Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter couldn’t fade the short stack torture he started with on Day 4 on the Main Event. Starting out with 52k with blinds at 2.5k-5k-500, Porter survived the first hour and a half of play before busting out in 360th place when he moved all-in for 70k from middle position with the AT but ran into AQ behind him.

Hunter “the_Hunt_D” Frey got the rest of his chips in on a AJ5 board with AJ against an opponent’s JJ. The turn and river brought th 8{and 7h} and Frey calmly left the Amazon Room with a prize of $28,950.

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy also met his demise, and at the hands of a fellow pocketfiver. Josephy shoved his last 60K in late position with KJ and Dag Martin “dmmikkel”  Mikkelsen called with AK. Josephy’s hand didn’t improve and he was sent home after providing the P5s staff with plenty of entertaining moments during the Main Event.

Garrett “GBecks” Beckman has increased his 190k starting stack to over 300k. He needed a little luck to do so however. Beckman flatted his opponents under-the-gun raise after the action folded to him in the small blind with the AA. Beckman was a bit disappointed when the big blind didn’t squeeze but made the call. On a flop of 354, Beckman checked, the big blind bet 14k and the preflop raiser made it 200k, effectively putting the blinds all-in with smaller stacks. Beckman moved all-in for his last 135k and the big blind folded. Surprisingly, Beckman was trailing the under-the-gun preflop raiser, who flopped two pair with 53. Beckman immediately peeled off the A on the turn and more than doubled up.

After starting play today with a massive 873k in chips, Chris “panamatony” Barrille has slipped a little bit. In a hand right before the first break Chris and another player saw a flop of 996. The other player bet, Chris raised, and the other player went all in. The cards were tabled and Chris’ 77 wasn’t looking good against the other players 98. The turn was the 5 and the river the 5 to give the other player a full house and knock Chris’s stack down to around 690k.

At the end of the first level of the day, here’s a look at the chip counts of some notables still alive:

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 1.2 Million
Jon “PearlJammer” Turner - 1.1 Million
Paul “ComeOnPhis” Lieu - 750K
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 700K
Chris “panamatony” Barrille - 690K
David “raptor517″ Benefield - 690K
Jon Friedberg - 550K
Derek “arodss3″ Buanomo - 491K
Joe “LatestLines2″ Ward - 415K
Mark “AceSpades” Radoja - 370K
Jeremt “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 376K
Bruce “cornellxc11″ Hyde - 300K
Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts - 285K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 200K
David “Bakes” Baker - 150K
Thayer Rasmussen - 100K

• July 11, 2008 -- Levy Cruising at Hellmuth’s Table
• July 11, 2008 -- Rasmussen Crippled, Tripled, Then Out
• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)
• June 9, 2008 -- Redlin Busts Porter to Advance in Shootout

Nachman “thelandlord” Berlin (pictured left) didn’t have the best start to his Day 3 of the Main Event. He’d lost half of his 125k starting stack in the first level when his middle set was trumped by top set. No matter how Berlin played the hand, he was doubling the other player up.

Shortly after that cooler, Berlin picked up a huge hand and re-raised Men “TheMaster” Nguyen’s wife 5k open from early position to 20k. An opponent behind Berlin re-raised him for his last 40k and Berlin mucked his pocket queens.

Rest assured, Berlin’s opponent tabled pocket aces.

Berlin has since went on rush at his table, scooping various small to medium size pots, many going without a showdown. After rising up from all the setup situations he encountered early, Berlin returned from first break with 140k, a 20k improvement from the start.

One Pocketfiver whose journey through Day 3 has been way less turbulent is Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy. After accumulating a 246k stack yesterday when Josephy was extremely active throughout, he’s admittedly been very quiet today.

“I haven’t seen one flop out of the blinds all day today,” said Josephy, who turned to the table for confirmation of what is an uncharacteristic pattern of behavior for him.

Allen “albari” Bari started the day with 117k and through the first level had chipped up to around 240k. He lost a little bit of that when a player went all in for around 30k and Allen made the call with his 99. It was a classic race as the all in player held the AK. The flop came KT6 to put the all in player in the lead and while the 2 on the turn gave Allen a flush draw, the A on the river couldn’t help him and Allen doubled the other player up and his stack dropped to a little over 200k.

Paul “comeonphish” Lieu began day 3 of play with an above average stack of 183K, but he has since nearly doubled the stack he started with today.  We weren’t there to catch the action, but Paul fessed up to PocketFives Live that he sucked out on a player in a 100K pot when the got it all-in preflop with Lieu holding pocket sevens while his opponent had pocket jacks.  The flop and turn left Paul drawing dead to a seven, but one of the two remaining in the deck came on the river and the other player was eliminated.
 
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham (pictured right) recently got a boost to his chip stacks after a hand he termed, “one of the sickest things you’ll ever see.”  Matt raised preflop, another player reraised out of the blinds, and Graham made the call.  The flop came J74 and the reraiser bet 16K.  Matt then did some reraising of his own, bumping it up 36K, which the other player called.  When the 2 fell on the turn the other player bet out 40K leaving 15K behind and Graham called.  When the 3 hit on the river the other player checked to Graham who moved all-in and the other player folded, leaving himself with less than ten big blinds.  Graham showed Q8 for queen high and now has over 200K.
 
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman was eliminated after a hand was raised and reraised preflop and he and his opponent got it all in on a flop of 9-8-6.  Werman’s pocket jacks were no match for the other player’s pocket aces and he was sent to the rail. 

Here are some updated and unofficial chip counts as players returned from their first break of the day:
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 340K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 300K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 285K
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 240K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 240K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 235K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 230K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ - 220K
Derek “arodss3″ Buonano - 201K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 200K
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 200K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 195K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 190K
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 175K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert - 174K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 170K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 165K
Jason Gray - 160K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 160K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 155K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 150K
Brian “Like7″ Lammana - 130K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 125K
Dylan “ImALucSack” Linde - 110K
David “Bakes” Baker - 100K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 100K
Ben “shankingyou” Palmer -95K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 80K
Cody “CalBandGreat” Shedd - 80K
Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert - 67K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 62K
Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano - 41K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 38K

• July 11, 2008 -- Together They Fall
• July 10, 2008 -- King is Dead
• July 9, 2008 -- Divine Intervention
• July 11, 2008 -- Crowe Pecking Away

Carter “ckingusc” King (pictured left) has been hanging on by a thread all day; in fact, the patience he’s continually exhibited has been admirable. However, this patience was wearing thin as his stack was shrinking - when PocketFives caught up to Carter halfway through the last level of the evening, he had less than 15K in front of him. Finally, he saw his chance to make a move and from the button, he shoved all in when it folded to him. After thinking awhile, a player in early position called his all-in and the dealer waved his paddle in the air. When both players flipped their cards, it was a classic coin flip situation: Carter held QJ versus his opponent’s TT. The board ran out K386 and Carter was feeling pretty good, but while the J on the river gave Carter a better pair, it gave his opponent the flush and he was sent to the rail.

Todd “koolkeith13″ Lewis also recently busted when he lost an 80K pot when he got it in with A-K while his opponent held A-9. A nine on the turn spelled disaster for Lewis and he was eliminated with an hour left in play.

Adam “Roothlus” Levy had some good news to share with his friend Ray Henson, who was sitting a few tables over. Levy had much to be happy about after he won a three-way all-in preflop hand where his kings held up against pocket queens and pocket jacks. Levy started the hand with about 75k and after his flopped set of kings held, his stack catapulted to over 200k. Henson has been enjoying some good fortune as well as his 20k stack at the start of the day has ballooned over 230k.

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy increased his stack to 250K following a blind vs. blind confrontation. The player in the small blind raised to 3,600 and Josephy (pictured right) raised enough to put the player all in (nearly 30K). The player called instantly with pocket kings and Cliff flipped over pocket nines. As the dealer prepared to reveal the flop, Josephy yelled “king!” and naturally the dealer dealt the 9 on the flop, putting him in the lead. His hand held and he climbed back toward the top of the leaderboard.

Russell “rdcrsn” Carson’s stack took a big hit in a blind vs blind battle. In a limped pot, Carson and his opponent played for stacks on an A-4-5 flop. Carson’s opponent flopped aces and fours and managed to dodge Carson’s gut-shot straight draw and flush draw, scooping a 90k pot, leaving Carson with 18k.

Both Michael “Benvo123″ Benvonuti and Daniel “voff” Deveau took also big hits this past hour. Benvenuti got all-in on the flop with a set versus a flopped flush which knocked him down under 30K. Deveau got it all-in preflop with aces versus his opponent’s pocket jacks and looked to be in good shape to pick up a big pot, but a jack on the river shipped it the other direction and he was left with 50K.

With an hour left in the final level of the night, here are some unofficial chip counts of P5ers still alive:
 
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 250K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 212K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 190K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 190K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 180K
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 180K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 180K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 166K
Brandon Schaefer - 165K
David “HosniMubarak” Tazbaz - 150K
Aditya “intervention” Agarwal - 136K
Dag Martin Mikkelsen - 136K
David “Bakes” Baker - 120K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 120K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 120K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 120K
Allen “abari” Bari - 111K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert -110K
Thayer Rasmussen - 109K
Nachman “thelandlord” Berlin - 107K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 100K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 100K
Dylan “ImALucSac” Linde - 100K
Jason “strassa2″ Strasser - 100K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 90K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 88K
“BodogAri” Engel - 85K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 77K
Brian “snagglepuss” Powell - 75K
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 75K
Darren Elias - 65K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 60K
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin - 55K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 50K
Daniel “voff” Deveau - 50K
Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania - 45K
Chris “cmoney3″ Kline - 40K
Michael “martine23″ Martin - 38K
Hevad Khan - 37K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 29K
Michael “benvo123″ Benvenuti - 28K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 20K
Russell “rdcrsn” Carson - 19K

• July 10, 2008 -- Porter Picks Up Pot with Pocket Rockets
• July 9, 2008 -- Divine Intervention
• June 28, 2008 -- CrazyMarco, Roothlus Chip Up
• June 6, 2008 -- Levy Advances; Wolpert, Sebok Heads up in Event #11

Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured at left) came into the Main Event Day 2b with a below average stack of 25k. After the first few levels, Agarwal went on a rush, increasing his stack to over 100k. Agarwal won a big hand off of Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania earlier in the day to get the bulk of his chips. Agarwal raised to 1,300 preflop, Charania made it 3,300 and Agarwal called.

