The pace of the action has been fast and furious and in no time at all the field went from 10 players all the way down to the final 6.  After losing the huge pot to Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka (right) it wasn’t long before Kohlberg was eliminated in 9th place.  After he fell it was bam bam and Eric Hershler was out in 8th and Joe Cassidy became the TV table bubble boy with a 7th place finish.

Kohlberg’s 9th place finish came when he raised to 160k preflop and Scotty Nguyen called.  On the K-7-5 rainbow flop Kohlberg bet 250k and was called.  With a 3 on the turn Kohlberg moved bet 600k leaving less than half that behind and Nguyen called.  A 6 hit on the river and Kohlberg put his last 550k into the middle and Scotty made the call showing 7-4 offsuit for a rivered straight.  Kohlberg had KJ and had flopped top pair but had been outrun by Scotty.  For his 9th place finish Kohlberg earned $76,183.

Next up short stack Eric Hershler moved all in over the top of an opening raise from Josh Arieh and Josh made the call.  Hershler was ahead with his AT against the KJ of Arieh.  A jack hit on the flop and Hershler missed his redraw giving Arieh the pot and eliminating Hershler in 8th place for $107,133.

Then a 3-way all in brought the field down to the final 6, with a chance of actually getting the field down to 5.  Joe Cassidy moved all in for 715k and Arieh then came over the top all in  The action then folded to Buchanan who made the call with pocket queens and held up against the pocket tens of Arieh and the KJ of Cassidy.  Arieh was the largest stack going in and had he won the pot he would have eliminated both Buchanan and Cassidy, but with Shawn’s hand holding up he was able to eliminate Cassidy and win a pot worth 2.8 million and end play for the night.

Here are the official chip counts going into final table play:

• December 20, 2009 -- Bottom to Top: Arieh Takes The Lead
• December 19, 2009 -- O’Dwyer Out 6th
• December 19, 2009 -- ODwyer Active Early
• December 19, 2009 -- Doyle Brunson FDWPC Final Table Gallery