Several of the short stacks are inching ever closer to elimination. Daniel Studer is down to 40,000 chips after calling all the way down to showdown against Gerard Rechnitzer. Rechnitzer produced / / as his final seven cards, for a pair of kings. Studer showing a board of x-x / / x that quickly went into the muck.
Rechnitzer, however, is not exactly flush with chips. He has 70,000.
Mike Rocco was the 2008 WSOP champion in the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event. He's still alive in tonight's field but he, too, has joined the short stacks. Rocco raised the after Jeff Lisandro completed the , then called all the way down to showdown. Lisandro wound up making a king-high straight by sixth street; Rocco's board of x-x / / x didn't produce anything better.
Rocco is down to 45,000. Lisandro is now on 320,000.
When two bracelet winners collide, only one of them can come out on top. This time it was 1991 and 1994 $2,500 Seven-Card Stud winner Rodney Pardey.
Pardey challenged Mike Rocco (the 2008 $1,500 Seven-Card Stud winner) and got Rocco to commit all of his chips on third street. Pardey started with split aces; Rocco had split tens and never improved. For his efforts, Rocco will get $7,522 -- not as much as last year, but not a terrible result.
What a reversal of fortune for Mitch Schock. A few moments ago he was practically all in. Now he's on 265,000 chips after a huge three-way pot with Nick Frangos and John Juanda. Schock completed with the on third street, then watched as Juanda raised the and Frangos reraised the . Everyone called through fifth street, with Frangos putting one bet in each time.
On sixth street, Shock opted to lead out x-x / . Juanda called with x-x / ; Frangos did also with x-x / . Schock extracted one more bet from each player on the river, turning over in the hole for queens full of fours made by fifth street.
Mitch Schock seems determined to beat John Juanda, but Juanda recently got the better of him. Juanda raised the after Schock completed the , with Schock calling. Juanda bet fourth, fifth and sixth streets before checking seventh street dark. Schock checked behind. At showdown, it was Juanda taking down the pot with a pair of kings made on fourth street.
Players are taking turns on the short stack, but the eliminations have all but stopped. The latest player to fall into Short Stack Land is Daniel Studer. He completed the in front of Jeff Lisandro, who raised the . Studer called that raise and called another bet on fourth street.
Both players checked fifth street before Lisandro made an open pair of jacks on sixth street. Studer called one more bet. On the river, Lisandro checked to Studer, who bet x-x / . Lisandro quickly called with the winning hand, / / , two pair queens and jacks.
Jeff Lisandro was just dealt the exact same three starting cards on back-to-back hands. The players at his table are now trying to calculate the odds of that occurrence.
"Did you start with kings?" John Juanda asked Steven Stencil. Stencil replied yes.
"You played it tricky." He was referring to the fact that Stencil didn't make any aggressive betting action until fifth street. Both players checked the river dark. Stencil showed down first, showing / / for two pair, kings and nines.
"So far you're good," Juanda said as he squeezed out his last card. He managed to squeeze a second pair of his own to make aces and eights. That pot pushed Juanda up to 205,000 and dropped Stencil to 305,000.