TLPT MAIN EVENT 15K (SHR) - 8 HANDED ($15,000)

The Lord Poker Tournament SHR Main Event with a prize pool of a whopping $3,000,000 has attracted a total of 191 players that all ponied up the $15,000 buy-in and now has 15 hopefuls left standing that will compete for the $750,000 top prize, the trophy and bragging rights for making history as the inaugural champion.

All of the remaining players had to go through a star studded field with bracelet winners Daniel "Jungleman" Cates, Dominik Nitsche, Yinan Zhou, Mao Renji, Lei Yu, Calvin Lee, Ami Barer, Dong Chen and a flurry of high stakes players from all around the globe.

Topping the leaderboard with a huge gap to the rest of the field is German Marius Gierse who is famous for his online accomplishments, but racked up several million dollars in live earnings over the past decade as well. He was one of the people that took a starting stack from Ivan Zhang when he tried to spin up a stack during the closing levels of late registration that got him to a 62BB stack at the end of level 14. From then on he consistently chipped up, becoming chip leader of his table and then took the overall lead during level 20 and never looked back. Busting Raffaele Sorrentino in 17th on the buzzer to put a 20BB cherry on top of his 7,545,000 (94BB) stack.

Second in chips is Martin Sedlak - another German who has several final tables to his name in 2025 already - who came back from the brink in level 20 and finished the day with the elimination of Calvin Lee for 20BB and shortly after Yunkyu Song in 16th for another 7BB that concluded Day 2. He will unbag 4,755,000 (59BB) tomorrow.

AAPoker Ambassadors Ivan Zhang - 3,550,000 (44BB) and Quan Zhou - 2,140,000 (27BB) are also still in the stacked Top 15.

Day 3 will start at 13:00 local on Sunday the 18th with 16 minutes left in level 22 and finish when a champion is determined.

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

Bracelet holder and yesterday's Circuit Main Event finalist Stephen Song min opens from the button, but surrenders after Ivan Zhang jammed his massive stack from the small blind. Zhang shows A♣ Q♣ before scooping the pot.

No miracle eight on T♦ A♠ J♥ 5♦ J♠ sees the Hungarian exit and Action Ivan sits on quite a decent stack.

Ivan Zhang makes it 80,000 from the hijack, button Yilu Yuan declares all-in for 245,000, small blind Marius Gierse cold calls and Zhang fills up as well.

The board 8♦ J♣ 3♣ 4♠ 9♥ gets checked down with everyone missing and Yuan's A♣ 7♣ winning against Zhang's A♠ 5♠ and Gierse's K♠ Q♠ .

Ivan Zhang makes it 60,000 from +2 and small blind Marius Gierse increases to 190,000. Zhang finds a call with the aid of a time bank and the flop falls 6♣ J♥ T♦ with Gierse slowing down to a check-call of 225,000.

The turn J♠ gets rejected for a free river 9♠ where Gierse lays out 200,000 and Zhang consumes a time bank before declaring all-in for 765,000. Gierse is in the tank for six time banks before letting it go and says 'nice hand' when Action Ivan shows 6♠ 5♠ .

With 49 out of 191 total entries remaining that all want to get to the 29 money places we see Gary Thompson closing in on chip leader Bin Leng in the hunt for the top prize of $750,000.

Action Ivan outflops the German on Q♠ T♦ 8♣ and stays ahead when the board completes 2♥ 8♠ .

Cutoff Lei Yu min-raises, button Ivan Zhang makes it 120,000, but goes for an uncharacteristic fold after Yu put him all-in.

The dealer makes it interesting until the end by flipping over 3♣ 9♠ 3♠ 5♠ 3♥ sending Zhang to the registration desk for another time.

After the late registration was pushed to the end of level 14, the blinds have been adjusted as well. We now have level 13 and 14 being at 6K/12K/12K and continue with regular blind increases from level 15 (10K/15K/15K) onwards.

The $10,000 Super Star that was scheduled for 15:00 will now begin after the end of the SHR Main Event late reg at 17:00.

Zhang stays the favorite on K♦ and A♣ , scooping a massive pot and Liu says he folded ace-king.

Hijack Ivan Zhang ups ups it to 22,000, button Bin Leng makes it 65,000 and big blind Yunpeng Jiang cold four-bets 185,000 before Ivan Zhang uses his catch phrase 'no gamble, no future' and declares all-in four about half a million. Leng folds and Jiang needs two time banks to do the same.