Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby had been on life support for quite awhile with his stack as low as around 180k. Cort (pictured right) recently got all his chips in the middle with the A2 against another players Q9. The board ran out J546K and Cort’s ace-high was good enough to boost his stack up to around 375k.

Garrett “GBecks” Beckman recently was involved in a huge pot against Alex Kostritsyn. Alex open-raised to 52k preflop and Garrett reraised to 177k total. Alex made the call and the flop came T74. Alex checked the flop over to Garrett who bet 150k. Alex asked how much Garrett had behind and the dealer counted around 700k more in chips in Garrett’s stack. Alex made the call and the turn brought the 2. The deuce was an action killer as both players checked to see the A fall on the river. Alex again checked but Garrett pushed out a bet of 300k. Alex thought for a bit, playing with his chips before finally making the call. Garrett instantly mucked his cards, caught trying to steal and Alex won the massive pot as Beckman’s stack dropped to around 400k.

Two PocketFivers collided at table 13 during the past level. David “raptor517″ Benefield raised to 55K in middle position and he was called by the button and Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki in the small blind. On the 653 flop, Klodnicki opened the betting for 100K and Benefield called. The button folded and two players saw the Q fall on the turn. Klodnicki checked and Benefield bet 225K. Klodnicki made the call and both players checked the T on the river. “Pair of sixes,” Benefield said as he flipped over 86. Klodnicki mucked and Benefield added more than 450K to his gigantic stack.

Here are a few recent chip counts we were able to grab.

David “raptor517″ Benefield - 2.6M
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 1.1M
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 900K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 800K
Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 650K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 400K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 375K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 250K

• July 13, 2008 -- Reunited
• July 12, 2008 -- Tuf Break
• July 12, 2008 -- Double Trouble
• July 12, 2008 -- Friedberg Busts, Beckman Builds Stack

Down to 900 chips in the 1.5k NL WSOP Event #52, Josh “pbdrunks” VanDuyn (pictured left) didn’t have any problem doubling up off his roomate Markus “LURPED” Gonsalves.

Granted, looking down at AK will make any friend worth going to war against when you are short in a tournament but nevertheless, VanDuyn seemed to get great pleasure off the situation. VanDuyn was sure to point out his “spikey haired” roommate to P5’s that gave him the courtesy double up. VanDuyn currently has 5k with blinds at 200-400 in level six.

Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka continues to chip up after a good start in the first few levels. Jaka recently won a big pot when he re-raised a 600 bet from button to 2400 with pocket eights out of the blind. Jaka’s opponent called and both players checked a 8-5-2 flop. Jaka moved all-in for around 5k when he turned quads and got a call from his opponent who Jaka said claimed to have nines.  Jaka didn’t believe the story but was happy to collect the pot and currently sits with 18k.

Here’s a list of notable players left with the average stack at 10k

Cody “thugmoneymkr” Slaubaugh - 21k
Scott “gunning4you” Seiver - 20.5K
Bryan “shortstackninja” Devonshire - 20K
Nick “fu_15″ Maimone - 19K
Andy “BKice” Seth - 13k
Ken “isuck123″ Goldin - 10K
Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 8.5K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 8k
Keven “stammdogg3″ Stammen - 8K
Shaun “Cougars4444″ Hendrickson - 7K
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 7k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 6k
Scott “ssitron” Sitron - 5.5K
Andrew “GreerNC” Everhard - 3.7K

46 players remain In the $10K Pot Limit Omaha event including Shawn “sbuck21″ Buchanan (270K), David “Raptor517″ Benefield (135K), and Steve Sung (40K).

Chad Brown is currently the chip leader in the $1.5K HORSE event with 104 players remaining. Brown is seated at a star-studded table with both Joe Hachem and Mike Matusow, but that doesn’t seem to be stopping him from picking up chips. Meanwhile, several other players including Doug “Resilient” Smith and Brett “gank” Jungblut.

• June 30, 2008 -- Daut Busted in 10k PLO
• June 30, 2008 -- Clements Holding Steady in 10k PLO
• June 12, 2008 -- BK-iCed!
• June 30, 2008 -- No Double Dipping

Despite rebuilding his short stack to a more respectable level at 28k, Ryan “Daut44″ Daut (pictured right) lost it all back in big confrontation with Clonie Gowen in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50.

Gowen raised to 4.5k and Daut reraised to 15k and Gowen called. Gowen checked to Daut on a 873flop, and Daut went all-in for 13k and Gowen called. Daut tabled the AAKQ ahead of Gowen’s 6354 double-draw that he had murked with higher diamonds. Daut lost to Gowen’s straight outs when the board ran Q and the 6.

David “Raptor517″ Benefield lost a near 100k pot, dipping his 175k stack, one of the biggest stacks left, to around 120k. Benefield flopped a set eights to his opponents pockets aces and a nut flush draw and lost when his opponent hit a runner-runner straight.

Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks left with the average stack at 60k.

Shawn “buck21″ Buchanan - 130k

Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 80k

Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 40k

Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 14k

The $1.5K No Limit Hold Em WSOP Event #49 is losing players at a feverish pace.  There are currently 29 players remaining–slightly more than 1% of the intial 2,700 person field.  Recent eliminations include Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar in 35th place and Hevad “Rain” Khan.  Khan was involved in a 4-way limped pot when the flop came Q98 Khan and another player got it all-in.  Khan held KQ while the other player had 67.  The 5 brought the other player their straight and Hevad was sent to the rail.
 
Some notable chip counts of the remaining players include JC Tran (380K), Andy Black (305K), and Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg (170K).

• June 30, 2008 -- Clements Holding Steady in 10k PLO
• June 29, 2008 -- Clements Takes an Early Lead
• June 30, 2008 -- Gomes, Johnson Go 1 and 2 in $2K Event
• June 30, 2008 -- VanDuyn Not Friendly to Friends

Many players have made quick work of their heads-up opponent and the blue section of the Amazon room is already starting to feel a little empty.  After Isaac Haxton made quick work Scott Fischman, he decided to stick around and observe the other match taking place on his table (each table has two matches taking place on them).  Eventually the tournament director announced to Haxton and the other players whose matches were complete that they needed to clear the tournament area until Round 2 starts at 5pm. 

Players still competing in their matches also can’t help but watch the second match taking place at their tables, especially during the downtime while dealers are shuffling. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements was spotted peeking over at his neighbor Sammy Farha’s heads-up match on numerous occassions, even when he was involved in a hand himself.

Aside from many of the match-ups being quite compelling with a field ripe with notable pros, most players were watching the other match at their table because the winners from the same table play each other in the next round. For many of the players, especially those with a high stakes background online, concrentating on multiple heads-up matches is standard fare as many of them play multiple heads-up matches simultaneously online.

P5er’s Leo “Superfluos Man” Wolpert (pictured at right) and Craig “MrCasino” Gray must have left the Amazon room feeling like they were set up as their monster hands left them with a nightmare. Wolpert raised the button preflop and Robert Mizrachi called. On a flop of A37, Mizrachi check called Wolpert’s flop bet. The turn brought the 9 and Mizrachi check-raised Wolpert, who went all-in and was quickly called by Mizrachi, who turned over his 33 making Wolpert’s AK drawing dead.

Gray’s hand ended in similar fashion. Gray’s opponent raised the button and Gray called. On a flop of QJ9, Gray check called his opponents bet of 1300. The 7 dropped on the turn and Grey check raised his opponent bet of 3300, going all-in for another 11,500. Gray’s opponent called revealing JJ, ahead of Gray’s double draw with the Q8. Gray’s big draw bricked out and he was eliminated.

With such a diverse collection of incredible live and online pro’s, there was handful of intriguing match-ups scattered throughout the room like David “Raptor517″ Benefield vs Justin Bonomo, Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis vs Kenny Tran and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi vs J.C. Tran.

Bonomo and Kenny Tran prevailed in their match and Mizzi and Tran continue to battle it out.

It took Eugene Todd and Michael Mizrachi only one hand to end their match although it had little to do with any drama on the felt. Both being good friends, they decided to go all-in blind and Mizrachi’s 8-2 prevailed over Todd’s 4-3.

List of Notable Winners
Alex Jacob, Theo Tran, Blake “BallaB13″ Cahail, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond

List of Early Exits
Barry Greenstein, Patrik Antonius, Glen Chorney, Amit “amak316″ Makhija, and James “mig.com” Mackey

• June 27, 2008 -- Stud Players Wanting Tang
• June 14, 2008 -- Gray Done For the Day
• June 14, 2008 -- He Might Be a Little Sore-l After a Beat Like That
• June 27, 2008 -- A Player Makes a “FatalError”

Many online titans survived the early stages of the 1.5k PLO WSOP Event #19, as roughly two thirds of the 759 player field has been elimated by the fourth level.

Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan is in positon to make a run with 16.5k with 100-200 blinds.

Gavin Smith busted out early in the level when he went all-on over a cut-off raiser for 1300 when his KK48 ran into AAK7.

Other notable chip counts.
Carter Gill - 70k
Jamie “The New” Robbins - 11.5K
Rafi Amit -
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 8.5k
Tim “TMay420″ West - 7.5k
Nam Le - 20k
Rolf Slotboom - 9k
David Williams - 10k
Matt Brady - 8k
Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan - 5.1k

• June 19, 2008 -- Patience Pays Off
• June 10, 2008 -- Robbins Busts Kravchenko, May Takes Hit
• July 4, 2008 -- Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up
• June 19, 2008 -- How To Remedy Boredom at the Poker Table