We are finished for the day. The remaining players will to to bed and take really good care of themselves now. Hahahahahaha........NOT!

The remaining players and their seat assignments are ready to go.

And that player is........................ John D'Agostino. Andrew 'AK' Barta takes out the last to go today. John raised preflop and was of course called by Andrew Barta. The flop came the 6d 3s 3c. John bet at the pot for 15K. Andrew one upped him and raised John to an all in status if called. It was. Andrew showed the 7h 7c and John the As 6c. With the 8h on the turn and Ts on the river, The sevens beat the sixes and sent John packing.

One more unlucky player to go and we are finished for the day.

Jack Schroth moves into the empty seat left by Chris Ferguson.

Larry from Bluff just told me Chris Ferguson and John Robert Bellande had dinner together at break. If you recall, Chris was crippled by Paul Magriel before dinner and as was John Robert Bellande by Ralph Pecorale. After dinner, both Chris and John Robert met their appropriate nemesis and the pre-break slaughter was complete.

Cong Do is all in for 24,500 and is called by Ray Lin. Cong Do shows the Qh 4h and Ray the Ah Qc. The board comes the 7c 5s 5d Ac and Cong is dead in the water. The river is a Kh and Cong Do is outta here!

Chris Ferguson couldnt stand the call by Paul Magriel and makes his way out of the arena out of the money. Chris had the Ad Kd while Paul had a made pair of tens. The board arrived the Qc 7c Jh 4s 6c to to give Paul the win and take down.

Mark Seif reduces the field once again. He takes out Jesse Martin. Jesse forced all his chips into the middle and was given a call by Mark Seif. Jesse had the Qd 8c and Mark the Ks 7c. Mark started out ahead and stayed that way with a board showing the Ac 9c 2s 6d Tc.

JohnRobert Bellande heads straight out the door flushed and unhappy. Post flop he is heads up with Ralph Pecorale. On the turn JohnRobert gets the nut straight and on the river he caught a flush....except that Ralph has a bigger one unfortunately for John Robert. JohnRobert had the 3c 6c (for some reason) and Ralph the Kc Qc. The board was the 4c 5c Kd, the turn the 2s for the straight and the 8c for the flush.

We lose a few more. Sentil Kumar, Gerald Cheatham and Pete Skyllas.

OK. The current chip count, in order of chip stack, courtesy of Heather is as follows:

The chip count is being done. Because we only have 4 tables left and we swapped feature tables around again, it was futile to try to get them during break. Hang tight, they will be up in a few. We are in two different rooms and have to run back and forth to get anything done.

During the break Chris Ferguson was sailing a deck of cards, one at a time across the arena. They would get lost in the rafters and come floating down 50 yards away. I can barely toss cards across a table much less into orbit. Cool trick.

We lose a player already. Alan Colon leaves under a crushing blow by John D'Agostino.

Feature table in main arena:

Change of feature tables. Players are getting "micced" up for their turn in front of the cameras.

We are down to 36 players.

They have decided to take a dinner break now. So, the players will return around 6:15 pm. Get a beer, watch the news, talk amongst yourselves. See ya then.

Paul Magriel damages Chris Ferguson. Chris bet the river and Paul raised triggering a reraise from Chris. Paul took that opportunity to push all in. Chris folded. Bluff to bluff? We will never know. Chris is now down to about 45K and Paul has beefed up his stack to 200K.

Aw man. One of my favorite players took out one of my favorite players. Kathy Liebert and Amir Marmar go at it head to head. Kathy check raised Amir on the flop of the Jd 7h Ts. Amir called all in. Kathy showed the Ks Qh and Amir the Ad 7c. The turn of death came a Kd giving Kathy two pair with a redraw to an open ended straight. Amir needed one of four outs, another 7 to beat her two pair or a Q to make him a straight. An Ace would be fatal. A blank 4d hit the river and removed Amir Marmar from todays competition.

The feature table chip count at break:

Hahaha...the announcer just introduced the players again. Rathe Miller began throwing kisses to the crowd. Too funny.

We will move to level 12. The ante will be 500 with 1500 / 3000 blinds. The black chips will be removed from action.

Wow. Im sitting in the middle of a big arena and a pigeon just buzzed my head. We have 5 minutes left at this level and we will take a 15 minute break...unless we switch out players. With the chip leader at the feature table, perhaps we will stay put. Cross your fingers.

Another group of vitims have left their places. Thomas Koral, Jay Park, Brian Haveson, Blake Buffington, and Mickey Finn have taken their leave.

Pecorale calls the raise by Steve Brecher as does John Robert Bellande. The flop comes the 6h 9d 9h. Checked. The turn is the 8s . It is check to Steve and he bets 16K. Ralph folds as does John Robert. Brecher reinforces his chip count.

Looks like we are are possibly under 40 players now. Hard to keep up from two locations. But Im givin' it my best.

Allen Kessler raises 12K from the button and takes the blinds and antes fortifying his growing stack.

Andrew Barta takes Erik Seidel to the taxi stand for a ride home. Erik pitted big slick against a pair of queens and hit nada.

In the cutoff position, Allen Kessler shoves all in. Mark Seif, on the button, calls. Mark has the Ad 3d and Allen a pair of jacks. The flop comes the 6c Kd 8c, the turn the 3c and the river the 2s doubling Allen Kessler for about 35K taking him to 70K or so.

30 minutes left at this level with 43 players still seated.

Mark Seif is on or about the half mil mark now. He is by far the chippie hands down.

