HomeFheng Zhao has roughly 75% the total chips and the other 25 shared by JJ Liang and Ineka Santos.
Why won’t one of the two short-stacked players jump yet? Well, simply because of the HUGE jump from the payout of the 2nd place and the 3rd.
That’s $72,600 vs. $49,400 or a difference of 23,200.
Ineka Santos tried to steal the big blind of Jia Jie Liang but the Chinese defended his big blind with an all-in. Santos threw away his hand.
The local pros railing the final table have a nickname for Fheng Zhao” “Harry Potter”
Apparently, they are just amazed that a guy who entered the Day 3 with 54,000 in chips and entered Day 2 with 17,000 in chips is still alive and kicking… AND the dominant chip leader in this final table.
(Thanks TD Lloyd Fontillas for the note.)
Inaki Santos has just doubled up courtesy of Zhao when his all in shove was called by Zhao. Santos had A♦ 9♥ and Zhao had K♠ J♦. The board ran 7♥ 6♥ 7♦ A♠ 5♣. Santos now has around 600K chips.
With such a monster stack before him, Feng Zhao has been raising his opponents and hardly getting called. In one hand however, Zhao was called by Jia Jie Liang and both went to see a flop of 6♠ Q♣ 9♣. Both players checked and the turn of Q♦ was next on the board. Liang checked, Zhao bet 75K and Liang flat-called. Then on the river of 4♠, both players checked and Liang won the hand with his A♠ 6♠ two pairs.
From the small blind, Ineka Santos opened for 60,000 preflop and saw Jia Jie Liang call from the big blind.
Flop: A♦ 3♣ K♥
Santos continued with another 55,000 and again Liang called.
Turn 4♣ was checked by both players as well as the river card J♠
Liang showed J♦ Q♣ as Santos mucked his card.
Twice, we’ve seen Zheng Zhao move all-in from the small blind and both times Ineka Santos had his big blinds stolen. Santos tanked a bit in the second one but just wouldn’t commit.
At this point 75 per cent of the total chips belong to Zhao.
Determined to pull ahead even more, Feng Zhao tangled in a pot against second in the lead, Inaki Santos. Action began with Santos min raising to 60K and was called by Zhao on the big blind. At the flop of 5♦ 7♣ K♥, Zhao checked, Santos bet 60K again, and Zhao answered with a check-raise to 140K. Santos called. At the turn of 10♦, Zhao led out for 240K big ones, and after tanking, Santos flat-called. On the river of 3♥, Zhao quickly announced he was all in sending Santos tanking once again. Santos eventually folded and Zhao took down a big pot. Zhao showed one card 5♠.
Estimated chip counts with final three players left:
Santos – 1.25M
Zhao – 2.55M
Liang – 400K