2009 World Series of Poker Day 47 – Main Event Day 6 Live Blog

Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail

Day 6 of the 2009 World Series of Poker kicked off just a few moments past noon and we already know that the days of getting away from the Amazon Room early are a thing of the past. Jack Effel announced to the room that we will be playing 5 levels today, no matter the number of players remaining. That means the 185 players starting the day will 10 full hours of poker to make it through to Day 7. With breaks that will take them close to 12:30am.

With the shrinking field the media access (the non-ESPN variety) has been restricted to a cattle chute along the rail between the spectators and tables. It will make covering the day rather difficult but I will tough it out for you my faithful reader.

There are quite a few Full Tilt pros alive and well for a Championship bracelet including Phil Ivey who stormed back at the end of the day to finish up with 1,380,000 chips. There are two former WSOP Champs also in contention. Defending champ Peter Eastgate starts with 927,000 and Joe Hachen with 540,000. Friend-of-the-blog Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider is in the top 5 and will be on the ESPN feature for the day. Phil Ivey and David Benyamine will begin the day on the same table, no a feature table by a weird change.

I will post the complete starting list after the jump and continue to move it to the bottom to keep the live blog uncluttered. Here are a few Team Full Tilt members and other notables:

Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider – 3,168,000
James Akenhead – 2,692,000
Fabrice Soulier – 1,663,000
Phil Ivey – 1,380,000
Blair Hinkle – 1,284,000
Jordan Morgan – 1,202,000
Joe Sebok – 992,000
Peter Eastgate – 927,000
David Benyamine – 764,000
Joe Hachem – 540,000

1:00pm: They may not have set a hard number that would end play for the day, but we continue on a torrid pace of knockouts even at this stage of the game. 15 players were sent to the rail in the first 30 minutes of play alone. That includes Team Full Tilt member Jordan “iMsoLucky0” Morgan. By the time I hit the publish button on this update, a full 20 players have been dropped. Fabrice Soulier seemed to be making the most noise for Team Full Tilt but it’s still early.

Players busting at this point will receive $36,626. The next pay jump to $40,288 occurs with 162nd place.

In another sign that we are winding things down, the much used and much dreaded Poker Kitchen has been shutdown for the series. It wasn’t the greatest food in the world, in fact you could consider yourself lucky if you received mediocre fare, but it was quick access to sustenance when it was needed most.

In Dream Team Poker news, friends and fellow bloggers Dr. Pauly and Dan “Pokerati” Michalski made the final 3 tables. They are in the money and look to be the favorite to win the overall team championship.

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

2:00pm: The players are heading off on their first break of the day. 145 players remain and I think the entire room is starting to realize that the last two short days my bite us later. There very well may be some very long nights ahead of us as we play down to the November Nine.

Hour 2 saw Phil Ivey continue to build his chip stack and now inches closer to 2,000,000 but Blair Hinkle’s day has been on a slow slide down the leaderboard. The rest of the team seems to be grinding it along as the rest of the field drops around them. We’ve seen very little action amongst the monster stacks. Everyone who busts from 100th to 162nd will receive a $40,288 consolation prize.

We had a visitor this afternoon in the press box. Amy Calistri came in with “Poker Shrink” Dr. Tim Lavalli to greet her old friends in the media. Most people will know them as the writing team that worked with Mike Matusow on his autobiography “Check-Raising The Devil”. An excellent read and highly recommended.

3:20pm: I’ll not bore you with petty complaints about media access to the tables as the field shrink. The cattle chute is about the width of a small sidewalk and the spectators are not quiet in their displeasure when I stop to view action at the tables. It’s the nature of the beast and will just be dealt with.

As of this update we are down to 134 players with one more hour at this level. The play is remarkably slower today as players begin to realize WSOP glory is within their sites. Some also realize they can capitalize on the television exposure and spend a lot of time tanking.

Both Phil Ivey and Jim Akenhead eliminated opponents this hour in KK versus AK hands and Fabrice Soulier kicked a player to the rail with AK versus tens. Both Ivey and Akenhead have been moved to the secondary ESPN feature table and will seen during the broadcast. Not to lay too much of a jinx on it all, but Team Full Tilt members are having a fine Main Event Day 6.

Friend of the blog Joe Sebok is having a hard time getting any traction at the table but Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider continues his blazing run with over 4,000,000 in chips. Kenny Tran has quietly moved over the 1,000,000 mark. We’re still 30+ knockouts from the next boost in cash payouts are there are 7 hours of play remaining in the day.

