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

Official chip counts have now been released for the 79 players still alive in the 2008 WSOP $10,000 NLHE World Championship. All 79 players have their end-of-day totals listed in the 'Chip Counts' section (link at right). The top ten going into Day 6 play are as follows: Mark Ketteringham 5,800,000 Nikolay Losev 4,058,000 Albert Kim 3,734,000 Tiffany Michelle 3,438,000 Dennis Phillips 3,436,000 Aaron Gordon 3,369,000 Jamal Kunbuz 3,327,000 Terry Lade 3,225,000 Jeremy Joseph 3,100,000 Alfredo Fernandez 3,053,000

With the completion of Level 23, play has concluded for the evening. We started the day with 189 players, all with their eye on Day 6. After just over four levels of play, only 79 of them remain. We said goodbye to several notables today. Jeff Madsen, Allen Cunningham, Jon Friedberg, Hoyt Corkins, Gus Hansen, Kara Scott, Mark Vos, and Chip Jett were just a few of the notables whose Main Event dreams were dashed prematurely. Still very much in the mix are Mike Matusow, PokerNews' own Tiffany Michelle, and Phil Hellmuth Jr., who is seeking his record 12th WSOP bracelet. Mark Ketteringham ends the day as our probable chip leader with approximately 5,700,000. His lead is far from secure however with plenty of poker left to be played and Tiffany Michelle, Jamal Kunbuz, and Albert Kim all right on his heels. Tomorrow's action promises to be just as exciting as we are scheduled to play down to just 27 players. We hope you'll join as at 12:00pm local time for our coverage of Day 6 action. As always, official chip counts and seating assignments will be posted as soon as they become available.

Cristian Dragomir opened with a raise to 80,000 before Hellmuth made it 255,000 to go from the small blind. "I hope he doesn't have aces," said Hellmuth as Dragomir asked for a count. After a few moments, Dragomir made the call. They saw a flop of     and Hellmuth checked to Dragomir, who thought for a moment before firing a healthy bet of 300,000. Hellmuth sighed in disgust before folding    face-up on the table. Matusow laughed and said to Dragomir to show the bluff, and Dragomir flipped   ! Matusow and the crowd roared in hysterics as Hellmuth jumped out of his seat and stormed around the room berating his opponent for calling his reraise with ten high. "Listen buddy, you're an idiot!" screamed Hellmuth. "This is the Main Event and you are the worst player in history!" he continued as the crowd was loving every moment of the blow-up. Dragomir's entourage continued to cheer as Hellmuth continued the barrage. The TD stepped in and issued a warning to Hellmuth to settle down before Dragomir stood up out of his chair to put Hellmuth back in his place with a cry of, "Enough is enough!" Fortunately for both players the clock ticked over to the end of the level, and the end of the day's play to settle both players down. They eventually shook hands and began to bag up their chips as Mike Matusow summed up the situation best as he shouted, "Thank God for Phil Hellmuth! Thank God for Chris Moneymaker!" What a way to end the day!

Stephen Kenna pushed all in with his last 238,000 from middle position, and Joe Bishop called him from the button. Kenna showed   , and Bishop   . The table had been just been remarking on how frequently A-Q seemed to be coming up in hands. The hand -- which Doyle Brunson has sometimes called his least favorite -- was winning half of the battles and losing half. Unfortunately for Kenna, this would be one of the times A-Q didn't work out, as the board ran out      . Kenna is out, and Bishop is now up to 1.6 million.

We picked up the action on the turn, with the board reading        . Kennedy bet 300,000 and Brokos called, and when the   fell on the river Kennedy bet 500,000 and again Brokos called. And good calls they were -- Brokos'     was good against Kennedy's     and he scooped a pot that brought his stack up to 4.08 million. Kennedy sits with 1.26 million.

After Aaron Gordon raised to 65,000, Victor Ramdin moved all in for his last 350,000. Gordon called with     to Ramdin's    , and when the board ran out          , Ramdin doubled up to 700,000.

Matt Matros lost about 800,000 chips in two hands in close succession. He dropped a pot to Nhan Le when he held     to Le's     on a jack-high board and the money went in on the turn. Matros then lost a pot to Ylon Schwartz when Matt raised with    , Schwartz moved in with    , Matros called, and the flop came ace high. Matt is now down to 1.2 million.

Lisa Parsons had taken a couple of small pots with preflop raises, chipping up a bit before the following hand took place. As the dealer dealt the hand, Dennis Phillips asked his tablemates if they'd like any of his Altoids. Several did, and he passed the tin around the table. Being under the gun, Phillips was first to act. No more friendly stuff. Phillips was raising to 70,000. It folded to Parsons who called from middle position. Everyone else got out of the way, and the flop came    . Phillips checked, Parsons bet 100,000, and Phillips called. The turn was the  . Phillips again checked, and this time Parsons fired out 200,000. Phillips went into the tank. After a couple of minutes, he asked Parsons what she had left behind. "Just a ballpark," he said. "About four," she replied, indicating approximately 400,000. Phillips considered a while longer, then let it go. Parsons now has about 1 million, while Phillips has 1.44 million.

Aaron Keay opened the action with a raise before Phil Hellmuth popped it up to 220,000 from the small blind. Keay made the call. The flop came     and Hellmuth led out for 140,000 before Keay instantly moved all in. Hellmuth let it go and Keay takes it down. Hellmuth slips back to about 900,000 chips.

Kido Pham raised it up to 60,000 and and Tim Loecke made the call on the button. The board of       was checked through until the river when Pham fired out about 100,000. After some table talk, Pham coaxed Loecke into making the call with pocket eights, but Pham flipped    for top pair to add to his stack.