Steve Meling has made it to the final nine and will surely be one of the greatest "rags to riches" stories of all time if he's able to pull off going on to win the Big One for One Drop.
According to Meling, he played in a $65 satellite at the Horseshoe Council Bluffs casino where he won an entry into a larger $765 satellite. From there, Meling won his seat into this event and has so far parlayed it into an appearance at the final table. Still, Meling is guaranteed nothing just yet until he can work his way into the top three.
Upon review, nothing on record can be found for Meling when it comes to live tournament cashes, so storming onto the poker scene with a $400,000 core or better would be an amazing accomplishment. Of course, if he's able to win the seat and then go on to cash in the Big One for One Drop, the story will go down as one of the most epic ones in poker history.
Earlier, we talked about how Sarkiss Osalian and his chance to pull of a miracle, but he busted. It's now up to Meling to hold it down for the amateurs chasing the poker dream.
for two overcards against the 
for Bolotin.
kept Bolotin in front as he was looking for a double, but the 
on the turn made his chances very grim. The river completed the board with the 
and Bolotin was eliminated. Hansen moved to over 2.2 million in chips.
. Failla held the 
.
falling, but Failla's threes were still in the lead. The turn was the 
and Somerville picked up more outs, but the 
on the river wasn't what he was looking for and Failla doubled up.
.
and Grospellier won the pot to triple up. Hansen had the better hand than Charania and eliminated him in 11th place.