June 13 marked the fifteenth consecutive day of action at the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas. This report will cover most of this action with the exception being final tables which are covered in separate articles. The first of those articles you can find in our Event 21 final table recap, and the other we’ll link to later in this report as we’ll first cover the action leading up to it. Lets get started with 2008 WSOP Event 22, Day 3.

Event #22 $3,000 H.O.R.S.E Day 3

414 players had entered this event and when day three started we were down to just sixteen, and by the end of the night we’d have just on man standing. Let’s quickly run through the first eight eliminations which got us down to our final table of eight.

JJ Hazan was out in 16th when during Holdem his pocket threes ran into Hoyt Corkins pocket jacks, he was followed to the rail by David Levi who was short stacked and lost in a multi way Omaha pot. During Omaha Hi/lo Smith’s J-J-5-8 fell to the A-A-4-10 of Jared Davis when the board ran A 5 8 Q K.

During Razz Mickey Appleman was all in on fifth with a ten low and did not improve, Jenifer Harman made a nine low eliminating him in 13th place.

It took a while till we saw another elimination having cycled all the way back to Holdem. Finally it would be Todd Brunson who finished in 12th when he got all in with AT on a flop of K 7 Q and lost to Marcel Luske’s K9,

The rest of Holdem, all of Omaha, all of Razz and all of Stud passed with no eliminations but during Stud Hi/Lo we saw Eric Froehlich become crippled. When play circled back around to Holdem Froehlich became our 11th place finisher when his 89 fell to Jared Davis’ J9. While still on Holdem Blair Rodman 7s 9s was no match for Jens Voertmann pocket queens and Rodman was out in 10th place.

During Omaha Hi/Lo the board ran Q 5 5 5 J T and at showdown Jennifer Harman’s Ace high was enough to send Paul Zimbler who held K-T-8-7 home in 9th place.

The final table had then be reached, you can read the results by visiting our Event 22 Final Table Recap.

Event #23 $2.000 No Limit Holdem Day 2

134 Day one survivors of the event’s original 1344 players returned to the Rio today where we played till the final table was determined. It would not take long for the money bubble to burst as the top 99 players were paid in this event.

Phil Hellmuth was one of the noteworthy players eliminated early on Day 2 when his pocket fours failed to our race Russell Carson’s AQ and Tim Phan was another noteworthy player who failed to make the money. After 34 players had been eliminated we were hand for hand waiting for the money bubble to burst.

AA vs KK is always a cooler, but its even worst when it comes on the money bubble at the World Series of Poker, which was the experience of Senovio Ramirez today. His pocket kings ran into Andrew Gordon’s pocket aces and the board ran 6-T-3-4-6 leaving Senovio Ramirez as a shell-shocked bubble boy.

Noteworthy players that did not last much longer after the bubble had burst included Bill Gazes who finished in 88th for $4,892, Kent Washington 72nd for $6,115 and Vivek Rajkumar 52nd for $7,583,

Barry Greenstein had been a big stack through out much of the event, but found himself short stacked when he ran into David Steicke. On this hand Greenstein raised 10K from mid position and Steicke flat-called on the button. The flop came 3s 2c 7h and Greenstein lead for 13K and Steicke again called. The turn came 8c and both players checked, Greenstein bet 20K when the river was Jh and once more Steicke called. Greenstein showed Qh Jd and lost the pot when Steicke tabled As Jc. Greenstein was down to just 20K chips on this hand while Steicke was now a big stack with 155K.

A while after this occurred Dylan Bircheff who had become noticeably intoxicated blurted out “I wanna bust Barry and get that book!”. He was referring to a trend this year where each time Greenstein has been eliminated this series he takes out a copy of his book writes the hand out, autographs it and presents it to the opponent who eliminated him. Bircheff was moved to a new table before he’d get the chance and a little while later Chris Dombrowski would earn the copy of the book when he called Greenstein open early position shove. Greenstien had K2 and Dombrowski pocket eights. The board ran Q-6-A-6-2 and Greenstien was eliminated in 46th receiving $7,583.

