• April 24, 2008 -- Down to 10
• April 24, 2008 -- WPT Championship Day 5
• April 24, 2008 -- Hat Bet is Over, Durrrr 9th
• April 23, 2008 -- Stalled at 19

Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll (right) was able to grab a pot off of Tommy Le with a river bet on a board of KQ98T. Cory had checked his option from the big blind after Le completed from the small blind (blinds 15k / 30k). On the flop Le had check called a 45k bet from Carroll and both players checked the turn. With the river Le again checked and Cory bet 240k. The time on the clock ran out and players were on break, but Le stayed in thought for a long time before finally folding, showing a king as he did so. Cory showed the 75 as he stacked chips before heading out for break.

The chip lead has been held by Amir Vahedi so far today, but Gus Hansen was only 2 cards away from climbing back to the top of the chips. On a J64 flop David Chiu bet 171k into a pot that Gus had raised preflop and both David Tran and Chiu had both called. Gus said he was going to raise half of Chiu’s remaining stack and after giving it a rough count he decided that 355k was close enough.

Chiu (left) then moved all in and Gus called. Hansen showed the AJ and the look on Chiu’s face was a clear indicator he was in bad shape. His KJ was left drawing to three outs but the turn was reminiscent of what Gus did to eliminate Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby earlier in the tournament. The K peeled off and Gus was then the one drawing to 3 outs. His ace didn’t come in and he saw a pot of around 2 million chips heading the other direction.

Early eliminations included Jeff Shulman in 17th place and Andy Black in 16th. Black took a particularly bad beat at the hands of Robert Mizrachi. They were all in preflop with Black’s aces against Mizrachi’s J-9. The turn gave Mizrachi a gutshot draw to a straight but also gave Black the heart flush draw killing one of Robert’s outs. The 8 hit on the river making the straight for Robert and drawing a groan from many of the onlookers.

• April 24, 2008 -- Down to 10
• April 24, 2008 -- Final 6 Set
• April 24, 2008 -- WPT Championship Day 5
• April 26, 2008 -- Good Call, Bad Beat - Carroll Out 4th

Another day, another session in the WPT Championship at the Bellagio. Well, on this particular day only 17 players out of the original 545 get to come back and unpack chips out of a sealed up plastic bag in preparation for a day of play. Over the last four days of play the field has been cut to the sweet sixteen +1 and after today it will just be the final 6.

Here are the chip counts going into today’s play:
Final 17 Chip Counts:
Amir Vahedi - 3,907,000
Gus Hansen - 2,929,000
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 2,874,000
David Tran - 2,543,000
Nhan Le - 1,950,000
Jeff King - 1,903,000
David Chiu - 1,742,000
Mike Gracz - 1,674,000
Karga Holt - 1,500,000
Kenny Tran - 1,442,000
Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll - 1,346,000
Robert Mizrachi - 1,079,000
Bryan Devonshire - 984,000
Nick Binger - 701,000
John Roveto - 556,000
Jeff Shulman - 473,000
Andy Black - 411,000

• April 24, 2008 -- Down to 10
• April 23, 2008 -- Stalled at 19
• April 24, 2008 -- WPT Championship Day 5 Gallery
• April 23, 2008 -- Billirakis Busted

The field got down to the final 19 pretty quickly, but with only one more elimination needed to end play for the day the action has stalled. Or at least the bustouts have. Andy Black was the short stack on the verge of elimination but each time he was involved in a hand he was able to win the pot and has built back up to a more playable stack.

Gus Hansen, Amir Vahedi, Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan are still leading the pack at this point, though one of Black’s double ups was through Carroll.

• April 24, 2008 -- WPT Championship Day 5
• April 23, 2008 -- Billirakis Busted
• April 23, 2008 -- Final 18
• April 23, 2008 -- Redraw at 27

Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis (left) moved all in for his last 314k from late position and Kenny Tran made the call. Tran had pocket tens which left Billirakis looking for an ace on the board to pair his overcard. Steve’s A9 did not improve though and he was eliminated in 23rd place for $79,145.

With only 22 players left Gus Hansen continues to pull away from the pack and is nearing the 4 million chip mark. Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll is his closest competition with 2.7 million and Tom durrrr” Dwan is still right around 2 million along with Amir Vahedi, David Tran and David Chiu.

• April 23, 2008 -- Redraw at 27
• April 23, 2008 -- Gus Still At The Top
• April 23, 2008 -- Stalled at 19
• April 23, 2008 -- Day 3 Complete, Late Eliminations