How things change fast in this game! Moments ago, Owen was the chip leader, and he is now walking away from the table, eliminated in 3rd place. Dan Vigderhous doubled up on him, and then finished the job. Vigderhous had flopped the nut straight with his . They went all-in on the  flop, having put quite a few chips in the pot pre-flop. Owen’s was basically a draw, but was quite behind Vigderhous’ nut hand. The rest of the board came  , making a running flush for Dan.

Congratulations Adam, you cash $4,300.00 for this nice deep run!

Play has slowed down a little bit now that short stacks are out. The average stack, not long ago, represented about 25 big blinds, which is pretty deep for this stage of the tournament. Players are now back from what was probably their last break of the night. Blinds are now 15K/30K, and below is the current chip distribution.

At the moment of writing these lines, Mazeltov was eliminated. He limped in, and saw Adam John Owen pot to 135K, which he called. After flopping a top pair, Mazeltov moved in with his remaining 180K, which was quickly called by Owen.

Joseph Mazeltov:
Adam John Owen: :?c
Board:

Owen grabs a pretty solid lead, while Joseph Mazeltov gets 4th place and the $4,000 that go with it.
Congratulations Joseph!

While the tournament staff was printing Gary Lucci’s 5th place coupon, the last 4 players started to talk about adjusting the prizes. They discussed for about 5 minutes, and finally came to an agreement. The following table reflects the new payouts, and of course, the snazzy Champion’s Trophy is added to the first place money.

Gary Lucci, a former 3-table chip leader, was taken out when his top 2 pairs were buried by Joseph Mazeltov’s top set. The board was , and Lucci was holding , which was much behind Mazeltov’s . That hand cost Lucci almost all of his chips, as he was left with 2K. He quadrupled up the next hand, but the comeback stopped there.

Congratulations Gary, you cash $2,400.00 for your nice run!

The board showed , and Gunther was all-in for 148K, into a pot barely bigger than that amount. Adam John Owen tanked for a while, than made the call with . Gunther tabled . The river came the , completing a full house for Owen, who had 2 pairs and a few straight outs.

Manfred Gunther takes $1,890.00 for his 6th place. Congratulations!

Two quick eliminations happened after the final table formed. We unfortunately missed the action, but we know that Dan Vigderhous profited from the last one in a major way. He is now leading this final table, having passed Adam John Owen, who was in the driver seat for a long time.

Here are the prizes for positions 10 to 7, and the chip counts of the remaining players, taken during the break. Play resumes momentarily.

10th: Philippe Gauvreau – $720.00
9th: Moshe Cohen – $910.00
8th: Nick Nickoletopoulos – $1,160.00
7th: Glen Hammers – $1,480.00

The final table is now forming, after a hand that is definitely one to mention. Three players were all-in in a pot that got Dan Vigderhous a lot of chips, and Moshe Cohen to leave one position short of the final table.

Manfred Gunther:
Dan Vigderhous:
Moshe Cohen:

In the end, after the board, it was the best of the suited aces that took the pot down, having hit a third king on the turn.

Here is a look at the final table, with Adam John Owen still in the lead, followed closely by Dan Vigderhous.

Players have formed the last 2 tables moments before the break, and the chip distribution is extremely polarized, and Adam John Owen is destroying the field, as you can see in the following seating chart. Below are some more pictures taken before the break. Players have now resumed play.

Players are now back from their second break, and the next stint is expected to see some major pots being played, as the 800/1600 level puts a lot of players under pressure.

Here are the leaders at this point, and some pictures taken during levels 7 and 8: