After hanging on with his short stack for as long as he could, the card dead Daniel Negreanu finally got it all in and was going to either double up or go home.  Stanislav Alekhin has been playing the role of assassin here in London, and when it was folded to him in the small blind he bet enough to cover Daniel Negreanu and Daniel (right) called from the big blind.

Daniel was behind with his A9 trailing Alekhin and his pocket jacks.  With an animated Daniel commentating, saying he had seen an ace beat a pair before and cheering for cards to make it more interesting, the board was put out.  No help for Daniel and when no ace appeared on the river that was the end of the road for Daniel Negreanu.  He finishes in 5th place for £217,200.

With Daniel’s elimination the Russian’s are all that much closer to being heads up with each other for the title.  The two are 1-2 in the chip counts, though Alekhin has pulled away while Ivan Demidov has fallen back and is in the same range as John Juanda.  Bengt Sonnert takes over the role of the shortstack with Negreanu gone from the action.

Here are the counts:
Stanislav Alekhin - 3.7 million
Ivan Demidov - 1.6 million
John Juanda - 1.45 million
Bengt Sonnert - 525k

Blinds are still 12k / 24k with a 3k ante.

• October 2, 2008 -- Turned Upside Down, But Still Evenish
• October 2, 2008 -- Bengt Bounced, Juanda Gains Ground
• October 2, 2008 -- Negreanu Scrapping, Juanda Doubles
• October 2, 2008 -- The Russians Are Coming!