China's Chi Hi Fang became the first casualty of the unofficial final table, moving all-in for 740,000 from the cutoff and getting called immediately from the small blind by Wei Ran Pu.
Chi Hi Fang:
Wei Ran Pu:
Poker is all about timing, and unfortunately for Fang, his was bad this time around and Pu had woken up with a hand. The flop saw Fang catch a piece, but not a big enough piece to take the lead. The turn was of no help, and neither was the river and the final table is now down to nine. Pu stacked up to 3 million to take the chip lead, while Fang headed for the exit.
Korea's Jeho Lee will not be winning a second title this tournament series, departing at the hands of Yang Wang to bring the Day 3 play to a conclusion and set up the official eight-handed final table.
With Liang Song finding that timely double it was Lee the man under pressure as the short stack, so when the action folded around to him on the button, Lee moved all-in for 275,000.
Small blind Yang Wang peeked down at his cards and called instantly, and from the look on Lee's face we deduced that this was not a good thing.
Jeho Lee:
Yang Wang:
Lee's cards were live, which is all he could have asked for. Unfortunately, the runout came down a decisive and the official eight-handed final table is now set. Lee headed for the cashier to collect his HKD 147,000, while Wang stacked up to 3.34 million, putting him second in the overall counts.
Players are bagging and tagging their chips and play it done for the day. The final eight players will be returning at 1pm sharp on Tuesday, 25 September to play it out for the trophy, title and HKD 1,464,000 (~$187,000) top prize so join us then. Full end of day recap to follow shortly.
The penultimate day of the Poker King Cup Main Event has come to a close and the official eight-handed final table is now set; the ninth-place departure of Korea's Jeho Lee making it an all-Chinese affair.
The pace of play on Day 3 was relentless throughout. The trend was elimination after elimination, big pot after big pot, and by the time the field was reduced to a final table of ten, it was Li Yu who topped the counts.
Yu’s hot streak began just before the last two tables were reached, waking up with pocket aces after the tournament’s last female player, Lin Zhe Chen, moved all-in with ace-king. The case ace hit the flop to lock up the hand for Yu, shooting him into pole position with a stack of 2.7 million – a million more chips than next closest rival at the time Jeho Lee - and sending Chen to the rail in 21st for an HKD 65,600 payday.
While the rest of the field had caught up by the time play reached ten-handed, Yu still held the lead, though it looked like he might come unstuck after having a big bluff picked off by Yang Wang, with the pot putting the latter in the lead.
However, some canny play and a little bit of cunning saw Yu, holding pocket aces again, set a trap for Qi Cheng Du, who walked right into it with pocket jacks to put Yu back atop the counts with over 4-million in chips.
Yu would end the day with 3,445,000 – over 100,000 more than next closest rival Wang. However, this is only just over one and a half big blinds so Yu still has some way to go to close out the tournament. Du too is in with a chance, albeit a slim one and he's coming in as the table short-stack with ten big blinds.
The Poker King Cup Macau 2018 Main Event Final Table. (Back row l-r: Liang Song, Wei Ran Pu, Cang Sheng Ni. Front row l-r: Qi Cheng Du, Li Yu, Jian Dong Yu, Yang Wang, Jun Fang)
Poker King Cup Macau 2018 Main Event Official Final Table
Table
Seat
Player Name
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
1
Yang Wang
China
3,340,000
56
1
2
Jun Fang
China
2,170,000
36
1
3
Wei Ran Pu
China
2,415,000
40
1
4
Cang Sheng Ni
China
710,000
12
1
5
Liang Song
China
740,000
12
1
6
Qi Cheng Du
China
605,000
10
1
7
Jian Dong Yu
China
2,080,000
35
1
8
Li Yu
China
3,445,000
57
The day began with 62 remaining players out of a field of 518, all already in the money and guaranteed a payday of HKD 27,900, but none of them were aiming for that, with all gunning for the HKD 7,536,900 top prize.
The busts outs began immediately and did not stop until play concluded. Notables who ran deep, but came up short of the last two tables included Portugal’s Antonio Martins (51st for HKD 33,200), Hong Kong’s Sparrow Cheung (46th for HKD 33,200), China’s Sun Bin (36th for HKD 45,200) and Day 1c and 1b frontrunners Ke Fei Na (34th for HKD 45,200) and Zhang Chao (30th for HKD 45,200) to name but a few.
The man who began the day with the chip lead, Day 2 frontrunner Shi Qiang Lin, enjoyed a deep run but ultimately came up short after getting pocket kings cracked by the ace-king of Du to hit the rail in 14th place for an HKD 87,400 payday.
Hong Kong’s Chi Fu Sze (12th for HKD 107,800) and China’s Ke Wang (11th for HKD 107,800) both came agonizingly close to making the last ten, but fell at the last hurdle.
It was Taiwanese player, Chi Hi Fang, who became the first Final Table casualty, running queen-nine suited into the pocket tens of Wei Ran Pu to depart in 10th place for HKD 107,800.
However, it was Korea’s Jeho Lee who became the last casualty of the day. Lee had flirted with the chip lead himself for a large portion of the day but came to the Final Table as the second shortest stack.
Unfortunately for Lee, after the table shortstack Liang Song cracked Du’s pocket kings with ace-jack to double, it was Lee the man under pressure. The Korean eventually made his last stand with king-ten, but ran into the ace-jack suited of Wang to bring play to a close.
All remaining players are guaranteed a payday of at least HKD 195,200 when play resumes for the final day at 1pm local time, with blinds recommencing on level 28 and will be 30,000/60,000 with a 10,000 running ante. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the tournament floor until a champion is crowned, so join us then.
flop saw Fang catch a piece, but not a big enough piece to take the lead. The 
turn was of no help, and neither was the 
river and the final table is now down to nine. Pu stacked up to 3 million to take the chip lead, while Fang headed for the exit.
and the official eight-handed final table is now set. Lee headed for the cashier to collect his HKD 147,000, while Wang stacked up to 3.34 million, putting him second in the overall counts. 
