Event #65: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship

We didn't catch the pre-flop action but according to Abe Mosseri all the chips went in pre-flop and he was all in and at risk against the big stack of Eric Hicks. Mosseri held    and Hicks held   . The board ran out       and Mosseri's set of sevens was more than enough to win him the pot and keep him alive.

Eric Hicks	715,000	-175,000
Abe Mosseri	277,000	-23,000

With about 60,000 in the middle and a board of     , Vladimir Shchemelev tossed out a bet of 20,000 and Ismael Bojang was forced to fold.

Vladimir Shchemelev	450,000	265,000
Ismael Bojang	85,000	-10,000

Faced with a three-bet shove for his tournament life from Jorryt van Hoof, Jason Koon, the original raiser, called.

Koon:   
van Hoof:   

Koon thought the Dutchman had a pair, and unfortunately for him it pipped his own holdings. The board ran out pure and Koon was eliminated.

Jorryt van Hoof	280,000	137,500
Jason Koon	0	0

Harry Kaczka raised to 8,000 in late position, Raymond Ezzie three-bet to 21,000 on the button, and a third player cold four-bet all in for 77,500 out of the big blind. Kaczka folded, and the action was back on Ezzie.

"Courtesy double up," he said, tossing in a call.

Ezzie:   
Opponent:   

The player improved to a pair of queens on a flop of    , but Ezzie had a gut-shot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. The   on the turn kept the latter draw alive, but the   bricked off on the river.

Ezzie gave the player his courtesy double up, and dipped to 375,000 chips.

Raymond Ezzie

375,000

-85,000

The cards are now back in the air for the final level of the day!

The fourth and penultimate level of Day 3 has been completed with roughly 855 players remaining. Those players are now on a 20-minute break.

On the resumption of play following dinner break, it would be Mehrdad Yousefzadeh taking a sizeable pot off Phil Ivey to launch himself to roughly 660,000. Although Matthew Haugen would have the biggest flirt of reaching a million in chips when he peaked at 945,000 it would be Yousefzadeh who catapulted himself to 1,050,000 late in the level before heading to break with an impressive 1,049,500.

The other story of the level would be the one that left Huck Seed as the only remaining World Champion in the field following the earlier eliminations of Ryan Riess, Johnny Chan, Robert Varkonyi and most recently Chris Moneymaker. After Moneymaker moved to the action table that included Paul Pierce and Michael Binger, Moneymaker would see the last of his chips enter the     flop with his    in the lead against Raymond Ezzie's   . The   on the turn and   on the river would ensure Moneymaker's exit as Seed became the last Main Event Champion standing.

Speaking of Pierce, the 10-time NBA All-Star would have a heavy rail for the majority of the level but he would float above and below the 200,000-chip mark before ending with 180,000, while the likes of Steve Dannenmann, Marvin Rettenmaier, Aaron Steury, Jason Koon, Bryce Yockey, John Hennigan and Hac Dang weren't as fortunate as they found themselves on the rail.

Joining Yousefzadeh up top on the leaderboard include Haugen (938,000), Raul Mestre (910,500), Andrew Liporace (899,500), Eric Hicks (848,000).

With approximately 95,000 in the pot, Roman Valerstein was facing a bet of 36,000 on a board of     . He raised it up to 100,000 causing his opponent to lean back instantly in his chair, his hands over his head.

He leaned forward, staring at Valerstein, while shuffling a stack of chips clumsily in his right hand. He muttered something under his breath to his neighbor and went back to staring at his foe. Valerstein sat there, quiet, looking straight ahead. After nearly five minutes in the tank, Valerstein's opponent folded and showed   .

"What'd you have?" he asked Valerstein.

"I can't tell you," was the response. "Maybe at the end of the night." Valerstein was up to 740,000 after taking down that pot.

Roman Valerstein

740,000

105,000