Andrew Jeffreys had been the chip leader for hours with no one even close to his chip count. Towards the end of the day he lost the chip lead after he doubled up Blair Hinkle when he called an all in with A7 and Hinkle showed AK. Jeffreys would battle back though while Hinkle would lose a big pot to Dustin Dirksen. In the end Hinkle and Jeffereys where neck and neck for the chip lead with Dirksen close on their backs.

The final table bubble broke when Alessandro Dalbello pushed his short stack all in holding A9 and ran into David Steicke’s AK. Here are the chip counts heading into tomorrows final table.

Andrew Jeffreys — 1,051,000
Blair Hinkle — 1,030,000
Dustin Dirksen — 867,000
David Steicke — 611,000
Mark Brockington — 552,000
Daniel O’Brien — 465,000
Stephane Tayar — 323,000
Chris Bjorin — 247,000
Dominik Kulicki — 241,000

Event #24 $2,500 Pot Limit Holdem / Omaha Day 2

84 of the events 457 entrants returned to the Rio today for the day two of Event #24 $2,500 Omaha/Holdem Pot Limit. The days first goal was to break the money bubble as the top 45 players would be paid and the second goal was to play till 9 players remained, who would return for tomorrows final table.

As the day got started some players where happier with their seat drawings then others. For example a couple players were unlucky enough to draw Table #29 which included Ted Forrest, Allen Cunningham, Erik Seidel, Ross Boatman, Minh Ly and Burt Boutin.

During the first hour of play Joe Hachem lost half his stack on an Omaha hand which ended with him making a 9,000 chip bet on a board of Jd 5s 2h Qd 7h and getting called by Kyle Hegeman who showed 55 for a set. Hachem had Ks Kc Ad 4d.

Ted Forrest was one of the noteworthy players to hit the rail early when during Omaha Mihn Ly turned a set of tens which gave Forrest a wrap and a flush draw. The money went in on the turn and when the river blanked Forrest hit the rail.

Stephen McKinney had started the day as the chip leader but lost several pots early and was all put out when he flopped a pair of aces why Howard Lederer had flopped a nut flush.

Two Team Full Tilt Poker players would collide when Erik Seidel called his final chips with pocket nines against Alan Cunningham’s pocket Ad Kh. The board made four diamonds by the turn giving Cunningham the winning nut flush that sent Seidel to the rail.

Talk about a bad beat, on a board of Kh Kc 6h Jh Ah there was a small pot when all of a sudden a raising war broke out between Joe Hachem and Paul Taylor. In the end Hachem showed AK and lost the pot when Taylor revealed a Royal Flush eliminating Hachem. After this hand Hachem told PokerNews reporters that he is kicking himself for raising the river on that hand and said “I should have just called, but I’m not good enough.”. (Jim’s note: I’d love to hear Hachem’s thoughts now that this hand has had some time to sink in. AA is unlikely here and opponent knowing this JJ and KJ seem like possibilities to me. Interesting hand for future discussion anyways.)

About 90 minutes into play the money bubble broke when Brian Schwartz from the big blind tossed his short stack all in with Qd Jh Td 7h against John-Paul Kelly’s Ac Kh 9d 4h. A board of Ts 2h 6d Qh Ah gave Kelly the nut flush sending Schwartz out on the money bubble.

Once the money bubble had broke pace picked up, but this did not last long, as eliminations were well spread out and mostly involved short stacks tossing in this chips preflop during Omaha rounds. Eventually we got down to the final two tables and saw Henning Granstad eliminated in 18th place before Ryan Carey was eliminated in 17th place when his pocket nines unsuccessfully raced Bergerson’s A-K. The next to go was George Rahme who also lost a race, he had AQ and his Kory Mitchell had pocket jacks.

