Christian Rudolph limped the small blind and Aliaksei "BladeRunner1" Boika checked behind out of the big blind to see a flop of . Rudolph opted for a check-call for 100,000 and did so again for 323,750 on the turn.
The river was checked b Rudolph and Boika checked behind with the for trips fours, as Rudolph raked in the pot with for a flush.
Christian Rudolph defended his big blind a cutoff min-raise by Chris Hunichen and they checked the flop.
Rudolpg bet the turn for 202,950 and Hunichen raised to 648,000, which resulted in a call by Rudolph.
On the river, Rudolph slowed down once more and Hunichen bet 1,224,000 into 1,911,000 to send his opponent into the think tank. As the remaining time bank dropped to one second, Rudolph called and was good with . Hunichen had bluffed with for the nut flush blocker and fell behind Rudolph in the overall leaderboard.
Shankar "Saquon" Pillai raised to 320,000 from under the gun and Jack Salter three-bet to 1,762,548 from the cutoff, keeping 80,000 behind. The action folded back to Pillai who four-bet to put Salter all-in who tanked for a while and then called for the rest.
Jack Salter:
Shankar "Saquon" Pillai:
The board ran out for Pillai to flop top pair and improve to trips on the river to burst the final table bubble.
Salter vs Pillai
The nine remaining players will finish the final table next Saturday, August 29.
The final table of Event #70: $25,000 NLH POKER PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP has been set after a lengthy bubble with Jason Koon claiming the chip lead with 7,863,055 in chips. This prominent event offered players a gargantuan guarantee of $10,000,000 and attracted 407 entries by the end of the registration period.
Koon is no stranger to the high buy-in tournament fields with over $31 million in live cashes according to The Hendon Mob and a plethora of online tournament wins. Koon started climbing up to the top of the counts and got there when there were only ten tables left and never really looked back.
Koon is joined on the final table by many more familiar names and faces like Shankar "Saquon" Pillai, Christian Rudolph, Aram "Pusha T" Zobian, Chris Hunichen, Aleksejs Ponakovs, Aliaksei "BladeRunner1" Boika, Paulis "ChickenBBQ" Plausinaitis, and Brunno Botteon.
The Final Nine Players at a Glance
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Jason Koon
United States
7,863,055
39
2
Shankar "Saquon" Pillai
United States
6,875,234
34
3
Christian Rudolph
Germany
5,544,188
28
4
Aram "Pusha T" Zobian
United States
4,405,440
22
5
Chris Hunichen
United States
4,175,274
21
6
Aleksejs Ponakovs
Latvia
3,883,951
19
7
Aliaksei "BladeRunner1" Boika
Belarus
3,297,276
16
8
Paulius "ChickenBBQ" Plausinaitis
Lithuania
2,905,555
15
9
Brunno Botteon
Brazil
1,750,027
9
From the Start to the Bubble
The tournament kicked off as expected but shortly after the start, some technical difficulties caused for all tournaments to pause their action with the cards to start flying again just after the first scheduled break of the day. By the time the registration period closed, there were 171 players left to battle it out for a spot in the top 55 as those spots would get paid at least $57,592.
It would take just over 2.5 hours before it was time for the bubble with 57 players left in the field. Dan Smith busted to Pillai when he called the shove of the latter with sixes. Pillai held ace-ten and found another ace on the flop to connect with. The bubble would end up lasting fifteen minutes as Michael Addamo three-bet shoved with ace-jack and was called by Ponakovs who held ace-king. The king-kicker came into play to burst the bubble.
Michael Addamo Bubbles Event #70: $25,000 NLH POKER PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP
Outbreak of Eliminations
After the bubble burst, the gust of eliminations started flying in. Within 50 minutes, 33 players busted with the bracelet winners like Davidi KitaiJames Chen, Thai Ha, Kartik "Mandovi" Ved, David Peters, and Hun Wei Lee as some of the more notable names to leave the tournament.
Another 30 minutes later, the field had been reduced to the final two tables with Chris "nelanio" Ferguson, Jake Schindler, Stephen Chidwick, and Thomas Muehloecker all falling.
Battle for a Spot at the Final Table
Alexandru "Bot Marley" Papazian, Scott Seiver, Michel "CrossfireX" Dattani, Song "xuesong" Xue, "AntreVolt", and John "Hamburger!" Thrower all busted in quick succession to get the tournament down to the final table bubble.
That bubble ended up lasting forty minutes and even though Jack Salter doubled up once, in the end, his three-bet put him effectively all-in as he kept enough chips behind to pay one small blind. He made the call for the remainder with pocket eights, when Pillai put him at risk. Pillai held ace-jack and flopped top pair and even improved to trips on the river for a prettier picture.
Jack Salter bubbles the final table and cashes $126,773
When the players return on Saturday, August 29 at 6 p.m. UTC, they will battle it out for the top prize of $1,800,290 while they have already secured at least $154,416. They will resume play on Level 37 which features a small blind of 100,000, a big blind of 200,000, and a running ante of 25,000. The blinds will increase after every 30 hands.
This is what they are all still competing for:
Place
Prize
1
$1,800,290
2
$1,332,097
3
$979,138
4
$719,700
5
$529,005
6
$388,837
7
$285,808
8
$210,079
9
$154,416
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back again for the final table action so make sure to come back to see who will take this tournament down and add the coveted WSOP bracelet to their collection in addition to the first-place prize that comes with it and the WSOP Europe package here on GGPoker.
. Rudolph opted for a check-call for 100,000 and did so again for 323,750 on the 
turn.
river was checked b Rudolph and Boika checked behind with the 
for trips fours, as Rudolph raked in the pot with 
for a flush.
, it was checked to Ponakovs who bet 119,625 which only Koon called.
and Koon check-called the 376,750 continuation-bet of Ponakovs.
, it was checked to Ponakovs who continued with a bet of 225,000 which only Koon check-called.
on the turn to the 
on the river. Koon bet 431,250 for Ponakovs to raise it up to 1,186,725 for Koon to fold.
flop.
river, Rudolph slowed down once more and Hunichen bet 1,224,000 into 1,911,000 to send his opponent into the think tank. As the remaining time bank dropped to one second, Rudolph called and was good with 
. Hunichen had bluffed with 
river, Ponakovs checked and folded when facing a bet of 420,000.
