Defending Champion Matt Brady began the day with about 18,000 in chips before running it up to 40,000. After a few backwards pots, though, Brady found himself worked all the way down to 15,000. The last check provided the good news that the champ is back up to 40,000 once again.
We've lost more than 100 players so far today. That leaves 150 remaining at this moment.
This just in: Phil Hellmuth is grumpy. There haven't been any raging tirades or anything, but Hellmuth has been sitting dead silent with his head resting on his fists all day, scowl and all.
Many of the players are joining the side event as they lose their Main Event stacks. That $2,100 NLHE event has drawn more than 130 runners, and registration is open for another hour to accommodate any others who fail to survive this level.
Matt Vengrin has spent more time wandering around the room than actually sitting in his chair, yet he somehow has 100,000 chips. He claims to be "stretching" every time.
Nine women remain in the field, including Team UB Pro Tiffany Michelle.
From what we see, we have four WSOP bracelet winners still afloat: Phil Hellmuth (11), Brock Parker (2), Robert Mizrachi (1), and Eric Baldwin (1). That's a total of 14 bracelets between them.
. Gylbert Drolet was first to speak, and he led out with 7,700 into a pot of 11,000. Justin Truesdale would go into the tank for several minutes, keeping a close eye on Drolet. After tossing it back and forth in his head, Truesdale flicked the calling chips from his stack.
, and Truesdale showed
to take down a nice pot.
. A middle-aged man led out with a bet of 1,000, and his lone opponent, Matt Ross, raised to 3,000. His opponent called, and the turn came the
.
. The bet was another 4,000, and Ross reluctantly folded, open-mucking his
. His opponent flashed
off-suit as he dragged in that little pot, dropping Ross down around 40,000 now.
and Michelle fired 10,000 on the river. Hellmuth tanked and tanked, but eventually tossed in two pink T5,000 chips to make the call.
for trip queens and Hellmuth didn't move a muscle. A blank stare came over his face as he sat motionless. A few seconds passed before he eventually removed the chip from on top of his cards and mucked his hand. Just after that, the table drew new seat cards and broke.
and one player checked to James Mordue. Mordue checked behind and the dealer placed the
out on the turn. Mordue then fired a bet of 4,000 after his opponent checked. The player made the call.
and both players checked. Mordue was shown
by his opponent and mucked his hand. He did flash his cards to his opponent to show that he got unlucky on the river, but his actual holding was unknown.