Mourshaki was in early position and fired out a raise of 22,000.  It folded around to Hellmuth who was in late position and he flat called.  This is all hindsight of course, but just calling gave everyone behind Hellmuth, including two blinds, the odds to make the call regardless of what their hands were.  With the amount of money he had left, the move here was for him to push all in and try and get heads-up.  Instead, he wanted as many people as possible in the pot and that never bodes well for AA.

Once Hellmuth called, 3 more players joined the dance to a flop of Jc10d5c. This is precisely the type of flop that you do not want to see with AA.  Flush and straight draw on the board and someone very well may be sitting with J10.  Hellmuth was about to find out the hard way that he made a mistake and it was going to cost him the tournament.

Once the flop hit, Jenkins was first to act and immediately pushed all in.  The original raiser and the one person that Hellmuth would have more than likely been heads-up against, Mourshaki, folded his hand and then Hellmuth pushed the rests of his chips into the pot (110,000).  Gomez let his hand go and Hsiung made the call putting both players at risk for elimination.

The cards were turned and Hellmuth saw his worst nightmare come true.  Jenkins had flopped an open ended straight and was holding 89h, Hellmuth of course had AA with the A of clubs and Hsiung was holding the winning hand at the moment, Jh10c.  The turn card fell and gave Jenkins the lead with a 7d.  Hellmuth was drawing dead for the outright win at this point and Hsiung was down to 4 outs.  However, he had Hellmuth covered so Phil had a small shot at the rest of the board pairing or possibly hitting one of the remaining two A’s to get a small piece and survive.  Neither happened as the river was a 3s and Phil was shown the rail.  If Phil had pushed all in preflop, he probably would have been able to get Mourshaki isolated and would more than likely have lived to see another day.

While Hellmuth was being shown the door, Ivey has continued on and is not one of the chip leaders of the tournament.  He now has 1,276,000 and if far and away the best of the remaining 400 or so players.  The overall chip leader is Matt Affleck who has accumulated 1,819,000.  It will be interesting to see how he holds up as the numbers get lower and he starts to face off with the likes of Ivey.  Other notables that are still alive are Dan Harrington, Joe Sebok, Antonio Esfandiari, Kenny Tran and Vitaly Lunkin.

The Triple Chance NL Hold’em Tourney also has 6 players remaining and Jorg Peisert has built a monster chip lead. He is currently holding 3,065,000 and is nearly 3:1 over second place. A lead like that is going to be very difficult to overcome unless the second or third place players catch him on an all in. He is playing very aggressively and that could happen, but it appears as though he is timing his aggression perfectly right now. This one should be fun to watch down to the end.

While there are only 2 players left in Event 53, we are still a long way from figuring out who is going to win this one. The chips are fairly even as William Kohler has 1,290,000 and David Halpern has 810,000. When you add in the fact that this is a hi/low game, they may be here longer than either of the other two tournaments.

Event 54 has about 40 players and with any luck, they will make it down to the final table tonight. That is probably wishful thinking, but you never know. Event 55 is also trucking along and has less than 40 players remaining. Triple draw can have some large pots, so you may still see a lot of railing going on. The one thing that could slow this down is the fact that they are very close to the bubble.

Erik Sagstrom – 3,675,000
Vitaly Lunkin – 2,490,000
David Bach – 2,345,000
John Hanson – 1,700,000
Huck Seed – 1,380,000
Chau Giang – 1,075,000
Erik Seidel – 965,000
Ville Wahlbeck – 645,000

Lunkin has been having a marvelous WSOP and you would have to think that he will continue to remain among the leaders of this tournament. He is a pretty well rounded player and has shown little weakness this year. Sagstrom is an interesting player and his name has been popping up quite a bit this year. This will be his first cash in a WSOP Event and it will be interesting to see if he can hold up to the pressure. We also have a few specialty players in here who excel at one or two of the variations. Don’t be fooled by the big chip lead, this is still anyone’s tournament.

In other tournaments…

The Triple Chance Tournament heads into day 3 with 16 players fighting it out for the bracelet. This is the second of 3 bracelet tournaments that we are going to see on Tuesday. Early on it appeared that this tournament was going to be dominated by some of the pro’s, but they have fallen by the wayside in day 2 and it is pretty much an unknown field that is left alive. An Tran is the only bracelet winner left and Eric Lynch is the only other player of note. The current leader is Jason DeWitt with 1,599,000.

