One Level, Three Players Down

We've got 90 minutes of Day 4 behind us, and they've been packed with action. We've already said goodbye to Greg Mueller (22nd), Jani Sointula (21st), and Thomas Bichon (20th). We just about lost Bichon's fellow Frenchman Arnaud Mattern immediately thereafeter. The gregarious pro ran his queens into the aces of James Bord, and he could not catch up. Mattern turned his remaining 12,000 chips into more than 80,000 in two hands, though, then doubled again to get back to a very impressive 184,000. He's still alive (somehow) as this first break hits.

That big pot vaulted Bord up into the lead, taking him up over 900,000. Viktor Blom is on a tear, though, and he soon retook that lead, becoming just the second player to crest the million-chip mark. He's nearly got a final-table-average chip stack, though we wouldn't expect to see him coasting to get there. Phil Ivey has been up and down, as high as 775,000 in the early going. His table mates are not backing down today, though, and Ivey's taken a few hits to knock him back under 500,000.

The remaining 19 players have been sent out for a twenty-minute break. We'll get exact chip counts when they clear the tables.