Mizzi Leads, Buddiga and Haxton Make GDAM Final 8

On a blazing fast day at the Guangdong Asia Millions that saw 51 players cut to 8 in just over six hours Mizzi managed to hold on with the big stack for the final table but it's anything but a big advantage.

With just 28 big blinds Mizzi's grip on the lead when play starts tomorrow will be tenuous and he'll have a number of pros biting at his heels.

Buddiga and Haxton Alive But Short

Former Scripps Spelling Bee champ Pratyush Buddiga is one of them, making it through the wild day with a 13m-chip stack after busting Rono Lo on the final-table bubble with aces.

It was a painful bubble for the animated and unorthodox Lo as he missed out on a min-cash of roughly $775,000, of which the final eight are now assured.

Squeezing his way onto the final table after being the big stack for much of the day but losing some substantial pots late was Isaac Haxton.

The Team PokerStars Online pro will have just seven big blinds to start the final table tomorrow but isn't even the short stack as Anson Tsang has only six.

German high-roller specialists Niklas Heinecker and Igor Kurganov are also along for the ride as are Aussie Jeff Rossiter and local Zheng Tang.

The official final eight and chip counts:

1 - Sorel Mizzi, Canada, 28,200,000 (28 BBs) 2 - Zheng Tang, China, 24,300,000 (24 BBs) 3 - Igor Kurganov, Germany, 18,400,000 (18 BBs) 4 - Niklas Heinecker, Germany, 15,275,000 (15 BBs) 5 - Pratyush Buddiga, USA, 13,050,000 (13 BBs) 6 - Jeffrey Rossiter, Australia, 12,825,000 (13 BBs) 7 - Isaac Haxton, USA, 7,075,000 (7 BBs) 8 - Anson Yan Shing Tsang, Hong Kong, 5,750,000 (6 BBs)

With a $15.4 million prize pool the winner is in line to earn roughly USD $4.5 million if a deal isn't cut. All of the top six will take home seven figures. The payouts:

1 - $34,600,000 HKD ($4,464,516 USD) 2 - $24,500,000 ($3,161,290) 3 - $16,100,000 ($2,077,419) 4 - $12,525,000 ($1,616,129) 5 - $10,200,000 ($1,316,129) 6 - $8,300,000 ($1,070,968) 7 - $7,150,000 ($922,581) 8 - $6,000,000 ($774,194)

Among the notables just missing out on the money today were Anthony Gregg, Brian Powell, Max "altifc" Altergott, Gus Hansen and Greg Merson.

Tune in tonight at midnight PT right here on PokerListings to catch the playdown to the winner on the live stream!

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