Steve Brecher makes his all in move the next hand for about 72K. With action behind him he waits. No one plays and he takes the blinds and antes.

In a tough call for John Robert Bellande, he gives up a load of chips to Ralph Pecorale. The board is showing the 6s 8c Qd 2d. Ralph pushed all in for 74K. John Robert leaned back in his chair, put his arms behind his head and muttered to himself and then to Ralph. He then made the call. Ralph showed a pair of cowboys and John Robert an A Q. With only one card to go, John Robert had only 5 outs to make magic. The river was a 7c and doubled Ralph up plus some.

Allen Kessler will join the final table in seat 7along with Rathe Miller in seat 9. Allen looks like he has about 32K in chips.

James White, Mark Seif and Ralph Pecorale in a three way pot. Flop comes the Kh Qj Js. Ralph bet 20K and the other two get the heck out of dodge.

Men 'The Master' Nguyen knocks out Tom Coan. After Tom Coan limped, Men raised to 5K. Tom took the opportunity to push all for another 25K and Men called. Tom showed a K J and Men an A Q. After an uneventful board, Men and his ace high took the pot and took Tom Coan along with it.

Eric Crain takes Bo Toft out.

Chad Moore gets his chance to go all in the next hand. Mark calls Chad now too. Mark shows the Kc Qh and Chad has the Ad 5c. The flop comes the Kd 4h Jc, the turn was the Th and the river was the 8c. Mark takes Chad out of play. Another one bites the dust at the hands of Mark Seif.

Lance Funston raises to 5K and gets a call from Mark Seif. Side by side they see the flop. The flop brings 9c 6d 7s. Mark checks and Lance bets 7K. Mark promptly calls. The 6s lands on the turn. Mark checks and Lance bets 10K. Mark chats it up with Lance for a few seconds and opts to raise 20K more. Uh oh. Puts Lance on the defense now. He takes a sip of a cold brew, stares at his dwindling chip stack and says "all in". Mark stands up and says "call.". Lance shows Q Q and Mark the 6 2. Mark has three of a kind and Lance doesnt. The river brings the 3s and Lance is finished giving Mark another huge amount of chips.

Senthil put it all n the middle with an AQ and Mark called. The call was for 21,800. Mark had the Tc Jc. The flop brought the 3d Qs 8c, the turn a 3s and the river a 7d. Senthil ekes by and doubles up.

I had a great visit with Mark Seif the other night after he won the Stud event. He told me that he and Jennifer are expecting a baby girl in February. Today he gave me a big hug after the first break and giggled saying "baby needs new shoes!" He is so sweet. He is great ambassador for the game of poker.

Thanks to Heather...we have a chip count from the other room.

{mostime:10/06/2005 15:11

We have just come off brea and the ante is now 300 with 1000 / 2000 blinds.

54 players remain. We will play to 27 players.

The feature table will begin like this:

We lost Cameron Scott on the feature table.

Players are dropping like flies. In the main room, we have dropped Patrick Arena, Chris Furbert, Juan Vazquez, Mike Sukonik, and Rizquallah Abusued.

With very few chips in front of him, Tommy Vu makes a play and loses. He is out. In a previous hand he was severly crippled by Alan Colon. Tommy had a Kc Jc and ran into big slick. The board came the Tc 8h 5h 6d Ac. Colon took a dandy pot of about 50K and left Tommy with about 3K.

Bobby "The Professional" Chung is eliminated in a hand against Eric Craine and John-Robert Bellande. The board showed the 2s 4s 2c Ac 7h. John-Robert had the Ad Kc, Eric the Ah Ks and Bobby the 8d 8s. The pot was chopped and Bobby was dropped.

Layne Flack had pocket tens and he went up against pocket aces held by Kevin Chan. After a nine high flop, both got it all in. The last two cards were blanks and Layne is gone. 58 players remain.

Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi calls it a day. He pushed in with pocket kings and got called in two places. James White and Wally Wei added to a huge pot and made a side. When it was all said and done, James showed the Ad Kd. The flop came two diamonds and then a third on the river to make the flush for James and get a twofer in taking out both Grinder and Wally Wei. Unfortunate for Michael, the turn brought the desired K for a set, only to no avail.

Men Nguyen doubles up, Kathy Liebert doubles up and Erik Seidel knocks out Matthew Glantz.

Chad Moore takes Gavin Smith's seat and tries to make some headway with his waning chip count.

Steve Dannenmann is out already too. It was that fateful AQ versus AK hand we have all played and we have all died the same painful death.

First hand was a huge huge hand. Gavin bet 15K on the flop and Mark smooth called. The flop brought 8s 4c 4h. Gavin bet 50K and Mark called on the turn of Jd. The river came a 5h and Gavin made it all his stack to go and Mark called. Gavin turned over a pair of queens and Mark....just a pair of fours for two pair........quads! Mark Seif eliminates Gavin Smith and begins his reign as chip leader! He now sits with about 285K in chips.

The cards are in the air and we are off and running!!!

The main feature table today will include these players to kick off the day:

The second feature table will include these players:

All the ESPN crew is scurrying around getting the feature table all ready to go. I am in my little area that I found yesterday to get a good connection to the internet. I will have to give the ESPN crew a great big thank you for being so kind to me yesterday. They moved me, a monitor and speaker from place to place inside the arena until we found a signal worth the time. Very nice group of people here at the Taj.

Ending yesterday and beginning today

By seating order:

By Stack size: