The last two levels of play in the $2.5K NLHE event proved to be action packed as several players chipped up or shipped out. Soon after Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby (pictured at left) was moved to a new table with Theo Tran and Matt “Mattster24″ Sterling he got involved in a hand with Tran that led to his demise in the tournament. With the blinds at 500/1,000 and a 100 ante Jared raised under the gun to 2,600, Theo Tran called in late position, as did the big blind. The player in the big blind checked when the flop came J64 and Jared bet out 3,800. Tran made the call and the player in the blinds folded. When the 5 peeled off on the turn, Hamby checked and Tran bet 5,500. Jared then moved all-in for just over 25,000 more. Theo stood up in frustration and asked Hamby, “do you have a set of jacks?” Hamby kept his head hung very low and did not respond. Theo thought some time before eventually making the call with 66. Jared turned over 7T for the open-ended straight draw. The river was no help to him and he headed home for the night.

Phil “USCPhildo” Collins met a similar fate when he and Frank “Round42″ Rusnak got it all-in preflop. Collins held AK to Rusnak’s TT and caught his king when the flop came KQ9. His hopes of doubling up were crushed however when a J came on the turn, giving Rusnak a straight. Collins missed his one outer redraw to a better straight on the river and called it a night less than an hour before play ended.

Several other players were sent to the rail recently including Chad “lilholdem954″ Batista, Frank “Gator93″ Hernandez, and our own Court Harrington who battled a short stack for two levels before getting it all-in preflop with J-10 to his opponent’s pocket tens.

We also caught up with Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks (pictured at right) for the last hand of the evening, in a hand with one other opponent. After the board lay A8A74, Brent was first to act and moved all in. The opponent called and Brent flipped over pocket sevens for a full house. After winning the last hand of the night, Brent counted and bagged up his chips - 75K, well over the average stack. Play resumes tomorrow at 2PM PST with 141 remaining players all vying for the bracelet and $666,777. We checked in with several P5ers as play was wrapping up and here are their unofficial chip counts:

Theo Tran - 130K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 89K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 75K
Aaron Been - 70K
Matt “Mattster24″ Sterling - 69K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 65K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 40K
Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson - 31K
Bryan Micon - 25K
Carter “ckingusc” King - 18K

Meanwhile, in the $1.5K Limit Hold’em Event #12, PocketFiver John “jdawg0913″ O’Brien (pictured at left, sporting his lucky P5s shirt again today!) has managed to quadruple up as only 29 players remain in the tournament. We caught up to John’s table when he had about 35K in chips, barely hanging on as the average stack size reached 85K. He fought hard for the blinds, stealing when possible and raising to take down uncontested pots.

At one point in the play, Phil Hellmuth, recently busted out of the $10K Stud Event, came to distract Erick Lindgren who was seated two spots to O’Brien’s left. Plenty of banter ensued, proving yet again that Hellmuth doesn’t even need to be in a tournament to be a nuisance. Later, Gavin Smith also showed up at the next table over, starting what appeared to be his attempt at a party.

O’Brien took the opportunity to take down a few more uncontested pots with early raises. His stack now stands at over 100K. Moral of the story? Wear your PocketFives gear whenever possible.

• June 8, 2008 -- Babes in Pokerland
• June 8, 2008 -- Bubble Bursts in $2.5K NLHE Event
• June 2, 2008 -- WSOP Event #3 Underway
• June 17, 2008 -- Hanks Having a Drink on Scotty