With Noy’s elimiantion in 11th place, our 10 finalists are now decided. Here is the seating chart:

10th: Keith Sampson – $340

When Patrick Turner raised to 35K, Noy went all-in, and those words were repeated by Raphaël Ohayon and Hicham Hammoud. Turner folded, and they went to showdown:

Noy U:
Ohayon:
Hammoud:

Board:

Kings held, and when the stacks were cut out, it was found that Hammoud was the shortest with only 7,000 chips below Ohayon. Noy was crippled in the hand, but he at least got Ohayon’s Bounty.

The last 2 tables played hand-for-hand for the better part of 2 levels. There were some confrontations, but the shorter stack always won, until Ismaël Keita, who had been waiting with a micro stack, committed his chips. He was on the 10K big blind with another 4K behind, and checked to see a flop.

This was a 4-way pot, and Keita bet his 4 chips on the flop, first to act. Éric Leblond called, and Sam Chiniara raised to 20K. Leblond called, and when the turn was checked by both, he went all-in on the river, but didn’t get paid.

Éric Leblond:
Ismaël Keita:

Board:

Players are now in the money, and play is expected to speed up considerably.

Nazareth Maghakian has had a slow and steady tournament, but his stack just enjoyed a nice boost. His held nicely against , and he is now in 4th place with 217,000.

Here are the players who are working with over 200K:

Normand Deguire has great timing tonight. His aces got him 2 more Bounties, after holding in a 3-way pre-flop all-in.

Normand Deguire:
Vera G:
Silvio La Palerma:

Board:

Vera only had a few chips left, but La Palerma pushed about 60K to the middle after losing the pot.

Deguire was still stacking his chips when Franco Sicondolfi took a seat on his left. Sicondolfi’s stack keeps getting bigger. His last big win came after he hit a top pair and a nut flush draw with his . At the 3-way showdown, he was in great shape against a lower kicker on the pair and a lower flush draw. He brought over 300K to Deguire’s table. Éric Leblond is also in the 300K vicinity.

We are now 3 positions away from the money.

When Éric Leblond got his kings undone by Yannick Kwan on the last hand before the first break, he was left with 2,700 chips. From that, he went on a tear and stormed to over 100K. He then dropped to about 50K, only to bounce back to his current 156,000! He is now sitting in 2nd place, just below Franco Sicondolfi.

Here is our top 5: