Champ Dario Minieri (ImageMasters)

The last hour has seen Dario trying to push the push the action a little bit more than Seth Fischer. We've seen a lot of preflop raises taking down the blinds.

Fischer pushes all-in

On a board of 8 Q 8 4 Q  with Fischer betting out each street, Minieri is check-raised all-in by Fischer. Minieri doesn't take much time to decide to fold and Fischer scoops a nice pot.

The room erupts!

Dario Minieri gets it all-in preflop holding the 3 4 . Fischer tables the K K  and is solidly in the lead. But, when the flop comes 2 9 J  Dario picks up a little more life. The turn brings the 4  and a lot more hope, and when the river card is the 4  the whole room erupts in disbelief and celebration. Minieri doubles up and has about 3 million chips to the 2 million of Fischer.

Dario Minieri wins.

Facing a preflop raise from Minieri, Seth Fischer decided to play back and pushed his shorter stack all-in. Minieri took no time to call, and flipped over Queens (which happened to be a hand he held often at this final table). Fischer tabled the K 10  and would get no help from the dealer as the board played out 5 A A 2 3 . Seth Fischer has been eliminated in second place worth $330,519.

Dario Minieri is our 2008 Event 31 bracelet winner and is now $528,418 richer for his efforts.

Dario doubles up

Minieri raises preflop and the Seth Fischer from the small blind repops the pot. Minieri moves all-in and Fischer calls. Fischer tables the A J  and Minieri tables the Q Q . The board plays out as follows 4 7 4 9 Q  and Dario Minieri doubles up and retakes the chip lead.

And then there were two.

Justin Filtz has been eliminated in third place and will take home $214,139. Preflop Minieri raised, Seth Fischer then reraises and Justin Filtz asks for a count. After getting the count Filtz moved all in for his remaining chips. Minieri mucked and Fischer made the call. Filtz did some pre-river celebration (feel a bad beat coming on?) as he saw the A K  of Fischer and his A A  were well in the lead. The flop came J 9 K  giving Fischer outs, and an unlikely K  on the turn gave him the lead. The J  on the river couldn't rescue Filtz, and we are now heads-up.

Play has resumed. Here are the updated chip counts coming out of the break.

Seth Fischer 2,600,000
Dario Minieri 1,455,000
Justin Filtz 950,000

Players are now on dinner break and will return in about an hour.

Filtz doubles through Minieri.

Filtz, Minieri, and Fischer all limp in and see a flop of A 2 10 . Minieri opens the action with a bet of about 100,000. Fischer folds and Filtz moves all-in. Dario makes the call and tables the Q J  while Filtz tables the 5 3 . Chances are slim for Filtz who is down to limited outs. The turn brings the 4  and the pro-Filtz contigent erupts in cheers. The river brings the other live 4 and Filtz makes and unlikey double through Minieri. Filtz then runs to the first row and fistbumps the group rooting for him.

For the first time since play began, we have a chip leader not named Dario Minieri. With the loss to Filtz, Minieri's stack was hurt enough to let Seth Fischer take the lead. Minieri is now in last, but the margin between all players is less than 200,000.

Just a few short hands after writing the above paragraph, and Dario finds himself back in the lead. He was able to take some chips from Seth Fischer in the following hand. Dario raised it prelop to 160,000 and Fischer called. With a flop of 3 8 7  Minieri leads out with a 200,000 bet. Fischer considers it for about thirty seconds, and finally tosses his cards to the muck. Minieri re-takes the lead on this hand.

And the back and forth continues...

Seth Fischer was able to retake the chip lead taking down a decent preflop pot from Justin Filtz. Filtz seems to be the one least able to make a move, and is trailing the other two.

Fischer continues the fight.

Preflop Seth Fischer pushes his remaining 701,000 chips all-in and Dario Minieri insta-calls. Fischer shows the J J  and Minieri shows the A K . The flop brings the 4 10 10 and Fischer is looking strong. Outs for Minieri got even slimmer on the turn when a 2  fell. And Fischer doubled up when the 7  sealed the hand for him.

Players were sent on another twenty minute break. Cards got back in the air a little before the top of the hour.

Right before heading to the break Seth Fischer played back at Minieri's reraise of Fischer's original prelop raise. Once he pushed all-in, Minieri folded with little hesitation.

Filtz doubles up.

With not many options due to the short stack sitting in front of him, Justin Filtz calls an all-in bet from Dario Minieri on a flop of Q-10-2. Filtz shows the K10 and Minieri Big Slick. Minieri wasn't able to pick up an A nor a J on the  turn nor river, and Justin Filtz has doubled up.

AQ vs AQ. Flush wins (almost).

Justin Filtz and Seth Fischer somehow got involved in a pot without Dario Minieri. Getting their chips to the middle (Fischer being truly all-in) the players both flipped over AQ. The flop brought three clubs along with it, and all of a sudden the Q  in Filtz's hand, brings him one club away from knocking out Fischer. The turn spiked a black card, but it was a spade, and the river bricked out for Filtz and the two chopped the pot.

Seth Fischer and his short stack just won't give up. Facing a preflop raise from Minieri, Fischer calls and the flop brings the 5 Q 7 . Both players check. The turn is the A  and Fishcer makes a pot-sized bet. Dario gives it a little thought and mucks his cards. Fischer continues to battle.

Filtz pushes all-in, but no callers.

After Seth Fischer put in a preflop pot-sized raise, Justin Filtz pushes his remaining 600,000+ into the pot. Fischer takes quite some time to make his decision, finally thinking better of the call and laying down his hand.

Minieri "is putting on a clinic" or so says the ESPN360 commentators. Minieri has switched gears just a bit, and is calling raises instead of raising himself. Whether it is a planned change of pace or just the way the cards needed to be played, so far Minieri is making the right moves.

The ESPN stats crew just put up an interesting fact. Seems Minieri has won 18 of 46 hands played for a win percentage of 39.1. While unable to give exact numbers, it seems likely that Minieri has also been involved in at least 50% of the hands played. And many of those have started and ended preflop due to Dario's endless raising.

Kevin Song has been felted in fourth place and will earn $141,983 for his finish. After the action was folded around to him, Song pushed his remaining chips all-in. Dario Minieri took some time to ponder the call while racking some chips. Finally, Minieri makes the call and shows an A8 which had a decent lead on Song's KJ. The flop nor the turn brought any help for Song, and when the river showed the A it was just more proof of the hot-hand of Dario Minieri.

Fast action has continued to be the norm at this final table. Players are presently on a short twenty minute break.

In the last hour we saw another player exit the tournament area. John O'Shea has been eliminated in fifth place and earned $98,923.

With preflop raises, and the flop showing A 2 5  Seth Fischer raises it up, Kevin Song folds, and O'Shea pushes it all to the middle. Fischer makes a quick call and O'Shea tables 2 4  and Fischer the A 9 . Turn brinfs the Ac and the river the Qd and O'Shea exits the tournament area.

Minieri has continued his active ways in the last hour. In a hand with Seth Fischer, Minieri was able to scoop a pot when his A5 is able to catch an A on the flop. Since Fischer called a bet on the river, we can assume he believed that Minieri was bluffing.

From what we have seen thus far, if Minieri is able to coninue his style of play AND catching cards, he will be very tough to beat.

Cards got back in the air shortly after 2 p.m. PDT. Tournament staffers provided a little unintended entertainment in the form of the player introductions. Either the hand writing was terrible or the director hadn't ran through it all one time as he stumbled, laughed, made the crowd laugh, and finally bumbled his way through all of the names. Likely he, and the rest of the tournament staff, are running on short sleep hours like the rest of us!

In early action so far, Italian Pro Dario Minieri has been active at this final table thus far. He is once again, wearing a scarf at the table. It would be a lot easier to make fun of if the tournament room wasn't 38 degrees faranheit. (OK, it's not that cold, but a scarf could be considered utilitarian today).

A half hour into play here at the final table and we have our first elimination. In a hand that saw Kevin Song raise preflop, Filtz and Minieri both call, and then Stuart Marshak pushes all-in from the small blind. Song lays his hand down, but Filtz reraised and Minieri thinks better of it and lays his hand down. Marshak shows the Q J  and Filtz the Cowboys. A queen would fall on the flop, but no further help on the turn nor the river. Stuart Marshak has been ousted in sixth place and has taken home $73,784.

End of Day 2 chip counts and payout information: