Only two tables remain in Round 2 of the $1.5K Limit Hold Em Shootout WSOP Event #53, but there is no shortage of drama courtesy at a 3-handed table featuring Matt “mattg1983″ Graham (pictured right).  When we last reported on Matt, he was hovering around the 100K mark, but since then he and the other two players at the table have been on quite a roller coaster ride.
 
With the elimination of Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo and another player, Graham began 3-handed play with 70K, but his chip stack dwindled down to 21K as a result of several hands where the other players managed to outdraw Matt and take down the pot.  One such example occurred when, with the blinds at 2K/4K Matt raised out of the small blind and the player in the big blind made the call.  The flop came JT5 and Matt led out at the pot.  The other player then raised and Graham made the call.  Graham checked the 9 on the turn, his opponent bet, and he made the call.  Both players checked when the K hit on the river and Matt turned over AJ to the other player’s J9.
 
Graham took another big hit when his opponent raised preflop, Matt reraised, and the other player put in a 3rd raise, which Matt called.  Graham check-called the flop and turn as the board ran out 8-6-2-7 and both players checked when a king came on the river.  Graham was visibly frustrated when his opponent revealed 67 for two pair and flashed his opponent his pocket nines before he threw them in the muck.
 
At one point, Graham and another player were so short-stacked at the 3K/5K blinds that they found themself in a 3-way all in with the overwhelming chip leader.  Matt had not looked at his cards and was happy to learn his J6 was live against the shorter stack’s 28 and the chip leader’s A2.  The flop came all diamonds, leaving Graham drawing very slim against a flopped flush and the nut flush draw.  However, running jacks on the turn and river shipped the 11K side pot Matt’s way.
 
However, Graham did not realize he had the other player covered and called for the floor to hurry over so he could leave.  We pointed out to Matt that he actually still had chips, but at that point, the dealer had pushed the other chips back to the chip leader.  Several media people who were intently watching the table pointed out their mistake and Graham was given his 11K side pot.  Since then, he has managed to work his way back from the brink of elimination and we will keep you posted on his progress.

Scott “ssitron” Sitron just showed the table he’s not afraid fire off most of his stack with nothing despite there being hundreds of thousands of dollars and a WSOP bracelet on the line.

Thanks to Sitron’s moxy, he continues to extend his chip lead in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52.

Sitron called a 150k raise from Farzhad Rouhani out of the big blind taking the flop in position against Rouhani, who raised when it folded to him in the small blind. Sitron called Rouhani’s 230k bet on a A67 flop. Rouhani checked the 5 turn and Sitron bet 350k and Rouhani called. Rouhani checked a 3 river and Sitron went all-in for 1.3 million, a bet costing Rouhani his last 700k. Rouhani folded and Sitron showed a busted gutterball with the T9.

Here’s the current chip counts

Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 2.9 million

Dan Heimiller - 1.5 million

Farzhad Rouhani - 1.3 million

Corwin Cole -  1.1 million

David Daneshgar - 1 million

• July 3, 2008 -- Sitron Takes 2nd
• July 2, 2008 -- ‘SirWatts’ Runs Out of Power
• July 2, 2008 -- Hold Your Fire
• July 2, 2008 -- Sitron Sitting Pretty