Zinan Xu Leads the Final 40 Players in Event #34: $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold'em
It was an action-packed Day 3 in Event #34: $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold'em that saw a field of 381 players dwindle down to just 40. From the total of 6,214 entries, players will now return tomorrow for Day 4 where a final table of six will be formed in their quest for a World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
Heading into Day 4 with the chip lead is Zinan Xu who bagged up a whopping 16,775,000 chips. While Xu still calls China home, he spends the majority of his time playing poker in the Las Vegas area. He has amassed over $310,000 in career earnings with his largest payday of $56,000. A deep run in this event could vault Xu to new heights in his poker career.
For the better part of the day, Xu remained under the radar with an average stack. He didn't make an appearance at the top of the leaderboard until the final couple of levels. Xu finally took over the chip lead in a huge three-bet pot with Rotem Chen. Xu check-called the flop and after two checks on the turn, bombed the river to get Chen to fold.
Not far behind Xu is Ido Ashkenazi who bagged up 13,700,000. Ashkenazi got the majority of his chips from a monster pot against Ari Engel, Ashkenazi holding pocket aces against Engel's ace-king. Ashkenazi doubled up into the chip lead at the time and Engel would go on to be eliminated moments later.
Some other big stacks moving on to Day 4 include Edgardo Rosario (13,100,000), Matthew Wantman (13,075,000), and Ryan Jaconetti (12,475,000). Joseph Cheong will certainly be one to keep an eye on as he bagged a top-ten stack with 11,175,000. Cheong took down a monster pot to cap the night in order to vault himself up the leaderboard. Cheong went runner-runner flush to eliminate his opponent who flopped a set of jacks.
When 381 players returned to the felt to begin the day, they were all in the money already, guaranteed $2,669. Some of the big names to head to the payout desk throughout the day include Jake Schwartz, Freddy Deeb, Eric Baldwin, Jessica Dawley, Richard Dubini, Anson Tsang, and Marvin Rettenmaier. When the remaining 40 players return to the felt they will have all locked up a payday of $15,488 but their sights will be set on the first-place prize of $687,782.
The action will resume at 12 p.m. tomorrow with the blinds resuming on level 32. The blinds will be 100,000/200,000 with a big blind ante of 200,000. The levels will continue to be 40 minutes in length and the action will cease once the final six are reached. Follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team to find who will reach the final day of the tournament.