In the far corner of the Amazon Room, a patch of open space has sprouted, and is growing larger by the minute. About six tables have been completely removed from the Orange section, leaving a slice of unoccupied casino carpeting the size of a New York City studio apartment beneath Dan Harrington and Huck Seed's banners. To many of us veteran reporters, this is the first sign that the Main Event is closing in on its later stages and the first pinprick of light at the end of the long tunnel that is the World Series of Poker.
A seventh and now an eighth table are now being carted away as we grow ever-closer to the money bubble. It was just announced that there are less than 1,000 players remaining. Today's magic number, again, is 747, and we're likely to get there within the next couple of hours.
After we came back from the break, Johnny Chan had just taken his seat back at the main feature table when an opponent, Jeff Fenech, had a question for him.
Like Chan, Fenech is a world champion himself -- a boxing champion. The Australian was a three-time bantamweight champion, in fact, back in the 1980s.
Fenech had purchased a poker strategy book during the break -- not Chan's own book, Million Dollar Hold'em, incidentally -- and held it up asking Chan whether or not it would help him. We couldn't hear Chan's response, but the two were laughing as the cards were dealt and Fenech quickly put the book away.
Chan won the first pot coming back from the break, and has moved back up over 600,000 now. Fenech, meanwhile, is still punching with his current stack of 135,000.
Action folded to Ronnie "Ronasty" Bardah in the cutoff seat and he raised to 8,000. The player in the big blind made the call and the two saw a flop of . The big blind checked and Bardah. He was the preflop aggressor and stayed aggressive, firing out 8,000. His opponent made the call.
The turn paired the top card on board with the . The big blind fired out first with a bet of 24,000. Bardah made the call to see the river card completed the board with the . The big blind fired 54,300 and Bardah went into the tank. Eventually, he announced that he was all in. This sent the big blind into the tank, well into the break. Bardah sat and sipped his water. We're not sure if this was an act as there was no water in the water bottle Bardah was "sipping" from. Then, the player made the call for all of his 120,000 chips or so.
Bardah tabled the for the nut full house and his opponent mucked. Bardah stood and shook the hand of the player before sitting back down to collect his chips. He's now up to 640,500.
The 2010 Main Event champion is sitting somewhere in the Amazon Room, of this we are certain. The final few tables in the massive Pavilion Room have broken, and the banners of world champions now surround all of the remaining 1,000 players.
Soon, there will be a new banner with one of their faces.
Adam "Roothlus" Levy has emerged as our chip leader with 835,000 to his name. James Carroll is still amongst the leaders with 675,000 chips while both Johnny Lodden and Gerasimos Deres are in the nose-bleeds as well with 750,000 chips and 733,700 chips respectively.
Barry Shulman, Dewey Tomko, Kathy Liebert, Blair Rodman and Matt Graham have all exited the 2010 Main Event while Christian Harder, Scotty Nguyen, Hoyt Corkins and Jean-Robert Bellande all found double-ups to extend their tournament lives.
With two hours of play behind us, we are now on a 20-minute break. When we return, we will play the last hour of Level 14, play one hour of Level 15 and then take another break. From there, the schedule is up in the air. If the money bubble is broken thereafter, it might be a short day at the Rio. But if the money bubble isn’t reached until later, we will play more than four levels.
You can have a snack, go for a smoke or run to the bathroom (good luck with the line), but you better make sure you get back and strap in. With the bubble on the horizon, things are about to get wild in the 2010 Main Event!
In a hand that went into the break, Jonathan "xMONSTERxDONGx" Karamalikis has found a fortunate double up through Tyler Kenney.
Kenney opened the action with a raise to 7,500 before Karamalikis made 20,000 to play. Action folded back around to Kenney who thought for a moment before sliding his entire stack into the middle. Karamalikis raised his eyebrows but quickly called.
Kenney:
Karamalikis:
With fellow Australians Jackie and Jamie Glazier supporting on the rail, there were high fives all around as the board was spread to give Karamalikis and unlikely straight and the double up.
The dealer cut down 94,800 in Karamalikis' stack and Kenney matched it before trudging off to his break. Karamalikis is now up over 200,000 with Kenney down under 40,000.
We caught the action on the turn of the board - the pot was very small. Alex Fitzgerald checked and Michael Maitre bet 20,000 in mid position. Michael Maitre raised to 60,000. Back to Fitzgerald - who now shoved for 310,000. Maitre snap-called.
Maitre: for the nuts
Fitzgerald: for a rather optimistic flush draw.
River:
There was a pause while the stacks were counted, and it turned out that Maitre had Fitzgerald covered. "Bye," said Maitre cheerfully as Fitzgerald hit the rail.
![[user25067]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
but ran into the dominant 
of Tom Kallaway.
to miss both players, leaving Kenney to make a frustrated exit from the Main Event. Kallaway is up to 170,000.
. The big blind checked and Bardah. He was the preflop aggressor and stayed aggressive, firing out 8,000. His opponent made the call.
. The big blind fired out first with a bet of 24,000. Bardah made the call to see the river card completed the board with the 
. The big blind fired 54,300 and Bardah went into the tank. Eventually, he announced that he was all in. This sent the big blind into the tank, well into the break. Bardah sat and sipped his water. We're not sure if this was an act as there was no water in the water bottle Bardah was "sipping" from. Then, the player made the call for all of his 120,000 chips or so.
for the nut full house and his opponent mucked. Bardah stood and shook the hand of the player before sitting back down to collect his chips. He's now up to 640,500.
flop and all the chips went in, Chiu covering his opponent.
for an overpair
making Chiu trips
board - the pot was very small. Alex Fitzgerald checked and Michael Maitre bet 20,000 in mid position. Michael Maitre raised to 60,000. Back to Fitzgerald - who now shoved for 310,000. Maitre snap-called.
for the nuts
