With the elimination of Albiges Benoit on the last hand of play for the day, the tournament staff passed out the chip bags and had players wrap things up. The final 16 players will return tomorrow at 12:00 noon local time to finish things out.
Due to the speed of play and the number of players who have dropped today, the tournament staff has decided to play things straight through tomorrow until we have a winner.
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi was one of the most active players today, but it's served him well. He'll come into tomorrow as the biggest stack in the room and look to continue his dominance on the way to a WSOP Circuit gold ring.
Among others still in contention are Matt Brady, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and Matt Graham. Don't forget about Dwyte Pilgrim either. He holds two championship rings from Circuit events and will be looking for a third and his second Main Event title.
We'll be back tomorrow at 12 noon PT to take you all the way to the end. See you all then!
Matt LaGarde raised to 15,000 in early position, and Albiges Benoit reraised all in for 55,000 behind him. Nashaat "Tony" Antonious flat-called the all-in from the big blind, leaving 93,000 behind. LaGarde re-shoved the rest of his stack and Antonious again made the call.
LaGarde showed while Benoit showed and Antonious tabled .
LaGarde was still ahead after the flop of and in good shape after the hit the turn, but lost the pot when Antonious caught the on the river.
The hand knocked Benoit out in 17th place on the last hand of the night and left LaGarde with just 100,000. Antonious will have 362,000 when we return tomorrow.
Robert Cheung raised to 16,000 from the button and got called by Evgeny Serebryakov in the small blind.
Both players checked the flop of , and Serebryakov led out for 30,000 when the hit the turn. When Cheung called, Serebryakov bet another 60,000 when the fell on the river. Cheung called again and immediately mucked his hand when Serebryakov turned over for trips.
Serebryakov has 575,000 while Cheung is down to 185,000.
According to our guest field reporter Jimmy Fricke, Jean Ledoux moved all in for 42,000 and Bert Fujisaki called. Fujisaki held against Ledoux's .
Ledoux failed to improve, and with Fujisaki having him slightly covered, was eliminated in 20th place. We're now on the bubble and playing hand for hand.
Tam Nguyen pushed his remaining 40,000 into the middle with and got called by Evgeny Serebryakov on the button with .
Nguyen dodged elimination until the river when Serebryakov caught a queen to end his tournament. Nguyen's elimination puts us at 20 players remaining, with the top 18 getting paid.
Men "The Master" Nguyen moved all in from the button for about 60,000 and was called by Justin Bonomo in the small blind. Bonomo held to Nguyen's .
The flop came down to give Nguyen an open-ended straight draw. The turn completed his draw with the . The river fell the to complete the board and just like that, The Master is right back in the thick of things.
Before collecting his chips, Nguyen ran around the room pumping his fist and slapping hands with some of his fellow players. All the while, his Corona never left his hand.