Phil Ivey is on break of the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better, so he's back in his seat over here. When he left, he had about 11,000, and now, he is down to 6700. He has his dinner in his lap, and we're sure he's ready to gamble it up.
From early position, Clayton Mozdzen raised to 675. In the next seat, Ryan Welch made the call and then Allen Bari announced, "Pot" from the cutoff seat. He put out the 675 to make the call first and was then going to raise the pot. The players behind him folded to the big blind and that player announced, "Call," but thought he was only calling the 675. The floor was called and it was ruled that the big blind must call the 3,125 that Bari had reraised to. He did so, but didn't seem too happy and then Mozdzen and Welch folded.
The flop came down 
and the big blind moved all in for 2,300. Bari quickly called. The big blind held the 
and Bari a dominating 
.
The turn was the 
and river the 
to give the big blind the winning hand and knock Bari all the way down to about 1,300 in chips.
Shortly after that, Bari potted preflop to 1,050 with just a few hundred behind. The next player called and everyone else folded. After the 
flop, Bari check-called all in with the 
. His opponent had the 
.
The turn was the 
and the river the 
. Bari, the 2011 WSOP $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em winner, was eliminated.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
Busted |
Action folded to Shannon Shorr in middle position, and he shoved his short stack of 950 into the middle. It folded around to Keven Stammen in the cutoff, and he shoved over the top for 2,300. Faraz Jaka was next to act, and he made the call, having both easily covered. The blinds folded, and the three players revealed their cards.
Shorr: 
Stammen:
Jaka: 
Stammen was in great shape to win the pot, while Shorr would need a miracle to survive. The flop came down 
, and Shorr had a small glimmer of hope. The turn brought the 
, and Stammen stayed well out in front. It stayed that way on the river, the 
, and Shorr was sent to the rail. Stammen moved up to 5700, while Jaka dropped to that amount as well.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
5,700 | -8,300 |
|
5,700 | |
|
Busted |
Level: 6
Blinds: 150/300
Ante: 0
Bracelet winner James "mig.com" Mackey is nestled away in the far back corner of the room, and we hadn't taken notice of him, until we went by and saw that he had built quite a stack. When we walked by, we saw that he had called a short stack player's all in with 
. Mackey's opponent held , and the board ran out 
. That was good enough for Mackey to collected the pot, and up his stack to 22,000.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
22,000 |
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
29,000 | 2,000 |
|
15,000 | -3,000 |
|
|
14,000 | 8,200 |
|
10,000 | |
|
9,050 | -950 |
|
9,000 | |
|
7,000 | 3,300 |
|
6,600 | 800 |
|
6,000 | 1,500 |
|
4,200 | -5,800 |
|
3,600 | |
|
3,000 | 1,250 |
|
1,700 | -2,800 |
|
|
1,700 | -2,900 |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted | |
|
Busted |
Last year, this event saw 765 runners. The end of level 4 was the deadline for players to late register, and the final number on the big clock is 639, a drop in attendance of 16%.
This is a trend that unfortunately has been seen in most of the events so far. Last year, 3,157 players played in the first $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event, where as the opening event this year saw just 2101 entrants. It should be noted that the first $1,500 event last year was the 18th event rather then the first event, but it still is an alarming site. Attendance was also down in the $500 Casino Employees event, with a drop from 850 last year to just 732 this year.
It should also be noted that the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better actually saw a slight increase in entrants, with 622 this year as compared to 606 last year. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how the numbers look for the rest of the series.
The players have returned to the tables, and they are back in their seats. Two more levels and then the players go to dinner.
Level: 5
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
We have completed our fourth level of play, and the players are once again on a 20-minute break.
