Online stars went to battle and two P5ers emerged as chip leaders in the $3K Triple Chance NLHE event. Jason “JCarver” Somerville is the man everyone is chasing as he increased his stack to 451K during the past level while Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet is second in chips with 373K.

Somerville first won a big pot against a European player at his table. With blinds at 300/600 his opponent raised to 1.7K in middle position and Somerville called. The flop rolled out 664 and Somervilled called a bet of 25K. Both players checked the Q turn and the K fell on the river. The other player led out for 46K and Somerville contemplated a decision for a couple minutes. He eventually called and his opponent tabled AJ for ace-high. Somerville showed his winning JJ. That pot moved him up to 303K.

Shortly after, Somerville eliminated Steven “PiKappRaider” Burkholder. We missed the hand but found it interesting that it was Somerville who did the dirty work because he didn’t know who Burkholder was until minutes earlier when the two discussed their online encounters.

Van Fleet was moved to Shane “shaniac” Schleger’s table during Level 17 and watched Schleger double through Nick Sliwinski. Schleger moved all in for 55.5K from middle position with JT and Sliwinski called with A7. Nick seemed sure he would send Shane home when the flop and turn brought K53K but the T doubled

Schleger’s newfound fortune didn’t last long. Two hands later Schleger raised to 14K and Van Fleet moved all in. Schleger snap-called and we were off to the races:

Schleger: AK
Van Fleet: 77

The QT936 board came up dry for Schleger, who packed up his belongings and collected $9,145 for 46th place.

Johannes “busto_soon” Van Til joined Schleger on the way to the exit during the past level. With 34 players remaining and the average stack at 225K here’s a look at the P5ers still alive:

Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 451K
Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet - 373K
Jason “TheMasterJ33″ DeWitt - 306K
Michael “Bonzo9876″ Katz - 287K
Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron - 180K

WSOP 2009 Event #51: $1.5K NLHE

We’re not positive on the preflop action, but we think Steven “19FMzadester” Levy (pictured left) moved all-in and Thibaut Durant called him with J7. Levy had him crushed with Q7 - which prompted his rail to yell out “Computer Computer” and make robot beeping sounds. The 963 flop kept Steven in the lead, but the 2 on the turn gave Durant a flush draw. Levy managed to fade the spade on the river and eliminated Durant in 6th place.

Next to go at the final table was Owen “ocrowe” Crowe. He got all of his chips in the middle preflop holding A-10 to Andrew Chen’s pocket eights. The eights held and Crowe was knocked out in 5th place, earning $145,199.

Levy lost a chunk of his chips shortly after that when David Walasinski doubled through him. He gave the rest of his chips to Walasinski a few hands later in a blind versus blind confrontation. Levy raised out of the small blind, Walasinski moved all-in, and Levy quickly called with A-9. Walsinski had him drawing slim with A-J and when the board failed to improve Steve’s hand he was eliminated in 4th place for $192,650.

WSOP 2009 Event #54: $1.5K NLHE

Andrew “tufat23″ Teng was able to build his stack after getting moved to the same table as Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little. With the blinds at 400/800 ante 100 a player limped in early position and Little raised to 1.8K. Teng called from the small blind and both the big blind and the limper folded. The two players checked the A97 flop. Teng checked again when the 9 hit on the turn. Little bet 2.2K and Teng called. The river was the J and Teng checked a third time. Little bet out 3.4K leaving around 8K behind and Teng thought for a while before moving all-in, having Jon easily covered. Little removed his headphones to make sure he heard the action correctly before saying, “call.” Little instantly mucked his hand when Andrew showed AA for aces full of nines.

Andrew “tufat23″ Teng - 50K
Ben “shankingyou� Palmer - 39.5K
Bryan “BParis” Paris - 38K
Vivek “psyduck� Rajkumar - 37K
Jack “doctor_fun� Powell - 33K
Alex “Kadabra� Keating - 28.5K
Theo “pittrounder� Tran - 23.5K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 23K
Ryan “ryanghall� Hall - 21K
Lauren “locoenlacabeza� Kling - 19K
Hunter “The_Hunt_D� Frey - 18.5K
Zachary “CrazyZachary� Clark - 16K
Kyle “thetruth503″ Zartman - 15K
Jamie “mmwawa” Kerstetter - 12K

• June 29, 2009 -- Seiver Sits. They Go.
• June 28, 2009 -- WSOP 2009 Event #52: The Diet Rebuy
• June 30, 2009 -- DeWitt Tames Ape
• June 29, 2009 -- Gilbert Gains Traction In $1.5K Stud H/L