Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship

A total of 78 players -- all survivors of six days' worth of poker -- arrived at noon today with hopes of continuing their long and winding tourney journeys. They were the final standing from the starting field of 7,319, and all had already achieved much.

But all wanted more. And just 27 would earn the right to come back tomorrow for the last day of poker this summer in the 2010 WSOP.

Bustouts began shortly after cards went in the air, with Jean-Robert Bellande, Meenakshi Subramaniam, David Benyamine, Peter Jetten, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Tony Dunst among those departing during the first levels.

The pace slowed as the dinner break approached, and with 42 left it was thought it might take a while before we'd get down to three tables.

But then came the fireworks of Level 29 -- specifically the last hour of Level 29, when 11 players were eliminated. It didn't take long after that for Theo Jorgensen, Gianni Direnzo, and Bryn Kenney all to hit the rail, too, each earning $255,242 for getting this far.

As the night wore on, Joseph Cheong and Soi ("Cuong") Nguyen put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field, but there's a formidable bunch behind them, among them Matt Affleck, John Racener, Scott Clements, David Baker, and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi. Mizrachi took some hits early today, but true to his name, grinded his way back into contention, and still (incredibly) has a chance of tying Frank Kassela for WSOP POY with a Main Event victory.

Thanks for following our coverage today. Join us again tomorrow at noon Vegas time to find out who among these 27 will emerge as this year's November Nine.

[TABLE]

Name | Chip Count | Big Blinds |

Joseph Cheong | 24,490,000 | 204

Sol Nguyen | 23,100,000 | 192

Pascal LeFrancois | 17,780,000 | 148

Jason Senti | 13,550,000 | 112

Matthew Jarvis | 13,300,000 | 110

Matt Affleck | 12,515,000 | 104

Jonathan Duhamel | 10,520,000 | 87

John Racener | 10,470,000 | 87

Filippo Candio | 10,020,000 | 83

Benjamin Statz | 9,885,000 | 82

Robert Pisano | 8,060,000 | 67

Michiel Sijpkens | 7,765,000 | 64

Duy Le | 7,255,000 | 60

Scott Clements | 7,250,000 | 60

David Baker | 6,825,000 | 56

Michael Mizrachi | 6,300,000 | 52

Brandon Steven | 6,045,000 | 50

Adam Levy | 4,745,000 | 39

William Thorson | 3,680,000 | 30

Redmond Lee | 3,315,000 | 27

Mads Wissing | 3,070,000 | 25

Ronnie Bardah | 2,525,000 | 21

Matthew Bucaric | 2,270,000 | 18

John Dolan | 2,175,000 | 18

Patrick Eskandar | 1,655,000 | 13

Johnny Lodden | 1,560,000 | 13

Hasan Habib | 1,510,000 | 12

[/TABLE]

Bryn Kenney is our Day 8 bubble boy after being eliminated in dramatic fashion in back-to-back hands to leave us with our final 27 players.

Kenney started the action with a raise to 300,000 from under the gun with Pascal LeFrancois making the call in the big blind.

The flop landed     and LeFrancois checked it over to Kenney who made a continuation bet of 400,000. LeFrancois made the call. The turn brought the   and LeFrancois checked again. Kenney fired a second barrel worth 480,000 and again LeFrancois made the call as a big pot was brewing.

The river fell the   and following a third check from LeFrancois, Kenney verbalized his bet of 1.3 million, however LeFrancois thought he had heard "all in" as he instantly called and tabled    for a set of eights. LeFrancois didn't realize that he'd left Kenney with just under one million chips behind as Kenney showed    for two pair.

"Sick runners..." sighed Kenney as he then chuckled that he was now freerolling after LeFrancois' mistake.

Well, the freeroll lasted just one more hand.

LeFrancois raised to 300,000 and Kenney moved all in for 850,000. LeFrancois snap-called and flipped    as Kenney would need some help with his   .

The board fell       and Kenney couldn't find a deuce to save himself as he is eliminated from the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event in 28th place.

With the elimination of Gianni Direnzo in 29th place, we are just one elimination away from the end of play tonight.

While all 27 players who make it through to tomorrow's Day 8 theoretically have a chance to make the November Nine, it goes without saying that those with the biggest stacks obviously have a better chance of actually doing so.

Last year, all nine of those who made the final table were in the top 12 in chips with 27 players remaining. Of those 12, only Billy Kopp (2nd to start that last day), Jamie Robbins (9th), and Ben Lamb (10th) did not make it to the final table.

Eventual winner Joe Cada actually had the fewest chips of all the eventual November Niners to start the final day of play last summer, sitting in 12th place to begin the day.

There's only one multiple bracelet winner left in the 2010 WSOP Main Event and his name is Scott Clements. In the back-to-back years of 2006 and 2007, Clements scored a gold bracelet. He won the $3,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8-or-Better event in 2006 for $301,175 and the following year won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event for $194,206.

