A player in early position had raised to 2,100 when David Chicotsky, who was next to act, re-raised to 5,850. Action then folded around to our original raiser who folded 
face up. John Juanda, who is also at the table said that the jacks were probably good, something that Chicotsky confirmed by showing pocket nines.
You'll have noticed in the latest batch of chip counts that former WPT winner Jonathan Little has jumped above the current average with 27,000. Well, that figure could have been even bigger after one particular three-way encounter...
I joined the action with 10,000 in the middle, 850 on the side, and one player all in. A 
flop was waiting patiently in the middle, and the action appeared to be on Little, my assumption being that his opponent had announced all-in.
After a brief dwell, Little made the call with 
; his opponent showed 
; and the short stack has 
. Although Little had made a good read, he wasn't able to evade all eight outs, the turn and river coming 
and 
respectively to award Little the side pot, and the short stack the main.
There are several Team PokerStars pros still remaining with the likes of JP Kelly, Dusty Schmidt, Richard Toth, Victor Ramdin and Dutch hockey star Fatima Moreira de Melo all with their eyes firmly fixated on bracelet gold, but one lady that I haven't across previously is Team Argentina Pro Veronica Dabul.
Currently located on one of the tables next to the rail, Dabul is bang on the average stack with 21,000. My hope at the start of the tournament was that Dabul would meet De Wolfe, but with Roland's early exit, alas, it wasn't to be.
Will Failla has recently joined the ranks of chip leaders after building a stack of 75,000. One hand that helped him get there saw Failla raising preflop and getting called by a player in late position. The flop came 
with two spades and Failla led out for 1,500 with his opponent raising to 4,100. Failla responded by shoving all in with his opponent calling quick enough to beat Failla to the pot.
Failla:
Opponent:
The turn and river blanked and Failla was sitting on a newfound stack of riches. Or at least chips.
Alex Bolotin made it 1,025 to go from early position and was called by a player in middle position as well as the small blind before Jason Mann three-bet all in from the big blind. Bolotin used his turn to raise to 16,000 and successfully isolated Mann.
Bolotin: 
Mann: 
Things were looking good for Bolotin on the 
flop, but Mann picked up plenty more outs when the turn came 
. He hit one of those outs when he counterfitted Bolotin's pair with the 
on the river.
After the hand Bolotin slipped to 60,000, but Mann is up to 19,000.
"I'll gamble," muttered John Juanda with a slight sigh. Even as he revealed his , he knew he was behind, but it was his opponent who acted like the underdog, rising from his seat nervously and with a groan before tabling 
.
The flop rolled out the 
, and you could sense the all-in player start to tense. As he held his breath, the turn hit the felt, and with the 
river, all was well in the world once again.
Juanda, meanwhile, had taken an untimely hit, and although still above the current average, is back down to around 22,000.
Level: 8
Blinds: 300/600
Ante: 75
You may not have heard of Stephen Chidwick, but online he is regarded as a titan of the game, and somewhat of an STT specialist. In fact, one year, he managed to win a quite remarkable 101 WSOP Main Event seats through the online Steps process and was regarded by most as 'someone to fear/avoid'. Today, he certainly fits into that category, as he is one of the few people to have surpassed the half a tenth of a million mark with a sumptuous 66,500.
Also posing a threat are friends Will Failla and Victor Ramdin. They have 46,000 and 36,500 respectively and have decided to take two percent of each other's action.
Just like magic, recent bracelet winner Ayaz Mahmood has turned an average stack into a chip lead threatening stack in the space of a couple of levels. After a quick count (although it's difficult as he hasn't gone for the standard 20-chip stack), Mahmood appears to have built up to just under 60,000 and could be the man to challenge current chip leader Alex Outhred.
I doubt there are too many father and son combos here today, but Ben and Jamie Roberts are definitely one. I'm not sure of the existence of James in the event, but father Ben is definitely still in, and was last seen raising his neighbor's open of 1,200 all in for a total of 6,000. The initial aggressor didn't think too long before folding, allowing Roberts to pick up the pot uncontested.
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