Dustin Sitar exited in 15th place when his pocket sevens where no match for Allen Cunningham’s pocket kings. Play then changed to Omaha and Cunningham would claim another when his A-A-7-4 held up against Kory Mitchell’s J-J-9-7.

This was the first WSOP event Martel de la Chesnaye had ever cashed in, and with a short stack he hung on as long as he could hoping to make a final table. He fell a bit short though, his AT ran into Jonathan Depa’s A-J, sending de la Chesnaye to the rail in 13th place to collect his first $12,087 in career winnings.

Howard Lederer lost many of his chips when Mihn Ly raised from the button with 55 and Lederer re-raised with 44. Ly made a great call and when this hand was complete he had 178K chips and Lederer was crippled. During Omaha Lederer tossed his final 14K chips into the pot with A-K-9-3 lost to Lennart Holtkamp’s K-Q-10-4, which made a full house.

It took over an hour to lose another player and finally it was David Bergerson who was forced to settle for eleventh place and $14,175. On this hand Allen Cunningham limped with A9, Bergerson raised the pot, only to see Cunningham repot which was enough to put Bergerson all in, he called and turned over QJ. An ace on the flop and no help on the draw sent David Bergerson to the rail.

The final table bubble burst shortly thereafter when Dave Penly got his chips all in with A-Q-10-9 and did not catch any help as he watch Kloeckner’s A-A-5-4 hold up.

Here are the chip counts heading into tomorrows final table:

Kyle Kloeckner 494,000
Allen Cunningham 484,000
Lennart Holtkamp 253,000
Max Pescatori 212,000
Kyle Hegeman 198,000
Greg Hurst 197,000
Jonathan “HoosierAlum” Depa 185,000
Minh Ly 174,000
John-Paul Kelly 79,000

Event #25 $10K Heads Up NLHE Championship Day 1

Event #25 $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em World Championship got its start today with 256 entrants. When the day was finished we had played three rounds of heads up matches with the field narrowed down to just 32 players. Tomorrow players will play down to the final four and the tournament will conclude the following day. Here we’ll give a run day or the day’s key action and results.

Round 1 – Field of 256 players

One of the more degenerate things we’ve seen in a while, but with their skill level and the other tournaments to be played we hardly blame them, saw Michael Mizrachi and Eugene Todd to agree to just go all in blind to decide the round. Mizrachi turned up 82 and was surprisingly ahead of Todd’s 34. The 82 held up and Mizrachi advanced to round 2.

James “mig.com” Mackey followed Eugene Todd to the rail early when his A6 suited failed to outdraw his opponent Christopher Moore’s pocket jacks, they were all in preflop. Shorty after we saw Antoine Berube defeat Bradley Berman, Andrey Zaichenko defeat Josh Arieh, Vijay Krishna defeat Craig Gray, Brian Powell defeat Chris McCormack and Thomas Lutz defeat Anthony Guetti.

Alec Torelli had no trouble eliminating Team PokerStars player Chad Brown. On the final hand brown limped from the button with pocket tens and the flop came Kh Qs Qd. Torelli bet 800 and brown moved all in. It was an easy call for Torelli as he tabled Q2, the turn and river came 5-6 and Brown eliminated, advancing Torelli to round two.

Daniel Negreanu had the misfortune of flopping top pair with Qc Td on a flop of Qh 8d 2d only to find his opponent Nicolas Levi table pocket Aces. Ouch! Not a good start for Team PokerStars as Negreanu also hit the rail.

Shortly later is was announced a new champion would be crowned as defending champion Daniel Schreiber was a round one elimination courtesy of Emil Patel. We then saw Farzad Bonyadi defeat Peter Jetten, Jonathan Goldberg defeat. David Daneshgar, Nam Le defeat Anthony Phillips, Roger McDow defeat John Kabbaj, and Steve Fiorentini defeat Andrew Robl.