On top of those finishes, Clements has 15 other WSOP cashes including a total of seven final tables. Besides the two final table he won, take a look at how Clements has wrapped up some of his best runs at WSOP events:

2007: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em - 5th for $112,997

2008: $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo - 9th for $22,172

2008: $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo - 7th for $36,232

2009: $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi/Lo - 2nd for $275,946

2009: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - 3rd for $101,063

As you can see, Omaha is a game that Clements is extremely proficient at.

Along with all his WSOP success, Clements also holds two World Poker Tour titles for taking down the C$2,500 WPT Canadian Poker Open in 2006 for $222,051 and C$10,000 North American Poker Championship Event in 2007. The latter netted him over $1.5 million alone! In total, Clements had just about $15,000 short of $4 million in live tournament winnings up until this Main Event. This deep run puts him well over that mark.

His best finish in the WSOP Main Event is a 529th way back in 2005. This year he's doing much better than that min-cash and will be a force as we move closer to the November Nine.

Jason Senti opened to 280,000 under the gun, and Matthew Bucaric three-bet to 625,000 with close to 3 million behind.

The flop came out      , and Bucaric continued out with a bet of 485,000. Senti cut the chips out of his stack and stared them down for a few minutes before pushing them into the pot.

The turn was the  , and both players checked. They did the same on the   river, and Senti showed down his     first. That induced a quick much from Bucaric, and he's stepped backwards to 2.28 million.

Senti - 13.85

Mads Wissing raised it up to 300,000 from the cutoff with Patrick Eskandar making the call on the button.

They saw a flop of     and Eskandar checked it over to Wissing who made it 450,000 to play. Eskandar made the call.

The turn was the   and again Eskandar check-called, this time for 700,000, before the   fell on the river. Eskandar decided to take the lead as he came out swinging with a bet of 600,000. After exchanging some friendly banter, Wissing let his hand go as Eskandar flashed a marginal   .

Wissing slips to 3.26 million, with Eskandar up to 8.1 million.

Just before the break...

We picked up the action on a       flop, and Joseph Cheong was betting 265,000 as we walked up. Scott Clements was his heads-up opponent, and "BigRiskky" made the call to continue to fourth street.

It was the  , and Cheong fired right out again -- 735,000 chips this time. Clements called again and he faced one final bet of 1.675 million on the   river. He tanked as the break clock ticked down, finally splashing in the call with a bit of a reluctant look.

And rightly so. Cheong tabled     for the turned straight, and he even managed to get a call after the scary river card.

Clements is down to 7.945 million now, while Cheong re-takes the chip lead at 24.3 million.

Whew. What a level.

When we went to dinner, there were 42 players still with chips, and we all speculated over our meals about how much longer it would take to get to the final 27.

Play resumed, and for a while we were looking at the same relatively slow pace we'd seen for the 45 minutes or so before dinner, when there were no eliminations. Jerry Payne went out in 42nd, followed by Damien Luis in 41st. We crossed the halfway mark of the level… then, BOOM.

It all started with a huge double-knockout of Jakob Toestesen (40th) and Jonathan Driscoll (39th), both fallen victim to Brandon Steven's flopped nut flush. Within a just a a couple of minutes, Nicolas Babel (38th) and Dag Palovic (37th) had followed. Each of those first six to go in Level 29 earned $206,395.

And the bustouts continued, with Michal Wywrot (36th), Gabe Costner (35th), Edward Ochana (34th), Corey Emery (33rd), Eduardo Parra (32nd), and Michael Skender (31st) all being eliminated within the space of about 20 minutes. Finally came a stretch during which all of our players kept their seats, then Theo Jorgensen went out in 30th. Each of these seven took home $255,242.

Amid the carnage, Joseph Cheong pushed out in front, with Soi (a.k.a. "Cuong") Nguyen also adding to his large stack. Those two were the first to reach 20 million, and remain out in front with 29 left.

Let's take 20 minutes to catch our breath. We'll be back to see who are the final two eliminations of the night.

Theo Jorgensen opened to 200,000 from under the gun and John Racener, David Baker and Duy Le made the call.

Le checked from the big blind on the     flop as Jorgensen slid out a bet of 1,000,000.

With the action on Racener he clicked it back to 2,000,000 to force folds from both Baker and Le before Jorgensen committed his last 2,220,000 with Racener making the call.

Racener:   

Jorgensen:   

Jorgensen was in the lead with his top pair, top kicker, but the Dane would need to fade any club or queen to remain alive in the Main Event.

Unfortunately for Jorgensen, the   spiked on the turn to now give Jorgensen just two outs to remain alive.

The river fell the   to see the overnight chip leader eliminated in 30th place as Racener soars upwards of the nine million chip mark.

Mads Wissing raised to 225,000 in the cutoff position with Patrick Eskandar making the call in the big blind.

They saw a flop of     and Eskandar checked it across to Wissing who tossed in 200,000. Eskandar made the call. Both players checked the   and the   completed the board on the river. Eskandar led out for 400,000 with Wissing paying to see.

Eskandar tabled    for the king-high flush to collect the goods. He's up to 5.2 million with Wissing back to 4.5 million.