Event #73: $1,000 DOUBLE STACK No-Limit Hold'em (30 minute levels)

Nicholas Alexander has just been eliminated by Evan Lipshultz when he held    against Lipschultz's    on the       board as Lipshultz hit a straight on the river.

Evan Lipshultz	1,380,000	428,000
Nicholas Alexander	0	-305,000

Two ten big blind stacks got it in with Mikhail Semin holding    against the    of Alexander Bilbao.

The board ran out       and Bilbao doubled his 121,000 stack. Semin was left with just 4,000 and despite doubling up on the next hand, he was eliminated soon thereafter.

Alexander Bilbao	250,000	65,000
Mikhail Semin	0	-124,200

Orestis Kanakopoulos has just been eliminated when he ran his    offsuit into the    of Jake Balsiger on the       board.

Jake Balsiger	820,000	255,000
Orestis Kanakopoulos	0	-325,000

Juan Carlos Martin was at risk in the big blind as he was all-in and called by Benjamin Primus in the small blind.

Juan Carlos Martin:   
Benjamin Primus:   

The board ran out       for Martin to hit a set of jacks on the flop for the double-up for the 85,000 he had in front of him.

Juan Carlos Martin	178,000	68,000
Benjamin Primus	97,000	-66,000

The following players have unfortunately already had to leave the tournament area during the first 15 minutes of the day:

Keith Neises	0	-78,000
Christian Cheater	0	-144,000
Pochuen Law	0	-78,000
Ronald Knickerbocker	0	-122,000

Leo Margets and Marc Cohen were heads-up and all-in with Margets having Cohen covered.

Marc Cohen:   
Leo Margets:   

The board ran out       for Cohen to cheer when the river fell for his flush, failing to realize that Margets had already hit a full house on the flop. Cohen looked at Margets stack and saw he was covered and quickly left for the payout desk.

Leo Margets	520,000	180,000
Marc Cohen	0	-163,000

Jake Balsiger opened to 20,000 from under the gun. It folded to Avraham Azulay on the button who three-bet all in for 106,000. Balsiger counted and did some mental arithmetic before calling.

Jake Balsiger:   
Avraham Azulay:   

Azulay let out a grunt of frustration on the     flop. The turn   and river   didn't help him and he was eliminated.

Jake Balsiger	565,000	119,000
Avraham Azulay	0	-80,000

Welcome back to the final day of Event #73: $1,000 DOUBLE STACK No-Limit Hold'em (30 minute levels) where a winner will walk away with that first-place prize of $199,586 and the gold WSOP bracelet tonight. 54 players will return at noon local time to battle it out among themselves.

Evan Lipschultz is in a prime position right with a huge chip lead as he bagged 952,000 last night. With 95 big blinds, it is expected that he won't be afraid to let his big stack do the talking on the table. But it won't be easy as he's got players like 2012 November-niner Jake Balsiger (446,000), bracelet winner Konstantin Puchkov (112,000), WSOP Circuit Ring winner DJ MacKinnon (321,000), and Jesse Cohen (220,000) for example on his table too.

Second in the chip counts is Jason Johnson trailing by almost 40 big blinds with 532,000 which is still almost twice average. Johnson is no stranger to the WSOP Circuit with over 20 cashes already. A first place here wouldn't be his personal best as he had a pretty amazing 2014 when he reached two final tables and finished in 51st place in the Main Event. Johnson is sharing table space with bracelet winner Thiago Nishijima who is standing in third place in the chip counts with 471,000. Matthew Berger is also on the table and sporting one of the top 5 stacks of today with 441,000.

Others to keep an eye on today include Leo Margets (340,000), Ben Yu (340,000), Vlad Darie (289,000), Justin Young (280,000), Alexander Greenblatt (162,000), Mikhail Semin (124,200), and Eli Loewenthal (116,000). All returning players are guaranteed at least $3,399 but will all be looking to ladder up.

Players will continue play at noon on Level 21 which features a small blind of 5,000, big blind of 10,000 and a running ante of 1,000. A 15-minute break is scheduled after every four levels with a dinner break to be determined.

As this is a brand-new event for the WSOP, make sure to come back to see who will go down in history as the first-ever winner of the $1,000 DOUBLE STACK. The PokerNews live reporting team will be there from the first ante that will be paid until the final pot has been pushed to the winner!