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.

First to act Mauricio Sanches lays out 160,000 and big blind Jiaming Zhao defends to see the flop 4♦ 2♦ 8♥ that gets checked to the T♥ turn. With the board favoring the big blind's range, Jiaming Zhao tests the waters with a 200,000 lead, Sanches raises to 500,000 and Zhao lets it go, losing two time banks in the process.

Jiaming Zhao min-raises yet another hand from +1, cutoff Yunkyu Song ups it to 270,000, but lets it go after Zhao put in a 470,000 four-bet.

Button Jiaming Zhao opens 120,000 and big blind Quan Zhou defends to see the flop 7♥ A♣ J♠ where Zhao continues for 100,000. Zhou check-raises to 375,000, Zhao calls and fires another 525,000 on the turn A♠ with Zhou check-folding.

Under the gun Jiaming Zhao ups it to 120,000 and takes cutoff Quan Zhou to the flop 7♦ 9♣ Q♦ where his 120,000 c-bet gets called. The turn K♥ gets rejected for a free river 9♥ and Zhao fires another 225,000. Zhou makes the call before throwing his cards in the muck.

With 26 players left and everyone a min cash of $28,000 secured already we have German Marius Gierse in a commanding lead.

Day 2 will conclude when we reach the last two tables with 16 players bagging their chips for tomorrow.

Quang Minh Nguyen leads the way with an 80,000 raise and big blind Jiaming Zhao defends to see the flop T♦ K♦ 9♥ where Nguyen's 85,000 c-bet gets called for the turn 7♠ to be revealed.

Zhao takes over the reins with a 190,000 lead and Nguyen needs a time bank before making the call to the river 3♠ . Zhao consumes two time banks before forking out another 550,000 which sends Nguyen deep in the tank. He opts to fold, losing four more time banks in the process.

Su misses on T♥ 2♣ and exits the field close to the money bubble.

Hijack James Mendoza raises to 25,000 and big blind Jiaming Zhao defends for the flop 5♥ 6♦ 3♣ that gets checked to the turn J♣ where Zhao's 20,000 lead gets called and the board completes T♠ . Another 43,000 from Zhao with top-pair J♦ 2♦ is met by Mendoza with the better kicker Q♠ J♥ .

Immediate relief for Zhao on the flop 9♠ 3♦ A♦ before slumping back into his chair when the 7♠ hits the board for an unimportant A♥ river giving Chen the double.