Ninety-Three Minutes (and Four Players) Gone
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Level 30 has come to a close after 93 minutes of play, and the remaining 23 players are headed out of the room for their first twenty-minute break.
It's been quite a level, too! There's no shortage of action at any of the three remaining tables, and we've already lost four players to start the day off quickly. Johnny Lodden came into this Day 8 short on chips, and he could not escape the first orbit at the featured table. He raced his 
against Matt Affleck's 
, seemingly content to flip a coin for double or nothing. Lodden dodged the all-spade flop, but a ten on the turn put him in a hole that he could not climb out of. He became the first casualty of the day, earning $317,161 for his 27th-place finish.
A couple orbits later, the main featured table lost its second player in dramatic fashion. Matthew Bucaric got it all in on a 
flop with 
. He was slightly ahead of Filippo Candio's 
, but that changed in a hurry. The turn 
flushed Candio into the lead, and Bucaric could not find a heart to survive as the river 
ushered him out in 26th place.
Right behind him went the short-stacked Mads Wissing courtesy of William Thorson spiking a five-outer to send him packing. Wissing got it in good with 
on a 
flop, and he was looking to fade Thorson's 
. The turn was a disaster, though, and the river was not enough to get Wissing back in the game; he was out in 25th place.
Ronnie Bardah's name was just inked into the 24th-place spot on the payout sheet a few minutes ago. Down under 2 million chips, the grinder from Massachusetts found a bad time to run his 
into pocket aces. It was Candio doing the deed once again, and his 
send Bardah out after the board ran 
.
That leaves us down to 23 players, and apart from those hands, there hasn't been too much to shake up the leader board. Joseph Cheong still leads the way, but Soi Nguyen and Matt Affleck are hot on his heels. We'll post the full updated chip counts in just a moment. While we're doing that, go ahead and stretch your legs; Level 31 is right around the corner.