After plowing through the field to get to heads up play things have slowed down for Gus Hansen. David Chiu (left) went into heads up play with about 4 million and in serious danger against Hansen’s 23 million. Win a pot here and there and double up once though and then things aren’t so bad.

That is exactly what happened for Chiu and after about an hour of heads up play he is up to 9 million and Gus is down to about 18 million. Still a 2 to 1 chip lead, but another double up will flip the tables and make Chiu the 2 to 1 leader over Gus.

The difference between first and second is around $1.6 million so there is plenty to play for even before you factor in any ancillary benefits to being the champion of one of the largest tournaments of the year. Gus is in a commanding position but the death grip he had on this tournament has loosened slightly in the first part of heads up play.

• April 27, 2008 -- Chiu Makes The Comeback
• April 26, 2008 -- Good Call, Bad Beat - Carroll Out 4th
• April 26, 2008 -- Hit A Draw One Time?
• April 26, 2008 -- Gus Doing the Work Early

With the elimination of TJ Cloutier the top spot in the chip counts is now even more solidly in the hands of Gus Hansen. Gus (right) was in the big blind and had called a 40k opening bet from Cloutier at the 8k/16k blind level. On the 7-6-3 rainbow flop Gus checked and TJ bet 100k of his roughly 600k stack. Gus thought for a moment while riffling a stack of the red 25k chips before putting out a bet of around 500k, committing himself to the pot and letting TJ know he was willing to go all the way.

Cloutier announced all in and Gus quickly put out more red 25k chips to make the call and turned over his 6-3 offsuit for flopped bottom two pair. Cloutier had the 88 for an overpair and needed to improve to stay alive in the tournament. He did not and was out the door in the 34th place for $65,955 saying “the three six got me.”

Gus is now pushing the 3 million chip mark while his next closest competitors are both right around 2 million. Both Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll are sitting with around 2 million chips and are the chip leaders at their respective tables.

Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis is at the lone table without a 2 million chip stack. He sits with around 460k and is in the bottom third of the chip counts.

With 33 players left in the field the players will continue at their current tables until the next redraw at 27 players. After a short break players will come back to play the 10k / 20k blind level with a 3k ante.

• April 23, 2008 -- Billirakis Busted
• April 23, 2008 -- Redraw at 27
• April 23, 2008 -- Day 3 Complete, Late Eliminations
• April 23, 2008 -- Stalled at 19