In Dream Team Event news, friends on the Tao of Pokerati have locked up the first place team prize and are both still grinding away as they near the final two tables.

4:20pm: The second break of the day is upon us and there were a number of eliminations in that last hour with online qualifier Blair Hinkle heading out of the room to cash for 129th place money. 115 players are still alive and things seem to be getting a little more tense in the Amazon Room.

We’ve seen some spectators escorted from the room for various infractions, the usual culprit is the always annoying flash photography. The security guards seem especially surly this afternoon but they have spent quite a bit of time holding off the hordes. The Media access cattle chute has shrunk to nothing and it’s become a game to dodge the cocktail servers who have also taken it as their own path.

Just one more level before the players will take their 90 minutes dinner break. Ivey is still chugging along at the secondary feature table, “Donkey Bomber” is moving closer to the chip lead, and Joe Sebok is having a tough day but grinding it out. Per his twitter update, “Second break. I have 502k. 118 players left. They’ll have to drag my ass out of this one if they want me gone.”

7:30pm: Better late than never! Internet issues, problems with the blogging software and more kennel cough chopped the legs right out from under me so I spent the time walking the floor and elbow throwing practice with the rude-birds. Everything seems to be back in place and we have 4 more hours of play.

The last level got us very close to double digit players remaining. Shortly before the dinner break we had David Benyamine hit the rail and one less Tilter. Benyamine had the misfortune to catch AA against 33 who caught a two outter. We also lost one of the two former WSOP Main Event Champions when Joe Hachem finally succumbed to his opponents. He had been working a shortstack for most of the day but hit the rail just prior to Benyamine. Your defending Champion Peter Eastgate is alive and well.

Phil Ivey and Fabrice Soulier continue to be the leaders for Full Tilt. Ivey once again found someone willing to put his tournament life on the line against his pocket kings and Soulier continues to quietly build his stack all day long. Ivey sits at the secondary feature table with 2,680,000 and Soulier with 3,550,000.

Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider saw his chip stack cut in half when an opponent hit a gutter ball and Joe Sebok has been getting pulled down throughout the day. Luckily he’s been running hot after the dinner break.

This is how the rail looked yesterday as the tables were broken down and the boundaries adjusted. Some took the comfy approach and lounged on the floor.

This is how it looks today with the massive crowds around the tables

8:30pm: The 101 remaining players have returned from their 90 minute dinner break. We will see if that energizes the action or we have a room full of players in a food coma. Two more bustouts at the current payout level of $40,288. Places 91 through 99 will each receive $47,003.

This dinner break post was brought to you by the fine folks making pizza in the Sports Deli. They have treated me right these last two months.

9:30pm: Phil Ivey is one of the top poker players in the world, but even then it takes quite a bit of luck to punch through one of the monster fields to take it down. Ivey had one of those lucky hands this hour when he hit a two outter and knocked out a player. All the money went in preflop with his Jacks way behind Queens but he didn’t have a long time to sweat it as the third jack hit the flop. That moved him up near 3,300,000 in chips.

We dropped 11 players in that level and we are now looking at 90 players in the room. 10 tables of Main Event hopefuls. They have reached a new level of payouts, 82nd through 90th will receive $57,991.

Joe Sebok and his shortstack were moved to the ESPN feature table where he managed a double up but still has a lot of work ahead of him.

10:45pm: Just one more level today and we’re wrapping it up. 81 players still with at the bracelet. We lost one member of Full Tilt over the last hour in Kenny Tran. He fought the good fight with less than stellar ammunition and will pocket $57,991.

Phil Ivey and Fabrice Soulier continue to lead the remaining Full Tilt players but both took a few hits since our last update but are still holding steady. Joe Sebok on the feature table once again found another double up and sitting on 600k. Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider continues his slide down the leaderboard with just over 1,000,000.

The room is getting awfully quiet as the field now has just a few tables in the outter part of the Amazon Room. Spectators are still crowding around the two feature tables but the most of the room is covered in darkness. The bullpen used during the series for the high limit cash games and the abandoned cashier cages are the only proof that there were juicy games running at all time.

11:45pm: It seem that the start of each level is Phil Ivey time. Hopefully he’ll be able to hold onto these chips as he eliminated a player in the first hour. He put a lot of chips in the pot on a flush draw the hit on the river, taking him near 6,000,000 and easily into the top 10 chip counts.

