Event #54: 10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT Championship

Alfredo Fernandez opened for 200,000 and Chris Klodnicki made the call from the big blind. The flop was      . Klodnicki checked, Fernandez bet 300,000, Klodnicki raised to 800,000, Fernandez moved all in and Klodnicki called. Fernandez     Klodnicki     The turn was the   , the river was the   and Klodnicki dragged the pot, increasing his stack to 3,650,000. Fernandez was left with 950,000. It's also worth noting that during this 3 million chip pot, the players involved, as well as their tablemates, were completely silent-- not something you see too often this late in the Main Event.

David "Chino" Rheem has been playing every hand he's dealt and has, in turn, won most of the pots at his table (see Bob Whalen's elimination post below for additional evidence). After only 30 minutes of play, he's built his stack up to 5,000,000.

David Saab raised to 100,000 from the cutoff before Matt Matros moved all in for about 600,000 from the small blind. Saab thought for a moment before making the call tabling   . "Wow that's a great call" said Matros and he flipped over   . The flop came     and Saab commented, "Well that's bad for me" as Matros had picked up outs to counterfeit Saab's baby pair. However the turn and river bricked  ,   to leave Matros heading to the rail in 78th place for $77,200 in prize money. After the hand, Saab sits with over 2.3 million chips.

In a pot that was raised and reraised preflop, the flop came down      . Bob Whalen led out for 450,000, David "Chino" Rheem tanked for several minutes before moving all in and Whalen made the call. Whalen     Rheem     The turn, though, was the  , making Rheem two pair. The river was the   and Whalen was eliminated. "Living good!" said Rheem as he raked in the pot. "You know, sometimes when you get your hand caught in the cookie jar, you get a cookie," he chuckled. "Most of the time you get your hand smacked."

A hand was just dealt using a blue deck of cards, and as the dealer pitched them out, a red card spun across the felt. The floor was called over and the red card was revealed to be the ace of spades. The hand was killed, the cards retrieved, and the deck removed from play, with considerable grumbling from the players.

On a flop of      , Toni Judet checked, Chris Klodnicki bet 125,000 and Judet called. The turn was the  . Judet check-called another 275,000. The river was the   and both players checked. Judet showed     for two pair, aces and queens, and Klodnicki mucked.

Thomas Keller was all in before the flop with pocket nines and was up against Aaron Gordon's    . Gordon caught a gutshot draw on the       flop but the board ran out     and Keller doubled up.

Just before the announcement of "shuffle up and deal," Hellmuth strolled into the tournament area and took his seat. He was dealt into the first hand which he raised from under the gun, winning the blinds and antes. When a floor supervisor was asked about the alleged one-round penalty Hellmuth was to serve, a reply of "it's been overruled" was given.

As we reported just prior to the conclusion of last night's play, Phil Hellmuth will be serving a one-orbit penalty and sitting out the first nine hands of play. With the blinds and antes where they are, this time-out will cost Hellmuth a total of 81,000 chips, or roughly 11% of his total stack. It should come as no suprise that Hellmuth starts Day 6 back at the main ESPN featured table on the Milwaukee's Best Light stage. With just moments until the cards are in the air, the other eight players have arrived, unbagged their chips, and have been mic'd up by the crew, but "The Poker Brat" is nowhere in sight.

