Daniel Negreanu (right) predicted a 15+ hour final table.  A few hours into the day it looked like Stanislav Alekhin and Ivan Demidov were going to clean house before the dinner break.  After the flurry of eliminations brought the field down to 5 players things stalled out a bit.  Ivan Demidov had Bengt Sonnert all in and dominated but Bengt was saved by a 3-outer that kept the field 5 handed.

Since then the field has leveled out some and there has been a lot of preflop poker with not many large pots moving around the table.  The players finished up play before dinner break at 10k / 20k with a 3k ante blind level and after dinner will be back to play the 12k / 24k with a 3k ante level.  The blinds are increasing but the average stack is just under 1.5 million putting plenty of chips on the table to provide for lots of play at the blind amounts scheduled for the next few levels of play.

One of the largest pots since the last bustout came just 3 hands before the dinner break.  Juanda raised to 55k from the button and Alekhin called from the big blind.  On the 652 flop Stanislav checked to Juanda who bet 100k and was called.  On the K turn Alekhin again checked and Juanda doubled the bet putting out 200k.  After a while Alekhin made the call.

With the 3 to fill out the board the action was sent to Juanda for the third time.  True to form he bet, putting out 320k.  After check calling the flop and turn Stanislav took a new line on the river and check raised all in forcing Juanda to decide for the rest of his chips.  After a long time for thought a very uncomfortable looking Juanda found a fold and tossed his hand away.  The next hand Juanda moved all in over the top of a Bengt Sonnert opening raise to get a very few of the chips lost back.

The players head off to their two hour dinner break with Stanislav Alekhin holding a commanding lead over fellow Russian Ivan Demidov, and both Russians pacing the rest of the field.  Negreanu is the shortest of the stacks, winning few pots and being handcuffed by the aggressive and hot Alekhin on his immediate right.  The break may come at a good time for Juanda to give him a few hours to mentally recover from the huge pot he just surrendered before the break leaving himself on the bottom half of the chip counts and with only around 20% of the chips Alekhin is sitting with.

Here are rough chip counts for the players at the break:

Stanislav Alekhin 3,350,000
Ivan Demidov 1,950,000
Bengt Sonnert 900,000
John Juanda 650,000
Daniel Negreanu 350,000

• October 2, 2008 -- Turned Upside Down, But Still Evenish
• October 2, 2008 -- Bengt Bounced, Juanda Gains Ground
• October 2, 2008 -- Kid Poker Felted
• October 2, 2008 -- Negreanu Scrapping, Juanda Doubles