Shortly before the most recent 20 minute break Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail (pictured at left) picked up a big pot when he eliminated another player.  The other player bet the flop of KQ6 and Blake made the call.  When the Q came on the turn, the other player moved all-in for the remainder of his stack and Cahail quickly made the call with KK.  The other player held AK and the meaningless 3 on the river meant Cahail’s stack built back up to 350k.

After players returned from their most recent twenty minute break, several players made ascents up the chip counts while others, like David “DavidP18″ Peters, headed for the door.  A short stacked Jose “head2782″ Severino moved all-in from the cut off and the player on the button quickly moved all-in behind him.  The players in the blinds folded and the two players turned up their hands.  Jose showed KQ while his opponent held AK.  The other player made a flush as the board came J8392 and Severino was eliminated.

Ibuki “bukithepro” Fukui was eliminated by Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson when Johnson raised in late position and Fukui reraised all-in for a little over 100K total.  Marco made the call with pocket jacks, which held against Fukui’s A-10.  After the hand Marco had 340K.

Here are our most recent chip counts:
Eric “jakz101″ Crain - 440K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 365K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 295K
Dan “Wretchy” Martin - 220K

The $50K HORSE is down to its final 13 players and after beginning the day at the top of the leaderbaord, both Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu are now two of the shorter stacks remaining in play.  Currently, Huck Seed is the chip leader with 5 more players to lose before play concludes for the night.

Finally, here are some notable chip counts in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #49 with the blinds at 400-800-100 with 350 left and the average stack at 23k:
Greg “FBT” Mueller - 65k
John Murphy - 52k
Hevad Khan - 42k
David Pham - 30k
Andy Black - 27k
Chris “sooooted” Vaughn - 27k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 23k
Jeff Madsen - 21k
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 12k
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little - 7k

• June 30, 2008 -- Gomes, Johnson Go 1 and 2 in $2K Event
• June 29, 2008 -- Katz and Cahail Bust Out
• June 28, 2008 -- The HORSE Race Continues
• June 29, 2008 -- To Reload or Not to Reload?

Day 4 of the $50k HORSE event is set to kick off at 3 pm this afternoon with the final 24 players. Among those looking to make the money today are Barry Greenstein (1.3 mil), and a short stacked James “mig.com” Mackey (151k) (pictured right). There are still many big names in the field such as Daniel Negreanu (1.2 mil), Doyle Brunson (777k), Scotty Nguyen (1 mil), and Phil Ivey (145k). Only the top 16 will cash in this event so the short stacks are going to have to make moves early during play today as the blinds are getting rather large. They will play through the afternoon and into the evening until the final table of 8 players is set.

Starting back up at 2 pm is day 2 of the $2k NLHE event. Eric “jakz101″ Crain returns today as the chip leader with more than 253k. Other players still in the field include David “ComptonMasta” Barter (19k), Adam “Roothlus” Levy (73k), Dan “wretchy” Martin (58k), Gary “GB2005″ Bogdanski (32k), and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (124k).

All of the 198 remaining players are guaranteed at least $3,795 while the 1st place finisher in this event will take home the gold bracelet and an impressive $770,540.

• June 28, 2008 -- No Way, Jose!
• June 28, 2008 -- Katz’s “Moment of Truth”
• June 29, 2008 -- Crain Wrecks
• June 29, 2008 -- CrazyMarco Running CrazyHot

Despite a hefty 50k buy-in, a handful of online kids are making a run at perhaps the most prestigious bracelet in the WSOP in the 50k HORSE Championship WSOP Event #45.

Although the majority of online players in this tournament are those with a high stakes cash game background, a few players more known for their NL tournament games are playing like James “mig.com” Mackey, Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo and Dario Minieri.

The 148 player field is stacked with incredible tables as expected. No table featured a better lineup of elite players than the one that included two of the biggest winners online in Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (pictured left) and Tom “durrrr” Dwan with two of the biggest live game winners in Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. Dwan, Galfond, and Ivey play each other often in nosebleed NL and PLO game online as well.

Mackey has faired very well at his table that includes a tough cast of characters in David Oppenheim, Andy Bloch, Lyle Berman, Jennifer Harman, David Singer, and online cash game player Brian “tsarrast” Rast. Mackey’s stack has been over the average for most of the tournament and is at 209k as play nears to an end.

Here’s a list of notable online players chip stacks with the average at 105k.

Phil Galfond - 185k

Patrik Antonius - 180k

Dario Minieri - 140k

Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 100k

Justin “zeejustin” Bonomo - 81k

Nick Schulman - 70k

Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko - 55k

• June 26, 2008 -- Top of the Chip Counts or Bust!
• June 26, 2008 -- Mackey Riding High
• June 27, 2008 -- A Player Makes a “FatalError”
• June 27, 2008 -- Stud Players Wanting Tang

In the Brazillia room, the $3k NLHE tournament isn’t the only event running right now. Day 2 of the $10k World Championship of LHE (event #30) is also taking place there today and while yesterday’s action seemed rather slow because of the large starting stacks and fixed limit structure, the play today has sped up immensely with only 42 of the original 218 remaining.

