Event #50: $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout (1,000 player max)

Erik Haakenson has advanced. That means 24 of the 64 matches are now complete. Of the remaining 40, all but five are down to heads up. The other five are three-handed.

Jacob Petersen and James Geary have both made it through to Round 2.

At three-handed, Juha Helppi had one short-stacked opponent all in before the flop. Helppi had    and his opponent   . The board came      , and that river eight meant they were down to heads up. Two hands later, Helppi knocked out his other opponent when he got the last of his chips in the middle on the river after Helppi had made a Broadway straight. Helppi advances to Round 2.

Daniel Kraus, James Buckley, and Robert Lauria have all advanced to Round 2. Like everyone else who wins his or her table tonight, they all are now guaranteed at least $4,350.

Dan Heimiller currently has about a 2-to-1 chip advantage over Spencer Lawrence. David Plastik is also enjoying a 2-to-1 lead over Claudio Rinaldi in their heads-up battle. And Tom Schneider and Eric Crain are nearly dead even in their match.

Players are taking a 20-minute break.

With 10 minutes remaining in Level 6, the majority of our 60 tables are now down to two or three players. We expect to be reporting a number of winners here soon. One of those heads-up matches is between 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider and Eric Crain. Schneider owns two WSOP bracelets, and just last week Crain finished sixth in Event No. 42, the $2,500 Mixed Event. Right now Crain enjoys about a 3-to-1 chip advantage over Schneider

Jonathan Dwek just took the last of the chips over on Table #236, becoming our third winner of the night.

David Plastik and Claudio Rinaldi have reached heads up on their table. That was the table that still had nine players at the start of level 5, but Plastik and Rinaldi have quickly dispatched of the other seven over the last hour and 20 minutes. Rinaldi has about a 3-to-2 chip advantage over Plastik at the moment.

Brock Parker is one of three left at his table. The same can be said of Marcus Naalden, David Williams, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Berry Johnston. Gavin Griffin is still alive at his table which is currently four-handed. Jerrod Ankenman, Kathy Liebert, David Baker, and Humberto Brenes are also all each playing four-handed at their respective tables. Table #235 is also four-handed at the moment: Evelyn Ng, Dennis Phillips, Ray Kyle, and Jeff Williams.