The third bracelet will be given out in the Seven Card Stud Hi Low 8 or Better Event. They are down to 14 players and for once, Jeff Lisandro nowhere to be seen on a 7 Stud final table. Lots of fresh meat in this tourney and it would appear as though we will get a first time winner here. Brian Swinford will start the day off as the chip leader with 292,000.

Events 54 and 55 finished off their days way short of where they needed to be to get to a final table by the end of day 2. Event 54 started with 2818 and still has almost 400 players sitting down when they start the next session. Event 55 did not do any better as they started the day with 258 players and now have 75 left. Lots of big names hit the rail early in this one including Todd Brunson, Greg Raymer, Erick Lindgren and Barry Greenstein. These guys have to be wearing down as you see their names in almost every tournament at the start. Main Event kicks off in 3 days!

Gus Hanson continues to play strong and is currently sitting at 725,000 in chips. Vitaly Lunkin is once again putting in a very strong performance and is currently located in the top ten with 560,000. There are still a lot of big names left in this tourney and you will probably continue to see a lot of movement as this is one of the most volatile games you will see. Every game guarantees a lot of action and your chip leader very well may be a short stack within 5 hands. They are going to play this one till the early hours of the morning.

In other tournaments…

The Limit Shootout Event is down to 6 players, but the stacks are fairly even among the top 3. This is another tournament that you can expect to go on for quite a bit tonight and not see a winner until after midnight. The current leader is Greg Mueller with 950,000. Marc Naalden and Millie Shue round out the top three and are both within less than 200,000 of Mueller.

The dinner break has sounded in event 51 and there are still well over 100 players alive. You will not recognize many of the names in this one as a lot of the pros have stayed away from these $1,500 tournaments as the WSOP has played on. Huge fields have given them all problems and they seem to be sticking with the higher buy ins and other poker variations for the time being. They are going to have enough problems in the Main Event so why sit down with this aggravation now. The one big name that is making his way up the leader board is Men Nguyen. We haven’t heard much from him so far this year so this may be his warm-up for next week’s tournament.

The Triple Chance No Limit Event is at full steam and has had a surprising amount of eliminations already. They started with 854 players and are close to 300 eliminations so far. Overall chip stacks are not available, but a quick glance around the room says that a lot of the pros were taking advantage of the ability to have the free triple re-buy and play very aggressively. Don’t be surprised to see some big names on the leader board at the end of the day in this one.

Play on the final table was pretty tight the entire night and it took much longer than anticipated for the champion to be decided. Our pick for the championship, Greg Raymer, played exceptionally well, but went out in third place trying to make a huge move. With the way he had been playing, I am still baffled at why he chose the hand that he did to get all of his chips in the middle. It just goes to show that one wrong move can end an otherwise perfect day.



Raymer was on the button and made a pre-flop raise to 400,000. Lunkin got out of the way and the Haxton came over the top to make it 1,250,000. Raymer then made a very questionable move by pushing all in for 8,105,000 and Haxton immediately called. Raymer and his 55 were way behind Haxton and his 99. The play comes into question as Raymer had to know that his best possible scenario only had him at about 60-40% to win the hand and he was very likely up against a better pair. The board never improved either player and Raymer was sent to the rail with a standing ovation from the room.

The moment everyone had been waiting for all night was about to take place. The first major event of the 40th WSOP was about to go into heads up. The money was brought out to the table and Haxton and Lunkin settled in with Haxton holding a better than 2:1 chip edge.

The first big h and of heads up play happened about a half hour in. Lunkin ended up pushing all in on the river and Haxton gave up the hand. The pot improved Lunkin to 13,900,000 in chips. The players traded small hands back and forth and while Lunkin had captured the lead for a bit, the bulk of the small hands were going Haxton’s way. Over the next hour and a half, he would regain his 2:1 edge. Unfortunately, his house of cards was about to blown down.

Haxton took a devastating blow to his stack on hand #154 of the night. Haxton made a pre-flop raise to 400,000 and Lunkin came over the top for 1,400,000. Haxton then pushed with his K3c. Again, a foolish move after playing strong poker all night long. Lunkin immediately called and flipped over 1010. With a flop of 10-4-2 and no clubs, Lunkin doubled up and was now holding the huge chip lead.

