Gavin Smith had slipped down to 12,000 in his match against Raymond Dandrea. He had chipped back a little to 14,500 when he found himself all in following a flop of 
against Dandrea.
Smith held 
for two pair, while Dandrea had 
. The turn was the 
and river the 
, and Smith has doubled back to nearly even with Dandrea.
![[user4144]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
It's a battle of the young guns as Kevin Saul tackles online superstar Dan "djk123" Kelly. At the moment, it's somewhat of a stalemate.
If anything, Kelly has the slight lead, predominately as a result of their last encounter which saw Kelly defend his blind to a raise of 2,000. With both players checking the 
flop, Kelly led out for 2,200 on the 
turn. Saul made the call before check-calling a bet of 4,600 on the 
river, but was quickly shown 
for the rivered full house. Unsurprsingly, Saul mucked his hand and Kelly took the pot.
We're halfway through Level 5. Here are a few counts from around the Pavilion Room:
Evan Roberts -- 49,000
Barny Boatman -- 11,000
David Benyamine -- 45,000
Amritraj Singh -- 15,000
Jeff Madsen -- 36,000
Jamie Brown -- 24,000
Ryan Young -- 32,500
Steve Sung -- 27,5000
Joe Cada -- 42,000
Alexander Venovski -- 18,000
Justin Smith -- 31,000
Travis Klein -- 29,000
Julian Herold -- 37,500
Eric Cajelais -- 22,500
Gabe Kaplan -- 32,000
Dan Shak -- 28,000
Annette Obrestad -- 32,000
Pietro Conti -- 28,000
Eugene Katchalov raised to 1,500 and James Sowers defended his big blind. On the 
flop, Katchalov led for 2,100 and Sowers made the call.
Katchalov upped his bet on the 
turn, firing out 3,200 and, again, Sowers made the call. The river triggered yet another bet, Katchalov sliding 3,800 across the baize.
Showing more resistance than a cat on its way to the veterinary, Sowers once again flat called, but was chagrined to see that Katchalov had him beat all the way with 
.
Kathcalov has his nose in front with 36,000.
Brandon Cantu and Mark Muchnick had battled evenly, with Muchnick having a slight 31,000-to-29,000 advantage when a 
flop inspired enough betting to get all of Cantu's chips in the middle.
Cantu had 
, and was well ahead of Muchnick's 
. But the 
came on the turn, giving Muchnick two pair. The river was the , and Cantu hit the rail. Muchnick moves on to Round 2.
David Benyamine is running rampant over opponent Amritraj Singh. The Frenchman currently has a 56,000 to 4,000 chip advantage and is on the verge of victory.
Level: 5
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 0
Craig Bergeron has knocked out Andrew Pantling. Blair Hinkle beat Jordan Smith. And Jonathan Aguiar has defeated his opponent, John Smith.
Pietro Conti looked as though he had the beating of inaugural WSOP Champion Annette Obrestad, but the Norwegian has clawed the score back to level. With the board reading 
, Obrestad bet 3,000 into a pot of 5,000, only to be called by Conti. Obrestad showed 
, which was good enough to take a much-needed pot.
Darren Woods had chipped Dani Stern down to just 11,000 when Stern committed his stack before the flop with versus Woods' .
The flop came 
, giving Woods a pair but Stern a better club flush draw. But the turn was the 
and river the , and Stern is out.