Eric “EFro” Froehlich is sitting pretty at the top of the chip counts after some big hands. Howard Lederer put in a raise preflop and both Froehlich (pictured right) and another player called to see the flop come AK5. Action checked to Lederer who bet and both Froehlich and the other player called. When the J dropped on the turn action checked to Lederer who again bet but this time Froehlich raised. The player in the middle and Lederer  both made the call and the Q fell on the river. Froehlich bet out, the player in the middle folded and Lederer reluctantly called to see Froehlich’s QT that had turned a broadway straight. Lederer mucked and Froehlich won a large pot. Froehlich is currently the chip leader with 350k.

Brock “t_soprano” Parker has also been doing well in this tournament today, despite being at the same table as “EFro’s” massive stack. Preflop Parker (pictured left) made it 2 bets to go, the player to his left upped it to 3 bets and the big blind capped it at 4 bets. All 3 players called to see the flop come J94. The big blind bet out and both Parker and the other player called. When the 3 came on the turn the big blind checked, Brock bet, and the other two players both smooth called. The river brought the 2, completing a possible flush draw and the big blind again checked it to Parker who bet. The player in the middle folded and after thinking for a long while the big blind eventually called and when Brock flipped up the QJ the big blind mucked his hand and Parker scooped a large pot.

Brock then finished off Howard Lederer  by using his AQ to best Lederer’s KJ on a board of 6548A sending Lederer to the rail and increasing Brock’s stack to a healthy 190k. He has since chipped up to 230k and is in 2nd place behind Froehlich.

Other notable players still in the field of the LHE tourney include Justin Bonomo, Greg “FBT” Mueller, and Todd “DanDruff” Witteles while Matt “mattster24″ Sterling and Joe Sebok were recently eliminated.

Over at the ESPN Featured Table in the Amazon room, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is dominating the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tournament. Johnny Chan lost a huge pot to David Benyamine to put Benyamine in 2nd place and drop Chan down to 3rd and then promptly lost another big hand to Galfond to extend Galfond’s lead and to make Chan the short stack.

Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th, and 6th place and the chip counts for the 5 remaining players are:

Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond - 3,156,000
David Benyamine - 1,545,000
Kirill Gerasimov - 720,000
Adam Hourani - 615,000
Johnny Chan - 330,000

• June 17, 2008 -- OMGClay Wins!
• June 16, 2008 -- Hoping Nobody has a “Case of the Mondays”
• June 16, 2008 -- Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
• June 16, 2008 -- Get Your Fricke On

Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is now 2nd in chips with around 1.5 million at the final table of the $5k PLO w/ Rebuys tourney.  Johnny Chan just stole the lead away when he busted Brian Rast in 9th place and now sits with over 2 million in chips. Phil Hellmuth is currently the short stack with around 150k even after he doubled up earlier when his KK54 caught a king on the turn to best Brian Rast’s AA22 after all the money was in preflop.

Galfond (pictured left) is definitely not letting these big name live pros intimidate him. In one hand Daniel Negreanu raised to 50k preflop with the blinds at 10k/20k and Galfond called from the big blind. The flop came out with the J63 and Galfond checked it over to Negreanu who bet 75k. Galfond calmly sat and contemplated before raising to 225k prompting Negreanu to muck his hand almost instantly.

In the Brazillia room event #29, the $3k NLHE has been filled with agressive play ever since the bubble burst which has lead to a number of players being eliminated. Jason “JCarver” Somerville was eliminated in 61st place when his QT couldn’t best another player’s AQ all in on a queen high flop. Soon after Somerville was knocked out Steven O’Dwyer got all his chips in the middle with pocket fours in a race against the AK of his only caller. The ace came on the flop and O’Dwyer couldn’t get back ahead and was busted in 60th place.

Stu “The Donator” Patterson went on a chip stack rollercoaster ride when he lost a large portion of his chips in a hand where his AQ couldn’t catch up to an opponents AK. He was then crippled down to almost nothing on a subsequent hand. Afterwards he was able to post the ante and nothing else and he actually won the table’s antes with his 92 when four diamonds came on the board making him a flush and no other player held a diamond in their hand. Still incredibly short stacked he got his money in with 97 and was happy to see he was live against his opponents AJ. The board ran out 6423A and Patterson was eliminated in 57th place.

Eric “Rizen” Lynch got all his chips in preflop with his JT dominating his opponents J9, but unfortunately for Lynch a 9 came on the flop and he couldn’t recover and was sent to the rail in 46th place.

Somerville, O’Dwyer and Patterson will all receive $6,126 for their 2 day run in this tournament and Lynch will receive $6,718.

• June 16, 2008 -- Pop Goes the Bubble
• June 16, 2008 -- Hoping Nobody has a “Case of the Mondays”
• June 16, 2008 -- Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
• June 29, 2008 -- To Reload or Not to Reload?