Spencer Lawrence raised it up from the button preflop and Thang Luu defended his blind. They saw a flop of and both players checked.
The turn was the and Luu checked over to Lawrence, who fired out 100,000. Luu made the call.
The river delivered the and Luu checked again. Lawrence thought for several minutes and eventually resigned to check it also. He said, "Ace-queen," as he flipped A-Q-6-5. It was good enough to collect the pot as he gets this contest back on an even keel.
It appears that Spencer Lawrence has decided to take a different approach towards this heads-up battle. When we begun heads-up play, Lawrence was playing a lot of pots loose and aggresively. He was doing a lot of raising and bluffing at pots. After taking some early hits, he has seemed to tightened up his strategy a lot and as a result he has pulled back to even in chips with Luu. This promises to be a long heads-up battle. Stay tuned to see the conclusion.
Thang Luu raised it up from the button and Spencer Lawrence made the call. They took a flop of and Lawrence checked the action to Luu who made a continuation bet. Lawrence then announced a check-raise, which Luu quickly called.
The turn brought the and again Lawrence bet out and Luu called.
The river landed the and Lawrence bet for a third time. Luu went into the tank, clearly not happy with the river, before eventually sliding a stack of pinks into the middle to make the call.
Lawrence calmly said "nuts" as he revealed for the wheel low and a six-high straight for the high. Luu mucked his cards and Lawrence recovers some chips, moving close to 1 million in chips. Luu still holds the lead with about 1.5 million.
This is proving to be a fascinating heads-up battle. Both players have played an aggressive game, with Thang Luu relentless in his approach. Luu rarely ever folds his blind and is prepared to gamble it up with any cards to try and connect with a flop.
Lawrence had to battle harder to accumulate his stack, but since he got hold of his chips he has not given them up easily. His game is tight and solid and will be difficult to crack!
Thang Luu strikes the first major blow of the heads-up battle on a board of . After Spencer Lawrence had bet the turn, Luu was the aggressor on the river, firing a 100,000 chip bet into Lawrence after he had checked.
Lawrence went into the tank for a long, long time. He eventually sighed and gave up his hand.
"I think you were on a bluff," he queried but Luu, who has been quite jovial at the final table today, gave him nothing. It's game on!
George Guzman went all in preflop against Spencer Lawrence. He stated, "Number 19." Guzman has been all in at least 18 times already today and either chopped or doubled up.
Guzman:
Lawrence:
Board:
The on the turn gave Lawrence a full house and ended Guzman's run in today's main event.
Guzman said after the hand, "19 wasn't a good one."
With the blinds so high, James Pritchard had to make a stand and he decided to push the last of this chips into the middle from the small blind with . Thang Luu made the call from the big blind and tabled .
The board ran out and Luu's pair of kings hold to collect the pot and send James Pritchard home after a great tournament in fourth place for $78,456 in prize money.