Just 17 players remain in Event 5 and the prizes are starting to creep up in value. Here are full counts for the remaining field.

Event 5 is now down to 2 tables with 18 players remaining – here is a new table chart since the full redraw was performed a few minutes ago.

Edit: While we were preparing this post, John Folkins was eliminated in 18th place for $3,340.

Jaime Staples had chipped up considerably since the last break and the bursting of the bubble, but so had Michael Malm. Staples open raised all-in from middle position and when it folded to Malm he looked at his cards – – and instantly made the call.

Staples: – he needed to hold to stay in the tournament.

The flop was not good: put Malm well in front, and the had Staples convinced the end had arrived. There was a collective gasp around the table as the came on the river. Malm shipped 117K over to Staples, who now has a reasonably healthy stack.

There are just 20 players left – there will be a seating redraw at 18 players remaining.

As predicted, eliminations have been coming extremely quickly now that the tournament is in the money. Here are the first 8 players eliminated so far.

24. Tristan Good – $2,160
25. Douglas Paulson – $1,900
26. Jeffrey Cormier – $1,900
27. Alexander James Allison – $1,900
28. Bob T – $1,620
29. Patrick Braga – $1,620
30. John MacKenzie – $1,620
31. Paul Sokoloff – $1,620

After almost an hour of hand-for-hand play and many small stacks doubling, long tank-folds and assorted bubble steals, John Athanasiou got it in with against Khaly Dang’s .

The flop brought to put Dang in the lead and the changed the hand she won with if not the outcome.

The rest of the players are now in the money, and with so many short (or very short) stacks the action is likely to be wickedly fast for the next 6-8 eliminations.

The remaining 32 players took a break a from the action in Event 5 while play in the tournament is directly on the money bubble. We took the opportunity to get full counts for the remaining players in the event. Play has now resumed in level 18 and it’s still hand for hand.

Michelle Reyes has been eliminated after losing two hands in a row. In the first she shoved from utg+2 and found a call from Alexander James Allison, who held slightly fewer chips. Everyone else folded and the hands were tabled:

Reyes:
Allison:

Allison’s pair held up as the board ran out and Reyes was left with almost nothing behind.

On the subsequent hand, she opened all-in and finally found a call from Michael Malm in the big blind.

Reyes:
Malm:

The flop favoured Malm: and neither the turn nor river brought Reyes the Ace (or 3) she needed.

With 36 players left a table has been broken and play continues near the bubble with 4 full tables of 9 players each.

Day 2 of Event 5 has resumed, and in the early action this morning three players have already been eliminated: George Iliacopoulos, Timothy Deering and Guillaume Nolet. This brings action very close to the bubble – 31 places will pay in this event.

Play will continue today until there is a champion, so depending on the pace of play – and eliminations – it could be a very long day. There are a few players who start today with stack-size problems, but on the whole the field is quite bunched up in terms of chip counts, with a couple outliers plus and minus but a lot of play possible for a lot of the field.