Shannon Elizabeth’s dance with the poker stars ended early as she got her remaining chips in good preflop against Jeff Lisandro with A5 vs K6, but was unlucky when the board ran 4d 8h 9s Kh 3h to send our favorite poker babe home as a first round elimination. Meanwhile Michael McNeil got his money in with pocket nines and eliminated Nicholas Stille who held A8.

Moving along quickly… we saw the following victories/eliminations:

Brian Roberts def. Taylor Caby
Garrett Adelstein def. John Bird
Patryk Hildebranski def. Matthew Bucaric
Rodeen Talebi def. CardRunners pro Eric Liu
Sirious Jamshidi def. Steven Weusten
David Podgurski def. Guillaume Patry
Dario Minieri def. Steve Sarrafzadeh
Antonio Esfandiari def. Marco Traniello
David Singer def. Erik Cajelais
Jennifer Tilly def. Andrew Borrock
Layne Flack def. Herbert Gelman
Keith Hawkins def. Jason Glass
John Gordon def. Demetriou Chardimos
George Adams def. Lee Markholt
Victor Ramdin def. Michael McKenna
Johannes Strassmann def. Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy
Alioscia Oliva def. Scott Clements
Guillaume de la Gorce def. Jason Paster
James Guinther def. Barny Boatman
Markus Lehmann def. Keith Block
Eric Kesselman def. Aleksandr Bolotin
Mark Fratter def. Rick Rahim

Next we saw two players fall both holding J8 for a club flush draw. The first was Brandon Potter when his Jc 8s fell on a flop of 2c 7c 8c, his opponent Ludovic Lacay had pocket aces with a higher flush draw. The next was David Benyamine who had Jc 8c on a flop of Ac 7d 2c and his opponent tabled 2h 7s for an ugly two paid. Unable to catch up David Benyamine was also a round one elimination.

JC Tran took out Sorel Mizzi when his AK outraced Mizzi’s pocket jacks and Chris Ferguson advanced when he held pocket aces and got his opponent to commit Keith Helgevold to commit his remaining chips with pocket sixes. Meanwhile Thomas Kelly defeated Greg Raymer, John Patgorski defeated Robert Fellner before Phil Laak also became a round one elimination when he KJ ran into Mans Montgomery’s AJ.

WSOP Europe Main Event runner-up John Tabatabai moved on to round two when his pocket rockets defeated Jonathan Little’s pocket threes and Gavin Smith also moved on when he got his money all in with AQ on a flop of A Q x against his opponent Ken Shei’s AJ. We finally saw a Team PokerStars member advance when Gavin Griffin and Jimmy Dowda both flooped top pair but Griffin’s K9 hand Dowda’s K4 outkicked and Griffin advanced while Dowda headed for the rail.

Sammy Farha defeated Michael Pickett when his 66 outraced Pickett’s AT

As the round finished

Anna Wroblewski defeated Alan Meltzer
Stuart Marshak Defeats Jamie Gold
Jean-Claude Moussa Defeats Kenneth Smaron
Joseph Patrick Defeats Frank Kassela

One other elimination to report involved a situation that got Freddy Deeb steaming. Towards the end of round one when only a dozen or so tables remained there had been a 20 minute break. Some how Freddy Deeb, his opponent Matt Giannetti and their dealer had no idea a break was going on. When the break had started Deeb had a 4 to 1 chip lead and 10 minutes into it had had dropped to a 2 to 1 advantage when a floor supervisor came over and insisted the players not continue until the break was complete. Deeb demanded that his chips be returned because they were not allowed to have been playing when they were lost, which obviously did not happen. Deeb stormed off on break and when he returned he quickly gave up his chip lead and was shortly later eliminated.

Moving on to Round 2: Field of 128

Vanessa Selbst was the first player to move on to round three. On the very first hand of round two the flop came Tc 6d 5d and Alessio Isala check-raised Selbst who decided to just call. He then lead on a turn of Kh and Selbst smooth called. The river was 7c Isala checked, Selbst moved all in and after tanking a bit Isala called and then mucked after Selbst turned up Ks Jd.

Next, Theo Tran eliminated Andy Bloch when they got their chip in on the turn. Bloch had flopped a set of fours but Tran had turned a wheel, and it was still good when the river card was dealt. Meanwhile we saw the following early round 2 results:

Justin Adams defeated Vadim Trincher
Evan Sofer defeated Peter “Nordberg” Feldman
Jean-Claude Moussa defeated. Rodeen Talebi
Kenny Tran defeated Mathias Andersson
Alexander Kostritsyn defeated Keith Tilston
Justin Adams def. Vadim Trincher
Evan Sofer def. Peter “Nordberg” Feldman
Jean-Claude Moussa def. Rodeen Talebi

Daniel “Ansky” Stern got his money all in with pocket aces on a flop of Jh 9c 6c but had some cards to dodge when his opponent Thomas Bentham tabled 5c 7c. The turn and river came Ah 5s, Stern advanced and Bentham hit the rail. Shortly later we saw aces again when Carlos Mortensen got his money all in with them and eliminated David Singer who held A6.

More victories/eliminations

Jonas Danielsson defeated Lance Treankler
Michael McNeil defeated Eric Kesselman
Jonathan Jaffe defeated Kevin O’Donnell
Alec Torelli defeated Christopher Moore
Max Katz defeated Ludovic Lacay
Blake Cahail defeated Steve Fiorentini
Erik Pettersson defeated Alex Kravchenko
Marc Fratter defeated John Tabatabai
Emil Patel defeated Victor Ramdin
Brian Roberts defeated Keith Hawkins
Scott Montgomery defeated Cristian Rajala
Clonie Gowen defeated John Gordon
Alex Jacob defeated Markus Lehmann
Brandon Adams defeated Dario Minieri

Next we saw Phil Gordon check raise himself all in on a flop of 9-7-3 and Justin Bonomo make the call. Gordon tabled Q8 for a bluff and Bonomo showed 96 for top pair which held up eliminating Phil Gordon.

Michael Mizarachi eliminated Tex Barch and then headed over to his brother’s table (Robert Mizrachi) and jokingly pulled a seat up next to his brother’s opponent Jeff Lisandro as if he was going to sweat his cards, this got a good laugh from the crowd.

David Williams advanced when his AK outraced Andrew Rosskamm pocket tens and Dustin Dorrance-Bowman advanced when his Ace high outkicked John Hennigan’s lower ace high.

Alexander Veldhuis defeated Cole South
Ketul Nathwani defeated Kwang Lee
John Patgorski defeated Richard Siegel
Isaac Haxton defeated Nathan Doudney
Ryan Young defeated Jorryt van Hoof
Joe Patrick, Jr. def. Nicolas Levi
Gavin Griffin def. Jonathan Goldberg
David Podgurski def. Vijay Krishna
Matt Gianetti def. Eugene Katchalov
Jesse McGinty defeated Layne Flack

A collision occurred when Robert Mizrachi held KT and Lisandro K8 on a flop of K42. The money went all in on the flop and the turn was a ten. The river came an eight, which just rubbed a little salt in the wounds seeing as the hand was already over. Robert Mizrachi advanced and Lisandro headed to the rail.

More victories/eliminations

Chris Bush defeated Tony G
Lyle Berman defeated Stephen Wolff
Antonio Esfandiari defeated Johannes Strassman
De La Gorce defeated Delagrossly
Thomas Lutz eliminated Ari Goott
Mark Teltscher defeated Mans Montgomery
Sam Farha defeated Alioscia Oliva
Phil Galfond defeated Suk Sung
Erick Lindgren defeated Stuart Marshak
Nam Le defeated Gavin Smith

Michael Binger found himself on the rail when his A6 failed to out race Patrick White’s pocket deuces. Ferguson found himself once again advancing with pocket Aces, this time it was Garrett Adelstein who hit the rail having held pocket 3’s.

The day concluded with Jason Rosenkrantz eliminating Asger Boye and Anna Wroblewski eliminating Farzad Bonyadi.

Round 3 – Field of 64

All players eliminated during round three earned $14,438 while the winners were guaranteed at least a $21,657 and a seat in tomorrows round of 32.

During this round we saw a few quick eliminations when:

Matt Giannetti defeated Marc Fratter
Brandon Adams defeated Carlos Mortensen
Evan Sofer defeated Max Kats
Michael McNeil defeated Antoine Berube

Clonie Gowen’s day came to an end when she pushed all in on a board of 9h 7h 7c 3d 6h and Alexander Kostritsyn sniffed out the bluff and called with pocket tens. Thomas Lutz holding T3 defeated Blake Cahail holding A9 when they got all their chips all in on a board of T 9 8 T, Lutz would also make quads on the river but had not needed them as Cahail was dead on the turn. On a flop of Js Ts 2d Lyle Berman got his chips with Kh Qs for a straight draw and was called by Christopher Bush holding As 9s for a flush draw. The turn was Kd giving Berman the lead and he’d advanced to the road of 32 when the river came Jc.

More victories/eliminations

Jean-Claude Moussa defeated Sirous Jamshidi
David Podgurski defeated Justin Adams
Isaac Haxton defeated Mark Teltscher
Emil Patel defeated Antonio Esfandiari
Kenny Tran Dustin Dorrance-Bowma

Jesse McGinty saw his day come to an end when he moved all in preflop for 16K with Qs 6s only to run into Michael Banducci’s pocket aces. Every elimination hand this tournament involving Chris Ferguson involved pocket aces, unfortunately for him on round three it would be his opponent Andy Black who held them while he held pocket queens. Ferguson received $14,438 for his round three finish.

More victories/eliminations

Daniel “Ansky” Stern defeated Jonas Danielsson
John Patgorski defeated Alexander Veldhuis
Roman Paradiso defeats Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf
Vanessa Selbst defeated Ketul Nathwan
Michael Mizrachi defeated Pat White
Jonas Entin defeated Phil Galfond
Gavin Griffin defeated Brian Powell
Jonathan Jaffe defeated Joseph Patrick, Jr
Robert Mizrachi defeated Travis Rice

Theo Tran lead for 2500 on a board of 8c 7s 3s 2s, David Williams came over the top for 20K enough to put Tran all in, Tran called and Williams showed Js 4s for a flush and Tran mucked not even waiting for the river. Erick Lindgren advanced to the round of 32 when he got his money all in with AK against Erik Pettersson AJ. Anna Wroblewski ran into some bad luck when she got her money all in AQ vs AT and was safe until a ten landed on the river. She was eliminated and her opponent Scott Montgomery advanced.

The day finished when:

Alec Torelli defeated J.C. Tran
Alex Jacob defeated Guillaume de la Gorce
Brian Roberts defeated Ryan Young
Jason Rosenkrantz defeated Justin Bonomo
Cliff Cantor defeated Nam Le
Sam Farha defeats Randall Brueckner

The round of 32 will be played tomorrow with the following match ups:

Jason Rosenkrantz vs. Brandon Adams
Emil Patel vs. Michael Banducci
Roman Paradiso vs. Sam Farha
Kenny Tran vs. Erick Lindgren
Thomas Lutz vs. John Patgorski
Gavin Griffin vs. Alexander Kostritsyn
Andy Black vs. Michael McNeil
Alex Jacob vs. Jonathan Jaffe
Brian Roberts vs. Alec Torelli
Scott Montgomery vs. Isaac Haxton
Daniel “Ansky” Stern vs. David Williams
Lyle Berman vs. David Podgurski
Jean-Claude Moussa vs. Robert Mizrachi
Jonas Entin vs. Evan Sofer
Cliff Cantor vs. Vanessa Selbst
Matt Giannetti vs. Michael Mizrachi

Event #26 $1500 Razz Day 1

The first and only Razz event on the 2008 WSOP schedule kicked off today with a record setting 453 entrants, to the best of our knowledge the most entrants for any live Razz tournament ever. Last year’s WSOP Razz event had 341 entrants and was won by Team PokerStars’ Katja Thater, who showed up again today to defend her bracelet.

A lot of players grow frustrated quickly with Razz while others enjoy it as it’s an action game. The honest truth, covering the early stages of a fixed limit Razz tournament, as in a report that come out after the day has been completed like this one here ranks right up there with twiddling thumbs, watching paint dry and trying to guess just how many jellybeans that jar contains. With this in mind this report will be a bit shorted than usual.

As is the nature of fixed limit, it would take a while for eliminations to occur. One of the early ones was a big one as Katja Thater was sent to the rail, meaning we’d have a new Razz champion by events end. It would take till just before the dinner break before other big name players started dropping, the first being Men the Master. He was eliminated when his A235 only made a 9-5 low and his opponent made A2458 for and 8-5 low. We’re not sure the hands involved, but other noteworthy players eliminated before or just after the break included Phil Ivey and Mark Gregorich..

Chris Ferguson had been one of the event’s late entrants. After getting short stacked early he abandoned the tournament as he was also engaged in the $10K buy-in Heads-up Championship. Mark Vos had been short stacked most of the day, tripled up at one point but also would not survive the day.

Michael Binger was eliminated when he got all his chips in short stacked with A238 but would catch 2KJ and go down to Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul’s 2478T low. Doyle Brunson hit the rail shortly later when he put all his chips in on sixth street drawing dead, he showed 8-7-6-5-3 and his opponent 6-5-4-2-A.

Greg Raymer was eliminated on the final hand of Level 5, and with that we saw Level 6 raise the stakes raised to 75 ante, 100 bring in with 300 complete. Shortly there after Nick Schulman, Chip Jett, and Billy Baxter had been eliminated as well.

David Levi managed to make $100 when he gave a Allen Bari 10 to 1 odds that the bring-in would not win the next hand. The-bring in folded on fourth and Bari immediately handed Levi over a crisp Benjamin Franklin and smiled. Shortly later Todd Brunson joined his father on the rail when his A347 caught 7JT, his opponent had a 9-6-5-3-A.

A couple hours later Huck Seed, Berry Johnston, Chad Brown, Ted Forrest had all been eliminated and we were on to Level 8. This is when Allen Bari offered another pro a prop bet which was accepted. With 170 players to go John Juanda is risking $75K to win Allen Bari’s $500 that Bari will not win the tournament outright. Each player insisted they have the best of it. A little while later Juanda was eliminated by David Levi so he’ll have to sweat the $75K he has at risk from the rail.

Other eliminations just before the night ended included Kenna James, Jon ‘Pearljammer’ Turner, Greg Pappas and Tom McEvoy. Other noteworthy players who did not survive the day but we’re not sure when they were eliminated include JohnnyBax, Hasan Habib, Chau Giang, Alexander Kranchenko, Ralph Perry, Berry Johnston, Bill Edler, Marco Traniello, Perry Friedman, Miami John Cernuto, Erich Kollman, Roland de Wolfe, Roy Winston, Dario Minieri, Mel Judah and Annie Duke.

When the day finished the top ten chip counts were:

Barry Greenstein 31,600
David Levi 30,200
Mark Gerencher 29,700
Allie Prescott 29,200
Anthony Viganola 28,600
Vanessa Rousso 28,200
Mike Wattel 27,000
Frank Kassela 26,200
Martin Stilling 23,100
Sam Grizzle 22,900

104 players survived the day and they’ll return tomorrow at 3PM where the final table will be decided.