MAIN EVENT (CS) - 8 HANDED

The Lord Poker Tournament Circuit Main Event with a prize pool of $700,000 has reached the Final 9 down from 60 hopefuls that started Day 2 ten levels ago.

Chip leader William Jia - a young Australian pro who came close to a bracelet at the WSOP last year, finishing 9th out of 965 in the $10k Mystery Bounty for $80K - was 10th in chips this morning, but 2nd on his table with a great position and applied pressure from the get-go. A pivotal hand came in level 22 when he took on then chip leader Stephen Song, defending his big blind with K♠ 2♠ against a button min-raise. He called a 3BB c-bet on the flop K♦ 7♣ 8♦ and switched to a 2BB lead on the turn K♥ that got called by Song and the board completed J♦ . Jia checked, Song forked out 5,5BB and called Jia's 16BB check-raise with A♠ A♣ . Close to the end he knocked out Yang Liu after winning a flip with eights against ace-king and ended the day by eliminating AAPoker Ambassador Quan Zhou on the final table bubble, open-jamming the small blind with 4♠ 5♥ against Zhou's Q♠ 9♣ and the board ran 8♠ T♣ 2♥ 3♠ 4♣ . He brings 2,575,000 (51BB) to the final table.

Second in chips and the most experienced player at the final table is American Stephen Song who has a bracelet and six rings to his name and won the EPT Barcelona $5K Main Event last September for a whopping $1,425,651. He started Day 2 seventh in chips, but had some heavy hitters on his table with overall chip leader Bin Wang to his immediate left. His break came in level 18 when he four-bet jammed Q♠ 6♠ for 35BB and doubled up against Xuanzhi Zhao with A♥ K♦ when the board ran 7♠ 9♦ 8♥ 5♦ Q♣ and went on a tear after that. Still on the most stacked table of the tournament he knocked out Rui Sun with aces against kings and won massive pots against other greats like Martin Sedlak and Nevan Chang that took him into a massive lead during level 20 before he lost with A♠ A♣ against Jia's K♠ 2♠ in the previously mentioned hand. After a roller coaster ending to his day, he bagged 1,945,000 (39BB).

Everyone has $9,700 secure for 9th place, but all of them will be gunning for the first prize of $120,000 and the trophy along with it.

The Final 9 will start at 12:00 on Friday the 16th of May and the SMP Live Updates will be there to cover the action from start to finish.

Riding his big stack, Fangzhou Zhu opens another pot from under the gun for 80,000, finds no takers and scoops his 3rd consecutive pot uncontested.

None of them show up on 5♠ and 8♥ , ending Wang's run in 12th place

Cutoff Fangzhou Zhu opens 50,000 with 8♥ 8♣ and big blind Bin Wang defends A♣ Q♠ to lay eyes on the flop K♠ 9♠ 4♠ . Fangzhou Zhu double barrels 40,000 and 105,000 to the river 8♦ and J♥ with Wang check-calling before he surrenders to Zhu's 400,000 third barrel.

Small blind Fangzhou Zhu limps and Weizheng Zhong opts to check to the flop K♣ 8♥ A♦ where Zhu's 20,000 lead gets called. Slowing down to a check on the turn 9♠ , Zhu fills up Zhong's 40,000 who fires another 160,000 on the river 4♠ with K♠ 9♥ . Zhu snaps before throwing it in the muck.