And Then There Were 9
by Court on 12.18.08, 8:20 pm
The Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio is down to just one table. With the elimination of Robert Mizrachi in 11th place the tournament was briefly paused while the remaining players were combined at one 10 handed table where they will play down to the final 6.
Mizrachi (left) was all in after he had raised and McNiff moved all in over the top. Robert called with the A
J but had ran into the pocket queens of a hot McNiff. The queens held up sending Mizrachi to the rail in 11th for $72,060 and pushed McNiff to nearly 5 million in chips making him the chip leader going into 10 handed play.
Once the players were set at the table it didn’t take long before Clonie Gowen found herself all in and racing for her tournament life. Gowen was all in after opening a pot, getting raised by Steve Sung, and then moving all in. Sung called the all in and showed his AQ while Gowen turned over pocket sixes. Sung was able to hit a queen on the flop to take the lead in the hand and his pair stayed strong to bust Gowen in 10th place for a payout of $86,470.
With 9 left, a full 2/3rds of the remaining players will make the final table. Three more eliminations are needed to end play for the day and set the World Poker Tour final table cast for the tournament. Ben Straate is back near the top of the chip counts with just under 3 million, trailing chip leader Evan McNiff and Chino Rheem. Justin Young, Steve Sung and Amnon Filippi round out the top 6 while Hoyt Corkins and Mike Matusow find themselves at the bottom of the chip counts.