We will not have a repeat champion this year as the 2008 World Series of Poker Champion Peter Eastgate was knocked out early in the hour. The odd title of “Last Woman Standing” was earned by Leo Margets when Nichoel Peppe was eliminated in 75th place. Joe Sebok continues to work the short stack and grinding hard.

Less than one short hour of play and just 71 players remain. 64th to 72nd make a cool $90,344 for their efforts.

12:45pm: The long Day 6 is over and the field has been whittled down to 64 players, all coming back tomorrow to play down to 27. Phil Ivey continued his last level heater and finished the day very close to having the chip lead. Won’t know until the official chip counts come out but he near 6,500,000 in chips. No one can be very comfortable having him stacked that high with just 63 players between himself and his first World Championship.

Also sticking around for Day 7 will be Fabrice Soulier, James Akenhead, Joe Sebok, Tom “Donkey Bomber” Schneider and Antonio Esfandiari. The players are bagging up their chips and looking to get a good night’s rest before returning tomorrow at noon.

I’ll be back tomorrow to continue the live blogging, this could be the day we play very deep into the evening.

Day 6 starting order:

1	Zackey, Waren	4,872,000
2	Cordes, Kasper	4,352,000
3	Moon, Darvin	3,218,000
4	Schneider, Tom	3,168,000
5	Perner, Bernhard	3,022,000
6	Puumalainen, Miika	2,894,000
7	Affleck, Matt	2,882,000
8	Elias, Charlie	2,780,000
9	Akenhead, James	2,692,000
10	Begleiter, Steven	2,621,000
11	Katchalov, Eugene	2,544,000
12	Boeken, Noah	2,338,000
13	Lamb, Ben	2,271,000
14	Robbins, Jamie	2,251,000
15	Luu, Hieu	2,181,000
16	Schaffel, Kevin	2,141,000
17	Kopp, Billy	2,100,000
18	Hensel, Reed	2,091,000
19	Flakstad, Andreas	2,090,000
20	Palovic, Dag	1,896,000
21	McLaughlin, Marc Etienne	1,881,000
22	Balmigere, Francois	1,871,000
23	Ramage, Grayson	1,842,000
24	Lacay, Ludovic	1,817,000
25	Shou, Tian	1,802,000
26	Magidov, Elad	1,762,000
27	Vedes, Tommy	1,728,000
28	Tran, Thai	1,707,000
29	Patchell, Joel	1,701,000
30	Nguyen, Anh Van	1,687,000
31	Nourafchan, Hamid	1,664,000
32	Soulier, Fabrice	1,663,000
33	Prendes, Alex	1,661,000
34	Brice, Jason	1,637,000
35	Peppe, Nichoel	1,630,000
36	Johnson, Paul	1,606,000
37	Ward, Joseph	1,583,000
38	Vezina, Gabriel	1,552,000
39	Boyd, Craig	1,545,000
40	Clark, Chuck	1,543,000
41	Smith, Jordan	1,486,000
42	Tardea, Cristian	1,475,000
43	Pham, Hung	1,463,000
44	Whalen, Bob	1,400,000
45	Ivey, Phil	1,380,000
46	Fair, Ryan	1,372,000
47	Cook, Scott	1,365,000
48	Haabak, Jesse	1,357,000
49	El Nasr, Nasr	1,329,000
50	Propson, Randy	1,326,000
51	Kahlmeyer, Tim	1,315,000
52	Hanson, Brennan	1,288,000
53	Dang, Hac	1,286,000
54	Hinkle, Blair	1,284,000
55	Levy, Steve	1,278,000
56	Shulman, Jeff	1,266,000
57	Gomez Rebenaque, Jose Manuel	1,260,000
58	Esfandiari, Antonio	1,227,000
59	Panayiotou, Eracles	1,212,000
60	Brecard, Julien	1,211,000
61	Tran, Theo	1,205,000
62	Morgan, Jordan	1,202,000
63	Wiseman, Royal	1,198,000
64	Sanders, Steve	1,169,000
65	Mattes, Marco	1,119,000
66	Brown, Jamie	1,109,000
67	Duvall, Jeff	1,087,000
68	Labandeira, Manuel	1,087,000
