Phil Hellmuth was regaling a tablemate with a tale of Barack Obama's recent visit to Las Vegas. He heard that Daniel Negreanu met Obama while he was here and learned that Obama regularly plays poker with Secret Service agents.
"That's our kind of President, baby," said Hellmuth.
Men the Master just cashed at the WSOP for the 61st time in his career, good for second on the list. Meanwhile, Phil Hellmuth cashes for the 66th time, continuing his record.
David Singer, recently crippled in a hand where his opponent made four sixes, was down to his final 800. He put it in on third street and was called by three players: Men Nguyen, Mike Hefer and Vince Burgio. Those three players checked the action down all the way through the river. Burgio made trip fives for high; Nguyen made 7-6-5-2-A for low. Singer had an open pair of eights on his board but couldn't come up with anything after he squeezed the river.
He is eliminated in 57th place. All of the remaining players are in the money.
On the bubble, Marco Traniello risked his tournament life taking on Tim D'Alessandro, Greg Pappas and Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth folded to Traniello's bet on fifth street, but D'Alessandro and Pappas both called.
On sixth street, Traniello caught the , Pappas caught the and D'Alessandro caught the . Again Traniello bet, and again both other players called.
The action went the same on the river, with Traniello all in. He opened in the hole for an eight-five low and two pair, aces and fives, for high. Pappas mucked his hand. D'Alessandro flashed his own two pair, tens and threes, and a seven draw that never got there. Traniello scooped the whole pot and avoided going out on the bubble.
With the elimination of George Hardie in 58th place, we are down to 57 players remaining in the tournament. Hand-for-hand play has begun and will continue until we have our bubble boy (or girl).
Stan Zdanowich just lost big back-to-back pots to full houses. In the first, Benjamin Landowski had 2-2-2-4-4. In the second, David Sklansky had 6-6-6-3-3. Zdanowich is down to 11,000.