2009 World Series of Poker Day 46 – Main Event Day 5 Live Blog

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

Blair Hinkle seems very pleased to have made the money and sporting a big stack of chips

Continuing the long tradition at Poker From the Rail of live blogging the World Series of Poker Main Event, we will be doing the same throughout Day 5. Long tradition being the second one ever.

The staff has removed every other table from the Amazon Room spreading the field out wide giving plenty of access for the ESPN cameras to catch the exciting action. 407 players start the day and will play 5 levels or to 175 remaining. There are some massive stacks to start the day and will be looking to pick off the shorties. Andy Black will be on the ESPN feature table.

I’ll kick the noon post off with some official chip counts and payouts from Day 4. Back at 1:00pm PT with the next update.

Team Full Tilt and other notables:

Jordan Morgan – 1,489,000
Blair Hinkle – 1,399,000
Phil Ivey – 1,276,000
Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider – 797,000
Nick Schulman – 746,000
Dan Harrington – 659,000
Lou Diamond Phillips – 607,000
David Benyamine – 405,000
Fabrice Soulier – 400,000
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul – 396,000
Andy Black – 374,000
Vitaly Lunkin – 268,000
Ashley “Actyper” Cheung – 220,000

Payouts:

Mike Sexton – $27,469
Kelly Kim – $27,469
Justin Bonomo – $25,027
Paul Wasicka – $25,027
Chris “Jesus” Ferguson – $23,196
Kristy Gazes – $21,365
Trond Eidsvig – $21,365
Scott Ian – $21,365

1:00pm: It didn’t take very long for the players to start dropping. Almost immediately after Jack Effle gave the shuffle up and deal command we heard a dealer call “Three all-ins!”. Within the first 20 minutes enough players had busted to break two tables in the Orange section. Common sense tells us the pace of place must slow down at some point but we’re not seeing it here in the early going.

Tables continue to break at a regular basis and the talent is starting to condense into some very seriously talented lineups. The tournament board shows that we’ve lost nearly 50 people in just the first hour of Day 5, although it could be more and the number has not been adjusted. At this rate we may be looking at another early night here in the Amazon Room.

Notable bustout during that hour was poker legend Thor Hansen. This is the 46th cash for the two time bracelet winner.

360 players remain which means a new pay level jump, everyone is now guaranteed $29,911.

2:00pm: We’re still waiting for things to slow down here in the Amazon Room but they’ve hit the first break and have lost more than 100 players in those two hours.

The rail is shrinking before our eyes as the tables are removed from the Amazon Room and the lines are moved. More and more spectators are beginning to fill the room on the last Sunday of the WSOP. It’s their last chance on vacation to see their favorite pros in action. Phil Ivey had the lucky draw and his table is right up against the rail causing a nice traffic jam between the feature table and the door leading out of the room.

The spectators were asked to clear the room so the players can easily get away from the room, a much more relevant request when half the room was not a vast sea of emptiness. But they obeyed the order and the silence keeping us company.

That hour was not a friendly one for Phil Ivey as he’s taken some hits and is dropping down to a much smaller stack. He still has plenty of chips to play with but not the dominant stack at the today anymore. Jordan Morgan is sitting pretty much around the same as he started and Vitaly Lunkin has been busted from the event.

Notable bustouts during that level were poker legend Bobby Baldwin, Vitaly Lunkin, and Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul.

We had a fine laugh earlier in the Main Event watching Baldwin’s table. It was pretty obvious that most, if not all, the young guns at the table had no clue they were sitting with one of the greatest names in the history of poker.

It’s tough to keep up with the tables breaking down so quickly

You can read the rest of the live blog after the jump:

3:00pm: During the 20 minutes break I popped into the Brasilia Room which is hosting one last tournament. Although not a bracelet event, Dream Team Poker tournaments seem to be a fun way for the players to get one last chance to sling chips in a Rio conference room. A quick run through the room found Gavin Smith, Jon “Pearljammer” Turner, Jerry Yang, Tom McEvoy, Lacey Jones, and Tournament Director extraordinaire Matt Savage. I won’t be paying too much attention to that event given we’re trying to crown a WSOP World Champion but it is an interesting side not.

Prior to the break, it seems that “friends of the blog” Tom Schneider and Kevin Saul both found themselves in a monster pot. “BeL0WaB0Ve” was holding Big Slick and way behind “Donkey Bombers” aces. Saul was crippled and eliminated on the next hand.

The pace has finally slowed down after that hectic first level of the day. In the last hour we’ve only lost around 30 players. We are starting to hear some big noises from the crowds around the feature table, from our long distance perch it seems they just witnessed a AK versus AK hand that found someone hitting a four flush. More details on those hands when I come back with the 4pm update.

274 players remain and the next prizepool jump occurs at 288.

4:20pm: (Update postponed to correspond with the next break)

I believe we’ve finally hit the point where we have more spectators than players remaining. The official count now sits at 232 players. Less than 60 players need to be eliminated before play is done for the day. It appears we’ll have another early night.

Full Tilters Fabrice Soulier and Jim Akenhead made big headway during Level 19 and with Akenhead now leading the field. Jordan Morgan and Blair Hinkle are still working their stack and Phil Ivey hasn’t given up after losing some big pots. “Friend of the blog” Joe Sebok has also taken a hit but still grinding away looking for the Main Event final table.

Recent eliminations had “Action” Dan Harrington, secret-blogger-crush Kara Scott, and blogger Ashely “Actyper” Cheung hitting the rails.

In Dream Team Poker event news, I will pulling for Team Tao of Pokerati to win it all. They include Dr. Pauly, Dan “Pokerati” Michalski and Lana “LJ” Maier.

For entertainment sake, I will show you how my view has changed from the first week of the WSOP til now.

The view from my media perch in the Amazon Room to start the series

Amazon Room completely changed by Day 5 of the Main Event

5:30pm: It is pretty much a given at this point that we will not be playing the entire 5 levels scheduled for the day. With around an hour left before finishing the third level of the day we are only ~30 players away from the 175 player cutoff. The hands are still going fast and furious even with the hold up for each all in waiting for the cameras.

I caught my favorite hand of the day as I walked up the Joe Sebok’s table with them in the middle of betting the TTx flop. By the end of the hand Sebok had moved up to 1.2M in chips by cracking Kings with the almighty 75c. His opponent looked pretty nauseous after Sebok tabled his hand. And another dream is crushed.

During that hour we had Phil Ivey build his stack back up after eliminated an opponent and Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider moving into the chip lead with 2,900,000 in chips. Schneider had a pretty miserable series up until this point but seems to be doing it at the right time.

6:30pm: The players will once again be treated to a very early evening, play will be complete for the day at the end of the third level of the day. Tournament Director Jack Effel made the announcement that with 195 players remaining with 30 minutes remaining.

No one can honestly say they could see this coming. Players will return for Day 6 at noon tomorrow starting at Level 21.

The bustouts slowed after the first level of the day but they have been consistent ever since. I’m sure the head honchos are discussing whether it would be worth it to send all players on a 90 minute dinner break only to come back and play to bust a little over one table worth of players.

Phil Ivey is chipping back up nicely and sitting with over 1,200,000 chips and Nick Schulman busted with AQ versus AK. Other members of Team Full Tilt are looking very solid as the night comes to a close.

Below are some of the unofficial chip counts as they bag up for the evening. The counts are as close as I can get before the numbers come out in the morning. We will back live blogging for Day 6, will that be the day the pace finally slows down?

James Akenhead – 2,900,000
Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider – 2,900,000
Fabrice Soulier – 1,450,000
Jordan Morgan – 1,400,00
Blair Hinkle – 1,100,000
Joe Sebok – 1,100,000
Phil Ivey – 1,050,000
David Benyamine – 640,000
Peter Eastgates – 660,000

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