Haxton came right back at him 7 hands later on a horrible beat. With a flop of K53, Lunkin check-raised a bet of 525,000 and made it 1,450,000. Haxton made the call and watched the turn show a 6s. Lunkin fired another 1,500,000 at the pot and Lunkin made the call. Lunkin was sitting on AA to Haxton’s K10. Lunkin was absolutely shattered when a 10c hit the river and cheated him from snagging the championship. However, this was only a prelude of things to come as both of these players now appeared to be ready to mix it up. Haxton – 13,970,000, Lunkin – 10,125,000.

Just two hands later, all of the chips would be back in the middle of the table, and Lunkin would once again have a huge chip lead. Haxton called Lunkin’s preflop raise of 1,400,00 and aw a flop of A54c hit the board. Lunkin fired out with 2,000,000 and Haxton pushed his stack in the middle. Lunkin called and the players flipped their cards. Lunkin turned over Qc10s and Haxton had Qs8c. Haxton hit a miracle 8 on the turn, but a river 2c brought him back down to earth. At his point, Haxton was left with only 5,505,000 in chips and had to be mentally devastated.

It all came to an end about 3 hours and 20 minutes after they started playing heads up and was a part of this massive flurry of action that came out of nowhere. The final hand of the tournament started with Lunkin on the button and making the call from the SB. The board hit Q-10-8, all diamonds. Haxton took a shot at the pot for 1,200,00 and Lunkin them moved all in and was called. The cards where flipped and Haxton showed 3d8c to Lunkin’s AsAh. Amazingly, all Haxton needed to crack his AA was a diamond. However, none of his 14 outs would show up and Lunkin had finally taken down what will be one of the most important titles of the season. Both players are now millionaire’s, but Lunkin gets the jewelry and the honor of having his national anthem played at the second bracelet ceremony of the year.

The two major stories of the day have to be Tony G and Isaac Haxton. Somehow, Tony G had managed to hang on despite being short stacked just about the whole way. When his luck ran out and he was eliminated in 10th place, you had to feel for the guy. He had fought so hard to get to the final table and had his dreams squashed when he only had a little over $200,000 left in front of him. He pushed with A7h and was called by Torelli who was holding onto J10h. Both players hit the board, unfortunately for Tony G., he only hit his 7 and was sent to the rail.

As incredible as Tony G.’s staying power had been, the run of Haxton has been even more incredible. He started the day off with only a little over 500,000 in chips and has managed to climb his way up to the top spot of the leader board with 5,520,000 in chips.

While Raymer has not had the climb that we anticipated, he has continued to play solid poker. Unfortunately for him, his cards have not held up as well as they did in prior sessions, but somehow he is managing to dodge some major bullets and has remained right around the count that he started the day off at.

Shocking or not is a decision that you will have to make, but Bonomo crashed and burned all day. As well as his young, aggressive style worked over the last couple of days, it came back to bite him in Day 3. He continued to dump chips and finds himself at the bottom tier of the final table with a huge target on his stack.

The final table has shaped up very nicely with a great mix of the new and the old, the amateurs and the pros. Tomorrow should be a great session, but my money is still on Raymer to hoist the bracelet and scoop the cash.

Here is your final table and chips counts:
1) Isaac Haxton 5,520,000
2) Vitaly Lunkin 4,565,000
3) Lex Veldhuis 3,805,000
4) Greg Raymer 3,345,000
5) Alec Torelli 2,340,000
6) Justin Bonomo 1,685,000
7) Dani Stern 1,300,000
8) Noah Schwartz 660,000
9) Ted Forrest 560,000

In other tournaments….
The Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better (Event #30 continues to move fast and furious. The top 10 is a definitive who’s who of the poker world. As of this posting, Eli Elezra continues to lead the way and looks absolutely unbeatable so far in this tournament. Other pros that are on top are Freddy Deeb, Layne Flack, Toto Leonidis, Chip Jett and the infamous Annie Duke. With only 90 players remaining, the remaining amateurs are going to have a tough time getting through to the final table.

Event #4 ($1,000 Stimulus NL Hold’em Event) stole the headlines early in the day as it was sold out (6,000 players) well before the tournament started. Players went flying out the door early and often and as of this posting, over 65% of the field was already gone. There were no chips counts posted as of yet, but we will have them for you as soon as they are available.

Sundays action should feature two final tables. The 40K event will be on its fourth and final day and the 3 day scheduled event #3 is also scheduled to finish up tomorrow. The question remains if they will be able to get the tournament down to that point in enough time to actually have the final table on Sunday. Day 2 of the 4 day Stimulus event will take place as well as Day 1 of the Champions Invitational. Monday is the beginning of the two a days with events 5 and 6 kicking off.