69	Lichtenberger, Andrew	1,086,000
70	Saca, George	1,061,000
71	Buchman, Eric	1,057,000
72	Bilzerian, Adam	1,056,000
73	Gordo, Fernando	1,052,000
74	Latimer, Adam	1,052,000
75	Tamayo, Jonathan	1,040,000
76	Serock, Joe	1,014,000
77	Corrado, Montagna	1,012,000
78	Phillips, Dennis	1,009,000
79	Woodley, Ian	1,005,000
80	Sebok, Joe	992,000
81	Casella, Michael	982,000
82	Grospellier, Bertrand	973,000
83	Eastgate, Peter	927,000
84	Leikos, Vesa	906,000
85	Rodman, Blair	905,000
86	Rusnak, Frank	903,000
87	Bach, Christopher	901,000
88	Coulthard, Aaron	901,000
89	Bohlman, Scott	893,000
90	Saout, Antoine	893,000
91	Lightman, Sarne	889,000
92	Martin, Lapostolle	860,000
93	Jansen, Michael	852,000
94	Saieva, Maurizio	837,000
95	Degrou, Loic	801,000
96	Gifford, Ryan	800,000
97	Zabib, Marty	799,000
98	Hart, Ryan	789,000
99	Sitron, Scott	778,000
100	Ismay, Wesley	773,000
101	Benyamine, David	764,000
102	Tran, Kenny	752,000
103	Calderaro, James	745,000
104	Cada, Joseph	736,000
105	Mahrenholz, Karl	731,000
106	Tran, J.C.	720,000
107	Friedman, Prahlad	715,000
108	van den Berg, Thierry	703,000
109	Powell, Brian	702,000
110	Bjorin, Chris	693,000
111	Sar, Alper	691,000
112	Luht, Joe	687,000
113	Maimone, Nick	684,000
114	Diaz, David	682,000
115	Gurevich, Alex	674,000
116	Martin, John	673,000
117	South, Cole	670,000
118	Merichko, Michael	667,000
119	McGlone, Tony	659,000
120	Abrantes, Mark	656,000
121	Nargentino, Luis	655,500
122	Caragiorgas, George	655,000
123	Crowe, Owen	640,000
124	Rosenkrantz, Jose	630,000
125	Routos, Jim	630,000
126	Hartley, Jim	619,000
127	Ader, Mark	611,000
128	Mourshaki, Abraham	608,000
129	Bonavena, Salvatore	596,000
130	Adler, Eli	578,000
131	York, Adam	572,000
132	Abdalla, Jake	571,000
133	Palevic, Rifat	571,000
134	Hansen, Brian	549,000
135	Margets, Leo	544,000
136	Swidler, Carter	542,000
137	Hachem, Joe	540,000
138	Monnette, John	531,000
139	Greco, Michael	518,000
140	Tran, Don	516,000
141	McMahon, Billy	515,000
142	Jalali, Alex	505,000
143	Kazazian, Harry	501,000
144	Goulding, Kent	500,000
145	Stoykov, Mihail	498,000
146	Bilzerian, Dan	491,000
147	Tavelli, Ian	470,000
148	Palacios, Bolivar	444,000
149	Vazquez, Roy	444,000
150	Neilson, Daniel	439,000
151	Comer, Michael	430,000
152	Lawrence, Joey	428,000
153	Teens, Edward	421,000
154	Catalano, Brent	413,000
155	Stacey, Dwayne	410,000
156	Lauria, Bob	405,000
157	Gelman, Herbie	404,000
158	Greer, Leonard	397,000
159	Nguyen, Minh Nhat	387,000
160	Heich, Cristian	381,000
161	Nguyen, Viet	363,000
162	Blackman, Scott	356,000
163	Minetti, Mike	351,000
164	Smith, Paul	348,000
165	Kerr, Bryan	344,000
166	Sanders, Joseph	341,000
167	Sharaskin, Igor	337,000
168	Katz, Cary	335,000
169	Craig, Bradley	320,000
170	Lachance, Ludovic	302,000
171	Thomsen, Seth	302,000
172	Stokes, Jamin	292,000
173	Alisheik, Taher	281,000
174	Eskenazi, Scott	270,000
175	Crivello, Craig	253,000
176	Baron, Paul	249,000
177	Newman, Clayton	244,000
178	Thompson, Greg	240,000
179	Smith, Danny	214,000
180	Cloutier, Eric	212,000
181	Allen, Robert	173,000
182	Law, Bobby	163,000
183	Jensen, Benjamin	132,000
184	Riley, Bob	122,000
185	Longobardi, Alessandro	109,000