MAIN EVENT (CS) - 8 HANDED

Live, but behind, Zhu can't find any help on 2♠ T♣ 4♦ A♦ 2♦ and his elimination takes us to the podium places.

Jia stays ahead on 2♦ and J♦ for a much needed double up.

Under the gun Fangzhou Zhu makes it 200,000 with J♠ J♣ and big blind Weizheng Zhong defends K♣ 4♣ to see the flop 6♦ 5♠ 2♣ where he donk-bets 150,000 and Zhu just calls. Hitting top-pair on the turn K♥ , Zhu slows down to a check before calling Zhong's 350,000 to see the board complete 9♥ and two checks reveal Zhong as the winner.

The dealer hits the felt Q♠ 6♥ 4♦ K♣ A♦ to catapult Zhu into the lead that Wu held since just after the day had started.

Xuecong Wu picked up another few pots, taking chips from everyone but William Jia, who was himself able to steal the blinds to stay even.

The Lord Poker Tournament Circuit Main Event with a prize pool of $700,000 has reached the Final 9, down from a total of 505 entries over four opening flights and 60 qualifiers that battled it out on Day 2 yesterday. With a $9,700 payday for ninth secured already, the remaining contenders will have their sights set on the $120,000 that go to the inaugural champion and a beautiful trophy alongside with it.

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 - qualified for Day 2 tenth in chips, but was 2nd on his table yesterday morning 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 will start the day with 2,575,000 (51BB).

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) for today's final table.

The Final 9 will take their seats 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.