This is the chip distribution entering level 31:

1. Steve Daraiche – 3,550,000
2. Xin Qi – 1,025,000

We are on a short break in Event 12, and although there haven’t been any big pots between the two, Xin has chipped up quite a bit in the last level. Here are the updated chip counts:

1. Xin Qi – 3,735,000
2. Steve Daraiche – 1,130,000

Xin Qi min-raised from the button, and Gregory went all-in for 760K from the big blind. It took a moment of thought before Xin made the call to go heads-up to the flop.

Xin:

Gregory:

Both players hit the board, but Xin’s three of a kind was good enough to take the pot.

We are now heads-up between Xin Qi (2,445,000) and Steve Daraiche (2,420,000).

3rd place: Gregory Katayama, $11,555

Here are the stacks going into level 27:

• Seat 2. Gregory Katamaya – 995,000
• Seat 3. Xin Qi – 1,525,000
• Seat 8. Steve Daraiche – 2,055,000

Gregory Katayama was on the brink of elimination a few hands ago, as his stack was reduced to just over 100K. He has doubled up three times since in almost as many hands, and is now back close to the average.

Here is an update on the current chip counts:

• Seat 2. Gregory Katayama – 1,335,000
• Seat 3. Xin Qi – 1,250,000
• Seat 8. Steve Daraiche – 1,990,000

After seeing 1,05M of his chips go to Xin Qi the hand before, when his fell victim to , Kyle Chang was left with only around 250K in the big blind. Action folded around to Steve Daraiche in the small blind, who bet more than Kyle owned to put some pressure on him. Kyle made the call, and they were off to the races:

Steve:

Kyle:

Board:

4th place: Kyle Chang, $8,600

With a stack south of 10 big blinds, James McDermott moved in from the small blind in a unopened pot. Steve Daraiche, who was in the big blind with a monster stack, made the call.

James:

Steve:

Steve improved his hand on the board to eliminated James and bring the final table down to 4 players.

5th place: James McDermott, $6,400

Here are the chip counts of the final 5 players in Event 12:

Final Table

• Seat 1. Alexandre Bedard – eliminated in 6th – $4,800
• Seat 2. Gregory Katayama – 230,000
• Seat 3. Xin Qi – 1,101,000
• Seat 4. Mike Fraser – eliminated in 8th – $2,600
• Seat 5. Gary Lucci – eliminated in 10th – $1,500
• Seat 6. James McDermott – 295,000
• Seat 7. Thanh-Phong Bui – eliminated in 9th – $2,000
• Seat 8. Steve Daraiche – 1,890,000
• Seat 9. Richard Leger – eliminated in 7th – $3,600
• Seat 10. Kyle Chang – 1,055,000