Liu Doubles Through Lifu
The tournament clock was still showing 20-minutes until the end of level 18 when play went hand-for-hand and the action slowed considerably as the players went from table to table to check out each other’s stack sizes and work out their strategy.
While play was scheduled to finish at the end of level 18 it was decided that the remaining 64-players would play until the bubble burst to end the day and level 18 ticked over into level 19.
It looked like the bubble would burst right on the last hand of the level as there was an all-in and a call over on table one with Qiang Liu moving all-in for his last 80,000 from late position with neighboring Liu Lifu making the call.
Tension rose as the two waited for the rest of the tables to finish playing out their hands before they could turn the cards over and a crowd quickly gathered around. Eventually, the cards were revealed:
Qiang Liu: 
Liu Lifu: 
Liu was the at risk player and was not in the best of shape, and this got a whole lot worse on the 
flop, and although Liu paired his ten Lifu had a flush draw and open-ended straight draw to go with his bigger pair.
However, the timely arrival of the 
turn brought oohs and aahs from the watching rail and put Liu firmly in front, where he remained when the river ran out 
to grant him a timely double and keep play hand-for-hand, much to the disappointment of some the tournament’s remaining short stacks.