The flop came 6T7 and Agarwal check-called Charania’s bet of 4,500. The turn was the 9 and Agarwal bet 14k. Charania raised him all-in for his last 20k and Agarwal called, tabling the 54 for a flush. The river held for Agarwal’, which bested Charania’s pocket jacks that didn’t have a heart draw on the turn. Mohsin currently sits with 20k.

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy has more than doubled his stack to over 200K this afternoon in the Brasilia Room. Josephy hit that mark when he called a player’s all-in bet with QQ and had his opponent’s QT dominated. The flop brought no help to the other player and Q on the turn left his opponent drawing dead. Josephy has been one of the more active players today and doesn’t appear to be slowing down any time soon.

Michael “BraveJayhawk” Jensen was recently eliminated when he reraised all-in for his remaining 17.5K after a player ahead of him raised and another made the call. The player who flat called held AQ and Michael turned over QQ. After the flop came J65, Jensen looked to be in good shape, but the A on the turn left him drawing to one out. When the K came on the river, he was eliminated.

Jason “JCarver” Somerville (pictured at right) hit the exit after he got crossed up in an interesting battle of wills with his opponent. Somerville raised to 1,800 preflop and his opponent called out of the blind. Somerville’s opponent bet 2k into him on a 9-9-5 flop and Somerville called. The turn was a ten and Somerville raised his opponent’s 7k bet to 18.5k and got called. The river was a king and Somerville put his opponent all-in for 35k after he checked to him. Somerville’s opponent called and revealed a straight with Q-J, rivering Somerville’s K-J high, which was best until the river. To make matters more comical, Somerville’s opponent added, ‘I played it perfect, I trapped you,’ Somerville later told PocketFives. Somerville was left with 5k and busted shortly after the hand.

Here’s a look at some chip counts as players went into a 40-minute break after Level 7:

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 200K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 185.5K
David “Bakes” Baker - 165K
Dylan “ImaLucSac” Linde - 122K
Aaron “gotcha55″ Kanter - 113K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 94K
“BodogAri” Engel - 80K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 80K
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 75K
Mike “RunScreamin” Herder - 64k
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 60K
Jason “strassa2″ Stasser - 60K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 60K
Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo - 60K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 58K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 53K
Simon Marlow - 52K
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 38K
Ladbrokes team pro Azad Pirooti - 36K
James “POKERPRO33″ Campbell - 30K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 28K
Bryan Micon - 28K
Greg “DuckU” Hobson - 26K
Bryan “bparis” Paris - 24K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 24K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 22K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 15K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 13K
Hung “HQrespect” Nguyen - 9K
Jason “MKind16″ Laso - 6K

• July 10, 2008 -- Beckman Moves Up Leaderboard
• July 6, 2008 -- BadBeatNinja Disappears Into the Night
• July 10, 2008 -- King is Dead
• July 9, 2008 -- Dreams Dashed or Doubled Up?

By the fifth level of play in the $10K heads-up only a handful of matches continued play.  On one side of the Amazon Room, Cliff “Johnnybax” Josephy (pictured at right) was tangling with European pro Johannes Strassmann while Josephy provided some live action PokerXFactor-style commentary for both his opponent and the crowd on the rail.  Bax’s analysis of heads up play was cut short when he moved all in on the button for just shy of 10K with the blinds at 500/1K and Strassmann made the call with 66.  Josephy held KQ and failed to improve, eliminating him after nearly two hours of play.

Scott “BigRiskky” Clements also fought a lengthy battle with his opponent before suffering a pretty brutal beat to knock him out of the event.  The two players got it all in pre-flop with Clements holding KK to his opponent’s AJ.  Clements looked in good shape to double up and take a substantial chip lead after the flop and turn, with his opponent drawing dead to an ace.  However, the A peeled off on the river and the other player advanced to Round Two.

More Eliminations:
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Taylor Caby, last year’s champ Daniel Schreiber, Sorel Mizzi, and Daniel Alaei

Headed to Round 2:
Cole “cts” South, Dario Minieri, and JC Tran

Day Two of play in the $2K NLHE is underway and several players have already hit the rail as well as doubled up.  Court Harrington was the benefactor of an early Day 2 double up and now sits at 23K.

The final table of the $5K NLHE also began at 2pm and Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman has already been eliminated in 9th place on the second hand of the day when his AK was no match for Scott Seiver’s QQ.  He will take home $69,714.

• June 26, 2008 -- Online Players Looking to Run Deep
• June 25, 2008 -- Pocket Fives No Good to Graham
• June 13, 2008 -- Mano a Mano
• June 11, 2008 -- Take It to the Limit