Official seat assignments have now been released for Day 6 of the 2008 WSOP Main Event, with 79 players returning to action for the noon start. Mark Ketteringham will begin the day as the chip leader, stacked at 5,800,000 overnight. The players will be seated at nine tables in the Amazon “Green” section, surrounding and including the ESPN feature area. The chip leader at each table is denoted by boldface text. The table and seat assignments are as follows: (Table 1) Seat 1: Bob Whalen – 1,382,000 Seat 2: Paul Snead – 1,572,000 Seat 3: Christopher Zapf – 297,000 Seat 4: Brian Tatum – 780,000 Seat 5: Aaron Gordon – 3,369,000 Seat 6: Jason Glass – 629,000 Seat 7: David Rheem – 2,586,000 Seat 8: Thomas Keller – 245,000 Seat 9: Garrett Beckman – 1,860,000 (Table 2) Seat 1: Chris Klodnicki – 2,496,000 Seat 2: Kido Pham – 1,600,000 Seat 3: Aaron Keay – 990,000 Seat 4: Anthony Scherer – 2,245,000 Seat 5: Alfredo Fernandez – 3,053,000 Seat 6: Peter Eastgate – 2,629,000 Seat 7: Toni Judet – 3,031,000 Seat 8: Scott Montgomery – 1,669,000 Seat 9: Mauro Lupo – 2,261,000 (Table 3) Seat 1: Greg Byard – 1,189,000 Seat 2: Jonathan Plens – 1,870,000 Seat 3: Nhan Le – 2,190,000 Seat 4: Justin Sadauskas – 2,000,000 Seat 5: Keith Hawkins – 636,000 Seat 6: Eric Bamer – 479,000 Seat 7: Cristian Dragomir – 2,372,000 Seat 8: Dean Hamrick – 1,905,000 Seat 9: Joe Bishop – 1,570,000 (Table 4) Seat 1: Geert Jans – 1,633,000 Seat 2: Justin Scott – 1,971,000 Seat 3: Alan Gould – 1,838,000 Seat 4: Daniel Buzgon – 876,000 Seat 5: Alex Outhred – 699,000 Seat 6: Albert Kim – 3,734,000 Seat 7: David Saab – 1,705,000 Seat 8: Nikolay Losev – 4,058,000 Seat 9: Matt Matros – 766,000 (Table 5) Seat 1: Jeremy Joseph – 3,100,000 Seat 2: Mark Ketteringham – 5,800,000 Seat 3: Gert Andersen – 1,447,000 Seat 4: Brandon Cantu – 2,288,000 Seat 5: David Benefield – 2,490,000 Seat 6: Dennis Phillips – 3,436,000 Seat 7: Sean Davis – 861,000 Seat 8: Michael Carroll – 957,000 Seat 9: Mark Owens – 595,000 (Table 6) Seat 1: Rafael Caiaffa – 1,338,000 Seat 2: Steve Lade – 3,225,000 Seat 3: Ivan Demidov – 2,185,000 Seat 4: Phi Nguyen – 1,540,000 Seat 5: Adam Levy – 767,000 Seat 6: Nicholas Sliwinski – 2,236,000 Seat 7: Suresh Prabhu – 1,175,000 Seat 8: Ylon Schwartz – 816,000 Seat 9: Victor Ramdin – 795,000 (Table 7) Seat 1: James McManus – 2,434,000 Seat 2: Tim Loecke – 996,000 Seat 3: Phil Hellmuth – 721,000 Seat 4: Allen Kennedy – 1,153,000 Seat 5: Kelly Kim – 2,425,000 Seat 6: Larry Wright – 1,502,000 Seat 7: Jason Riesenberg – 2,217,000 Seat 8: Andrew Rosskamm – 1,593,000 Seat 9: Clint Schafer – 1,123,000 (Table 8) Seat 1: Chris Crilly – 1,183,000 Seat 2: Craig Marquis – 1,748,000 Seat 3: Felix Osterland – 786,000 Seat 4: Jamal Sawaqdeh – 888,000 Seat 5: Jamal Kunbuz – 3,327,000 Seat 7: Mike Matusow – 1,169,000 Seat 8: Tiffany Michelle – 3,438,000 Seat 9: Jeremy Gaubert – 578,000 (Table 9) Seat 1: Craig Stein – 440,000 Seat 2: Niklas Flisberg – 1,264,000 Seat 3: Mark Wilds – 485,000 Seat 4: Andrew Brokos – Did Not Report (approx. 4,080,000) Seat 6: Lisa Parsons – 581,000 Seat 7: Peter Neff – 1,275,000 Seat 8: Darus Suharto – 1,057,000 Seat 9: Owen Crowe – 1,050,000 Join us at noon for the latest live updates as the countdown continues to the final table.