Las Vegas, NV
Day 4 was so short that there was barely any time for any stories to develop. Jack Effel decided to shorten the day from five levels to four (or until they got down to 400 players whichever came first) before Day 4 started. As the day progressed, he made the decision to stop play completely at the end of the third level (before the scheduled dinner break). In only three levels of play, the field was cut from 789 to 407. The Bubble finally burst after a dramatic and lengthy 13 hands during hand-for-hand play that lasted almost two hours.In that period of time, Elky lost the chiplead while fellow Frenchman Ludovig Lacay battled for the top spot and an unknown from Seattle named Matt Affleck finished in the lead while he did everything possible to fend off ill-informed media to explain, "No, I'm not Ben's brother."
Several named pros are still alive and a few of them have a substantial amount of chips... Phil Ivey, DonkeyBomber, Dan Harrington, Joe Hachem, Prahlad Friedman, Kenny Tran, Dennis Phillips, David Benyamine, and Fabrice Soulier. Can one of them continue their run and become one of the named pros at the November Nine?
According to Nolan Dalla, players busted at a staggering rate in the first level of play on Day 4. One player hit the rail every 52 seconds as cries of "Seat open!" filled the room.
Two former champions were eliminated including Phil Hellmuth late in the day and Jesus Ferguson. Both cashed. The other former world champs still left? Bobby Baldwin, Dan Harrington, Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem.
The Bubble Boy was Kia Hamadani. He will get bought into the Main Event next year courtesy f the beef jerky junta. I feel bad for the poor schlep who busted in 650th place. He got jack shit.
So besides Jesus and Hellmuth, who cashed but busted out on Day 3? Mike Sexton (420), Kelly Kim (423), Ramzi Jelassi (425), Patrick Bruel (428), Surinder Sunar (452), Paul Wasicka (480), Alexander Kostritsyn (498), Sarah Hale (502), Diogo Borges (588), Kristy Gazes (592), Anthony Roux (604), Trond Eidsvig (633), and Scott Ian from Anthrax (637).
Day 5 will kick off at noon. They will play an unspecified amount of levels. I honestly don't know what they will play down to since they have been altering the schedule on the fly.
Main Event Stats:
Players Remaining: 407
Average stack: 478,673
End of Day 4 - Top 10 Chip Counts:
1 Matt Affleck (Seattle, WA) - 1,819,000
2 Ludovic Lacay (Paris, France) - 1,608,000
3 Tom Lutz (Las Vegas, NV) - 1,600,000
4 James Akenhead (London, UK) - 1,572,000
5 Charlie Elias (Sydney, Australia) - 1,540,000
6 Miika Puumalainen (Kuipio, Finland) - 1,492,000
7 Jordan Morgan (Tulsa, OK) - 1,489,000
8 Bernie Perner (Austria) 1,426,000
9 Blair Hinkle (Kansas City, MO) - 1,399,000
10 Ben Jensen (Herning, Denmark) - 1,394,000
Notables:
15 Ivey, Phil 1,276,000
16 Grospelier, Bertrand 1,253,000
20 Tyler, Patterson 1,168,000
39 Brecard, Julien 938,000
41 O'Donnell Kevin 912,000
42 Dang, Hac 906,000
48 Lightman, Sarne 865,000
64 Rodman, Blair 798,000
65 Schneider, Tom 797,000
72 Lylloff, Sander 764,000
79 Shulman, Nick 746,000
88 Crowe, Owen 720,000
96 Olson, Carl 702,000
103 Harrington, Dan 659,000
108 Cloutier, Eric 646,000
114 Phillips, Lou Diamond 607,000
134 Bjorin, Chris 546,000
152 Sebok, Joe 502,000
154 Boeken, Noah 499,000
156 Esfandiari, Antonio 496,000
159 Hachem, Joe 490,000
163 Friedman, Prahlad 484,000
182 Levy, Steven 433,000
188 Tran, Kenny 415,000
194 Benyamine, David 405,000
200 Soulier, Fabrice 400,000
201 Kara Scott 399,000
202 Eastgate, Peter 397,000
203 Saul, Kevin 396,000
210 Black, Andrew 374,000
217 Shak, Daniel 369,000
231 Greenburg, Suzanne 338,000
238 Eaton, Jon 320,000
242 Shulman, Jeff 314,000
248 Mizzi, Sorel 305,000
268 Keys, James 272,000
272 Lunkin, Vitaly 268,000
280 Kang, Benjamin 254,000
309 Boutin, Burt 230,000
311 Slotboom, Rolf 229,000
319 Baldwin, Bobby 219,000
340 Bowker, Kyle 185,000
345 Levi, David 180,000
354 Tran, JC 163,000
355 Binger, Nick 162,000
373 Hua, C.K. 137,000
Bouncin' Round the Room....
Sadly, Oliver Tse will be leaving the poker industry as an agent. If you don't know Oliver, he was a former member of the poker media and used to be a heavy contributor to the 2+2 forums. He frequently set up shop in the hallways. In previous years, Tse represented JJ Liu and Jerry Yang, not to mention several Latin American players. Robert Cheung was Tse's last represented player in the Main Event and when he busted out on Day 4, that was it. Tse is pulling the plug on his management company as of July 31st. Farewell, Oliver. Best of luck in your new venture.
Oliver working late into the night during the 2008 Main Event
(pic courtesy of Benjo)
* * * * *
And now, it's time to report the results on your favorite degenerate prop betting game that's not called Lime Tossing. Yep, it's time for a new installment of What Does Benjo Think?...
What Does Benjo Think, Vol. 5I took down this round where it seemed that Otis and I were way off base with Benjo's answers. Stay tuned for a new installment of What Does Benjo Think?
Real questions by degenerate gamblers. Real answers from an angry Frenchman. It's a game that Otis and I play in the press box to keep things loose. We wager on what we think Benjo would answer a series of random questions...
1. How deep will Elky go in the Main Event?
Otis: 120th place
Pauly: 27th place
Benjo said: "First place. I want him to win it all."
Result: Push (0-0-1)
2. If you could have sexual relations with an animal which would it be?
Otis: Dolphin
Pauly: Horse
Benjo snapped called and said, "A koala. Because they are small and furry and sleep 22 hours a day."
Jen Creason tweet'd, "You can't just sleep with a koala. They don't have rib cages; you'll crush their organs and kill them."
Result: Push (0-0-2)
3. If you could have any former WSOP Main Even Champion as your real father, who would it be?
Otis: Stu Ungar
Pauly: Dan Harrington
Benjo said, "That's is an excellent question, but since I have some Spanish blood, I have to pick Carlos Mortensen. If Stu Ungar was my father, I would have been born a crack baby."
Pauly said, "You're not born a crack baby, unless your mom was smoking crack during her pregnancy."
Result: Push (0-0-3)
4. If you could be any female pro, who would you be?
Otis: Erica Shcoenberg
Pauly: Isabelle Mercier
Benjo said, "Kristy Gazes. She's got big boobs. I would stay at home and just play with them."
Result: Push (0-0-4)
5. Out of everyone left in the field, whohas the best chance of making the November Nine?
Otis: Ludovic Lacay
Pauly: Elky
Benjo said, "With 400 players left and 25% of the field PokerStars qualifiers, I have to say that it will be an unknown PokerStars player."
Result: Push (0-0-5)
6. If you could play one professional sport in America, what would it be?
Otis: Tennis
Pauly: Basketball
Benjo said, "Competitive eating?"
Otis said, "That's not a sport."
Pauly said, "Yet. It's sports entertainment, like poker."
Benjo said, "Then it will be golf. Those guys are so fuckin' rich and I'd get to hang out with the Phil Ivey of golf."
Result: Push (0-0-6)
7. If you could have sex with a male Full Tilt red pro, who would it be?
Otis: Devid Benyamine
Pauly: Gus Hansen
Benjo said, "Gus Hansen because he will probably bring a girl or two or three..."
Result: Pauly wins (1-0-6)
Don't forget, you can follow along with my hijinks via Twiiter. My feed is @taopauly.
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