Stack Champ - opens 2,500 and takes two customers to the flop 8♥ K♦ 5♠ where his 4,000 c-bet keeps only cutoff Gary Thompson around for the K♠ turn. Chang slows down to a check-call of 12,000, the board completes 2♠ and Thompson's 33,500 bet gets the job done.