The final table of the $5K NLHE Shootout event is halfway over and only three players remain to duke it out over the bracelet. Granted, they did start the day with a five-handed final table, but after the marathon-length PLO final table last night, a quickie is a nice change of pace.

The two P5ers who began at the final table remain in contention for the bracelet. Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger currently holds the chip leader with just shy of 4 million chips while Peter “Belabacsi” Traply is second in chips with just over 3 million. Maxim Lykov is bringing up the rear with 600K.

The winner of the tournament will receive $348,728, which would mark the biggest live score for both Lichtenberger and Traply. Lichtenberger’s largest cash came at this year’s WPT Championship where he took 13th for $81,710. Traply’s largest came in an 8th place finish at the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final Main Event earlier this year. He earned $241,238.

WSOP 2009 Event #42: $2.5K Mixed Games

With the elimination of Rami “arbianight” Boukai, Adam Friedman, and a couple of other players, we are down to the final nine. Eric “jakz101″ Crain reportedly got as low as 9K but when we last checked on him he had rebounded back to 365K. Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke is beginning to regret buying in to the $10K PLHE Championship event, as he is still in good shape with 250K. Jon “Pearljammer” Turner is still towards the top of the leaderboard with 390K and Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki is currently the short stack with around 125K.

WSOP 2009 Event #45: $10K PLHE Championship

Jason “JCarver” Somerville (pictured left) was sent home on the last hand before the second break of the $10K PLHE event. We missed most of the hand, but a player at his table filled us in. With blinds at 250/500, the player on the button raised to 1.3K and Somerville called from the small blind. On a K75 flop, Somerville check-called a bet of 2.5K. The 5 peeled off on the turn and Somerville again check-called, this time a bet of 5.2K. Somerville checked for a third time when the J hit the river and his opponent tossed 35K into the pot, enough to put Somerville all in. Jason thought for a few minutes as the rest of the room left for break and eventually decided to call. He found out the bad news when the other player showed K5 for a full house.

Alex “Kadabra” Keating also got involved in a pot on the last hand before the break. Matt “mattg1983″ Graham raised to 1.2K from under the gun and four players called, including Keating from late position. The flop came Q77 and action checked around to Keating, who bet 2.5K. The small blind called and everyone else folded. The J fell on the turn and the small blind checked again. Keating fired out the same bet of 2.5K and his opponent called. The dealer rolled over the 6 on the turn and once again the small blind checked. Keating bet 5.5K and after a few moments his opponent called. “Queen,” Keating said as he tabled KQ. It came up second best as the other player flipped over AQ. The kicker played and Keating’s stacked dipped to 25K.

Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar was in a 4-way pot with Adam Junglen, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, and an unknown player where it had checked around on the K84 flop. After the 2 fell on the turn the player in the big blind bet 3K into the approximately 5K pot, Junglen folded, Rajkumar called, and Saul folded. The river was the 3 and the other player checked to Vivek, who bet 7K. He thought a minute before calling and mucked when Vivek showed KQ for top pair, queen kicker.

Here are some chip counts we spotted as players went on their second break of the day:

Billy “Patrolman35″ Kopp - 95K (pictured right)
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 92K
Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen - 60.5K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 47K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 39.5K
Luke “IWEARGOGGLE” Staudenmaier - 32K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 32K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 31K
Carter “skingusc” King - 27K
Alex “Kadabra” Keating - 26K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 24.5K
Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen - 23.5K
Clark “snake8484″ Hamagami - 23K
Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul - 22K
Isaac Haxton - 20K
Blake “Balla-B13″ Cahail - 19K
Justin “fluffdog” Filtz - 18.7K
Shannon Shorr - 17.1K
Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll - 16K
Chris “moorman1″ Moorman - 13K
Barry Greenstein - 13K
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver - 11.5K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham

• June 23, 2009 -- Bella Vita for Belabacsi
• June 23, 2009 -- 666 Devils Lichtenberger
• June 23, 2009 -- The Darling Dozen
• June 23, 2009 -- Seniors on the Bubble