Twenty players are left standing to contest the title and the $242,555 top purse in the Main Event of the sixth staging of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Sanya with the erstwhile champion dethroned, two ladies still in and a former Macau Red Dragon titlist among the chip leaders.
Early casualties
From the beginning of Day 3, it would be an uphill climb for the two international campaigners still in the hunt and after American Noah Friedenberg got railed in the early goings of Level 19, Vasili Milashevskiy of Russia followed not long after.
The same fate befell HKPPA pro Vincent Li who was still able to make the last registration phase of the Hublot Elite High-Roller event upon his exit from the Main Event.
Erstwhile champion Chen Hao also lost his footing and got busted out while at the Featured Table to ensure that a new winner will be crowned in two days’ time.
Two ladies still in contention
Team Poker Fish representative Lu Di also got shown the door as one by one the last remaining ladies in the tournament got axed from the competition, with the exception of Team J88 Poker’s Jin Tian and 27-year-old Tang Ying, who has only been playing the game for a mere six months. They are currently occupying the last two spots, though, but can still improve if they continue with their solid play.
Li Yuguang chasing his first WPT Title
Qian Zhiqiang presently has the largest stack of over 2.4M in chips while Chen Ke is not that far behind with a little over 2M. However, lurking in third place at the moment is Chinese tournament veteran Li Yuguang, who has the distinction of taking down the Red Dragon tournament in the 2015 Macau Poker Cup and promptly emerged victorious in the High Roller event just a few hours later. He is with just under 2M in chips.
Li’s dream is to win a WPT crown and has the arsenal to achieve his ambitions as action reconvenes tomorrow (November 20th) at 12:00NN (local time) still here at the MGM Grand Hotel main ballroom.
The twenty aspirants remaining will now battle down to the final 9 which will comprise the Final Table on Tuesday (November 21st).
Chip Count | Table | Seat | |
Qian Zhiqiang | 2,480,000 | 14 | 6 |
Chen Ke | 2,040,000 | 12 | 3 |
Li Yuguang | 1,985,000 | 3 | 3 |
Huang Dengdong | 1,600,000 | 12 | 1 |
Sun Bin | 1,540,000 | 14 | 1 |
Fu Peng | 1,150,000 | 12 | 4 |
Liu Jinbo | 1,140,000 | 14 | 4 |
Wu Xin | 1,095,000 | 3 | 7 |
Zhang Junjie | 1,025,000 | 14 | 5 |
Pan Yuefeng | 1,020,000 | 12 | 5 |
Hu Lingfei | 970,000 | 3 | 9 |
Tang Ying | 950,000 | 14 | 9 |
Chen Suiyu | 855,000 | 12 | 6 |
Li Zhongyao | 805,000 | 3 | 5 |
Li Chengbei | 735,000 | 12 | 2 |
Jin Tian | 705,000 | 14 | 8 |
Chen Yuanzhuo | 595,000 | 14 | 2 |
Xu Yahui | 435,000 | 12 | 9 |
Zhang Yi | 365,000 | 3 | 2 |
Lu Dengshuai | 355,000 | 3 | 4 |
Article by Noel Zarate
Everything you should know about the Day 3 of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Sanya Main Event with Noel Zarate