Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania is a contender once again in the $1.5K NLHE event. Charania doubled up via a blind-versus-blind confrontation during the past level that put him back above the tournament chip average. With blinds at 3K/6K action folded around to the small blind who raised to 15K. Charania made the call from the big blind. On the KQ4 flop, the small blind checked and Charania moved all in for 82K. His opponent snap-called with AQ.

“Diamond please,” Charania said as he tabled his 97. His request was fulfilled immediately as the dealer rolled over the 6 on the turn, leaving his opponent drawing dead. Charania is back up to 188K.

Both Amanda “MandyB” Baker and Adam “Roothlus” Levy met their unfortunate demise this past level when they couldn’t win key flips for their tournament life. First, Baker moved all-in for her last 40K from the cutoff and the player on the button called. Mandy showed 77 while her opponent held AJ. The K44 flop looked good for Mandy, but the A on the turn gave the other player the advantage. The river 9 changed nothing and Baker busted.

Shortly after Mandy made her exit, Adam got the rest of his chips in with KQ and was called by a player holding 66. The board ran out AT29A and Levy’s hand failed to improve, so he bid his tablemate Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade farewell and headed for the door. Levy and Wade were just reminiscing about how they were seated next to each other at this stage of a $2K NLHE at last year’s WSOP and we’re sure they were both sad to see their reunion was short-lived.

Wade has chipped up since our last report, albeit slightly. The short stack at his table moved all in for his last 37K and Wade looked down at KK, making it an easy call. Wade’s kings held up against the other player’s pocket fours on a board of J75K3.

With 66 players remaining and the average stack at 185K, here’s a look at the P5ers still going strong:

Shawn “sprstoner” Glines - 445K
Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade - 212K
Zac “traction” Gilbert - 195K
Kevin “ImaLucSack” MacPhee - 168K
Alex Jacob - 100K

WSOP 2009 Event #40: $10K PLO Championship

With the elimination of Mike “SirWatts” Watson and a few other players, the field in the PLO event is now down to 39 players. Technically, only 38 are playing right now as Nam Le is currently deep in two Day Twos and keeps running back and forth between the PLO and the $1.5K NLHE event. Unfortunately for Matt “mattg1983″ Graham, Le’s empty seat is seated directly on Matt’s right, so as the cards are being dealt to the unoccupied chair, Graham and the dealer have to take extra care to avoid a misdeal.

Here are some of the most recent chip counts we spotted:

Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz - 648K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 370K
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein - 135K
Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies - 110K
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin - 80K

WSOP 2009 Event #41: $5K NLHE Shootout

Round One is in the books and thirty players will return tomorrow at 2PM to duke it out for a spot at the final table. Here are the P5ers that we found who survived the day:

Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger
Amit “amak316″ Makhija
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby
David “Bakes” Baker
Davidi “legrouzin” Kitai
Justin “fluffdog” Filtz (pictured left)
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman
Peter “Belabacsi” Traply
Lex “RasZi” Veldhuis

It appears as though Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery was unable to best his heads-up opponent and was one of the last players eliminated on Day One of the event.

• June 22, 2009 -- MacPhee Climbs the Charts
• June 22, 2009 -- Took a Wrong Turn in Omaha
• June 22, 2009 -- Spr Letdown
• June 22, 2009 -- Chew on That!