With eight players at the table Allen Cunningham opened for a raise to 6,000 in late position. Than Nguyen called on the button, and Jason Riesenberg called from the big blind. All three players checked the flop of and the turn brought the . Riesenberg checked and Cunningham bet 8,000. Nguyen thought for a moment and called the bet, and Riesenberg folded. The river was the , putting four to a straight and three to a flush on the board. Cunningham thought for a moment, then decided to make another bet of 8,000. Nguyen, who appeared frustrated, finally called the bet with and lost the pot to Cunningham's . With this pot Cunningham is now up to 80,000 in chips and players are on a 15-minute break.
Professional poker player Peter 'Nordberg' Feldman has just been eliminated from the tournament by fellow pro Ralph Perry. Feldman opened the pot with a standard pre-flop raise holding pocket kings and Perry made the call holding Q-10. The flop came Q-10-6 and all of the money went into the middle. Perry's top two pair held up when the turn and river blanked out, sending Feldman to the rail with $6,441 in prize money.
John Theisen was just eliminated from the tournament by Blair Hinkle after getting it all in pre-flop holding A-6 against Hinkle's K-Q. The board ran out 4-4-J-Q-5 and Hinkle's two pair, queens and fours, were good enough to take down the pot. Theisen picked up $6,441 for his efforts.
Adam Geyer raised to 5,500 before the flop as the first player in from late position. Sabel Cohen called from the big blind. The flop came and Cohen pushed her last 4,000 into the pot. Geyer quickly called showing for top pair top kicker, a slight favorite over Cohen's . Geyer's hand held up and Cohen is out of the tournament in 35th place for $6,441.
Elie Said got all of his money into the middle before the flop holding A-Q and found himself in bad shape against an opponent's big slick. Unable to catch the help he needed to stay alive, Said was sent to the rail in 36th place, good for a $6,441 payday.
From late position David Levi raised 8,000 before being re-raised by Clint Roberts, who bumped the action up to 20,000. Faced with a decision, Levi put the pedal down and drove the rest of his 62,000 chips toward the middle of the felt. A call from Roberts, who was holding , set the pre-flop showdown as Levi revealed . The flop dealt a critical blow in the race between the two as the dealer spread . The on the turn was no help to Levi, and the river slammed the door shut on Levi. Levi played well enough to make it to Day 2, but left the World Series Circuit Championship event as the last player to be eliminated with out receiving a payout.
We just got word that we've lost our 37th place finisher and the remaining 36 players are in the money. We'll have the details of the hand available momentarily.
The tournament will now be played hand-for-hand until the field is narrowed to four tables of nine players each. Things could potentially slow to a crawl over the next couple of hours as we wait for the bubble to burst.
A recent hand just took place between former tournament chip leader Max Reele and consummate tournament pro Ralph Perry that had onlookers scratching their heads.
On a board showing Max passed the first action to Ralph who led out with a 10,000 bet; Max made the call.
The turn brought the and Max check-called another bet from Ralph, this time worth 20,000.
The last card off the deck was the and Reele attempted to take down the pot with a 60,000 bet, but Ralph wasn't having it, as he moved all in for just 12,000 more. Much to the amazement of the rest of the table, Reele tossed his cards into the muck, forfeiting the hand to Perry.
Max dropped to 167,000 in chips with the loss while Perry climbed to just under 200,000 for the day.
The players have returned from break and the cards are in the air. The tournament staff has just announced that hand-for-hand play will begin after one more player has been eliminated.