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Event #57 Main Event Day 5

Day 5

9:46 AM -- There were 407 players still in the running from Day 4, and they are scheduled to play another 5 levels today. Blinds and ante for each level are as follows: Additional notes from the WSOP on Day 4:

The pace of play during the first two hours of Day 4 (Level 15) was sonic. The tournament played from 789 at the start all the way down to 659 players in that span, which meant 130 players were eliminated. That translated into a bust out about every 52 seconds. Numerous poker superstars still alive � Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier, Kieth Lehr, Phil Ivey, Blair Rodman, Tom Schneider, Dan Harrington, Joe Hachem, Prahlad Friedman, Kenny Tran, Dennis Phillips, David Benyamine, Fabrice Soulier -- all in top 200. Tomorrow (Sunday) begins at noon and is expected to include five levels of play.

10:13 AM -- Also still in the running are 2008 Main Event champion Peter Eastgate (#202) with 397,000 chips, Andy Black (#210) 374,000, Jamin Stokes (#239) 329,000, Jeff Shulman (#242) 314,000, Sorel Mizzi (#248) 305,000, Vitaly Lunkin (#272) 268,000 and Rolf Slotboom (#311) 229,000.

On the short stack are Thomas Koral 77,000, Jeff Kimber 97,000, Can Kim Hua 137,000, Nick Binger 162,000 and J.C. Tran 163,000.

12:00 PM -- Day 5 is underway at level 18. Players will play for 5 levels or 175 players in the field whichever comes first. Contestants were going out on the first hand, meaning that the field might bust as quick as it did yesterday in the first two hours. Blair Hinkle jumped up to over 1.4 million after a hand that ended the bracelet quest of Isidro Martinez who started with 300,000 chips. Player Kevin Schaffel moved up to 1.7 million after eliminating Peter DeBaene who started with 482,000 chips.

Day 4 chip leader Matt Affleck is now over 2 million in chips, continuing his hot streak. Can Kim Hua was not so lucky as he busted out of the event, losing his chips in a 3 way hand where the winner made an Ace high flush.

1:27 PM -- Matthew Waxman who began with 252,000 is now gone, contributing his chips to Adrian Bilzerian after his pocket J's were beaten by the paired A's of Bilzerian. Thor Hansen also was pushed to the rail by the winning hand of Dennis Phillips. Phillips had A K verses Hansen with K Q. Nothing else came to Hansen's rescue and he was gone. Players are going out fast, verified by the WSOP with a current player count of 367.

1:52 PM -- David Levi who started with 180,000 has been vanquished by Clayton Newman after Clayton turned his pocket 10's into a full house (10's/K's). But pocket 10's were no good for Marla Schwartz as she ended up walking to the rail when she could not overcome the pocket J's of Pat O'Malley.

Sorel Mizzi is no longer at the tables as the remainder of his stack was shipped to Scott Cook. Mizzi with A J was no match for Cook who made a set of 9's on the flop. Richard Toth followed Mizzi after Abraham Mourshaki whipped out pocket A's on Toth's K Q. With no other cards to help Toth, Mourshaki vaulted up to 1.2 million and Toth got the boot. Also gone are Andy Black and Jeff Kimber. Player count is now 312.

2:57 PM -- Burt Boutin went into a hand with pocket A's and came out busted from this event. His opponent had pocket K's that turned into a full house by the river (K's/6's) which actually made Boutin jump up and scream, 'How does this happen!'. Then he ran from the table he was playing at. Yeah, it's intense today. How intense? Well, Ben Kang who won a nice sized pot from Dennis Phillips was heard saying 'Yes, yes, YES!' to a friend at the table. He received a penalty for 'excessive celebration' from tournament officials.

3:29 PM -- Action is now at level 19 having blinds at $5,000/$10,000 with a $1,000 ante. Kevin Saul is no longer in the Main Event after losing his chips to Tom Schneider. Kevin had A K to the pocket A's of Tom with 1 million chips on the line. Schneider now is chip leader with 2.2 million chips in his stack. Nick Binger lost to the pocket K's of another player and is also gone.

Phil Ivey seems to have suffered a disconnect in his line with the poker gods as he has fallen from yesterdays 1,276,000 to his current 270,000. He has just not been able to get anything off the ground. Player count is now 276.

4:58 PM -- Dan Harrington is no longer seated in the Main Event. He was busted as he held A Q suited for a flush draw verses the paired Kings of his opponent. Others recently eliminated are Dan Shak, Jordan Rich, Ben Kang, Kara Scott and Jimmy Tran. Player James Akenhead became the first one to pass the 3 million mark in chips. There are 232 still in the field.

5:25 PM -- The top 6 players with chip counts at this time are:
  1. Tom Schneider -- 2,900,000
  2. Matt Affleck -- 2,900,000
  3. James Akenhead -- 2,890,000
  4. Warren Zackey -- 2,700,000
  5. Ben Lamb -- 2,450,000
  6. Tian Shou -- 2,280,000
Others still at the tables include Eugene Katchalov 2,100,000, Nasr El Nasr 2,000,000, Ludovic Lacay 1,500,000, Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier 1,400,000, Jordan Morgan 1,400,000, Eric Cloutier 1,150,000, Fabrice Soulier 1,050,000 and Ian Woodley 1,050,000.

6:35 PM -- Jimmy Tran was headed for the rail unexpectedly. He ended up making a straight, but it was the low end of the same straight that his opponent made. His opponent managed to win with a straight that was Jack high. Markus Gonsalves is out due to the Ace high flush made by Tom Lutz. A few minutes later Tom Lutz got into it with Warren Zackey for a pot that almost reached 4 million! Lutz had A Q of clubs verses the pocket 10's of Zackey, but by the time the river came Zackey became the proud owner of 3.95 million chips and Lutz got the boot. In another 20 minutes, Zackey jumped up to 4.7 million, making him the undisputed chip leader.

Phil Ivey seems to have found his center again as he busted Claudio Baptista with a full house (A's/K's) and is now up to 830,000. Nick Schulman was not so lucky as he walked to the rail after losing to the paired Kings of Marc Etienne McLaughlin. Play is now at level 20 with blinds at $6,000/$12,000 and a $2,000 ante. There are 190 players in the field at this time.

7:02 PM -- Antonio Esfandiari is gone but we couldn't find out the details as to what happened. Player Estelle Denis moved all-in with J.C. Tran and was left grinding her teeth by the time things were done. Evidently Denis called an all-in with Tran and everyone else started mucking their cards. When it came to Denis, the dealer grabbed her cards and mucked them! A tournament director was called immediately and one was there in seconds. After listening to both the player and dealer, the director ruled that the player is 100% responsible for protecting their cards. She argued intensely, but it was of no effect. The one thing the director did was to only remove enough chips to make the initial call and return the rest of her stack to Denis. She was fuming, but at least she has 110,000 left.

After a few more eliminations, the field was close enough to the magic number for tournament officials to have players bag their chips. Play only took place for three levels, but it was intense for everyone on the floor. Still in the game are Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, Warren Zackey, James Akenhead and Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier. We believe Peter Eastgate is there, but not with many chips. This will be confirmed when the Day 6 list of players comes from the WSOP. Good night and we will see you tomorrow!

NOTE: Antonio Esfandiari did not bust out as we reported earlier. In fact, he made Day 6 with 1,227,000 chips

Day 5 Recap

There are 185 players left according to the WSOP. Here are the top 50:

Day 5 Chip Leader Warren Zackey
Day 5 Chip Leader Warren Zackey

  1. Warren Zackey -- 4,872,000
  2. Kasper Cordes -- 4,352,000
  3. Darvin Moon -- 3,218,000
  4. Tom Schneider -- 3,168,000
  5. Bernhard Perner -- 3,022,000
  6. Miika Puumalainen -- 2,894,000
  7. Matt Affleck -- 2,882,000
  8. Charlie Elias -- 2,780,000
  9. James Akenhead -- 2,692,000
  10. Steven Begleiter -- 2,621,000
  11. Eugene Katchalov -- 2,544,000
  12. Noah Boeken -- 2,338,000
  13. Ben Lamb -- 2,271,000
  14. Jamie Robbins -- 2,251,000
  15. Hieu Luu -- 2,181,000
  16. Kevin Schaffel -- 2,141,000
  17. Billy Kopp -- 2,100,000
  18. Reed Hensel -- 2,091,000
  19. Andreas Flakstad -- 2,090,000
  20. Dag Palovic -- 1,896,000
  21. Marc Etienne McLaughlin -- 1,881,000
  22. Francois Balmigere -- 1,871,000
  23. Grayson Ramage -- 1,842,000
  24. Ludovic Lacay -- 1,817,000
  25. Tian Shou -- 1,802,000
  26. Elad Magidov -- 1,762,000
  27. Tommy Vedes -- 1,728,000
  28. Thai Tran -- 1,707,000
  29. Joel Patchell -- 1,701,000
  30. Anh Van Nguyen -- 1,687,000
  31. Hamid Nourafchan -- 1,664,000
  32. Fabrice Soulier -- 1,663,000
  33. Alex Prendes -- 1,661,000
  34. Jason Brice -- 1,637,000
  35. Nichoel Peppe -- 1,630,000
  36. Paul Johnson -- 1,606,000
  37. Joseph Ward -- 1,583,000
  38. Gabriel Vezina -- 1,552,000
  39. Craig Boyd -- 1,545,000
  40. Chuck Clark -- 1,543,000
  41. Jordan Smith -- 1,486,000
  42. Cristian Tardea -- 1,475,000
  43. Hung Pham -- 1,463,000
  44. Bob Whalen -- 1,400,000
  45. Phil Ivey -- 1,380,000
  46. Ryan Fair -- 1,372,000
  47. Scott Cook -- 1,365,000
  48. Jesse Haabak -- 1,357,000
  49. Nasr El Nasr -- 1,329,000
  50. Randy Propson -- 1,326,000