As hand-for-hand play continued well past the end of Level 14, players were either anxiously awaiting the money bubble or falling asleep at their tables. Play was frenetic as camera crews ran up and down the aisles, trying to capture players’ best and worst moments. However, cheers recently erupted in the Amazon room, signifying that 666 remain and everyone has made the money and are now guaranteed $21,230. Congratulations to all! As soon as hand-for-hand completes, players will take a 30-minute break to color up and take a breather.

Some players, like Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez (pictured at right) were trying to take advantage of the bubble to semi-bluff players off their chips and getting burned in the process. Senovio reported that he managed to lose 100K in chips over the last two levels, but spoke to his daughters for good luck once again at dinner and hopes it would charm his play going into the bubble.

Paul “comeonphish” Lieu decided to put his big stack to use bullying other players at the table while hand-for-hand play was underway. With the blinds at 1.5K/3K ante 400 it folded around to Lieu who raised to 10K from the hijack. The player on the button then reraised to 35K and Paul eyed his stack before making the call. The flop was A76 and Paul led for 20K. The other player thought for moment before making the call. As soon as the 2 hit on the turn, Lieu grabbed a stack of orange 5K chips large enough to put his opponent all-in. The other player thought briefly before announcing, “Well, you better get a camera over here.” Another player asked if he was calling and he paused before verbally announcing his call. The player then turned over AA while Lieu showed 28. Paul needed a diamond on the river, but instead he got the 6 and he paid off the other player’s remaining 64.4K.

Other players were making extremely solid moves and chipping up. Jeff “jpapola” Papola has been on a rush approaching the money bubble, doubling up twice. He went from 50K to 100K when his A-J held up against K-J and later went from 100k to 230k when his kings held up against A-Q. Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen also chipped up when he won a 400k pot off of Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey (pictured at left) when his A-K beat Frey’s jacks in an all-in preflop hand. The hand left Rasmussen with 420k and Frey with 60k.

Other players were making strong plays and getting completely flattened. As we reported earlier, the table where Jeremiah Smith sits with Jon “PearlJammer” Turner was incredibly dangerous. Jeremiah built his stack up to more than 1.2M in the last level and was apparently still on his heater.

One of his latest victims is David “davidp18″ Peters (pictured at left), who has been struck by lightning. After Peters opened under-the-gun to 8k, tournament chip leader and former poker reporter Jeremiah Smith put him all-in for his last 160k after he stuck out two orange 100K stacks. Peters called with the QQ and was way ahead of Smith’s 96. Or at least he thought. Smith apologized in advance and jokingly referred to it as a standard race situation before the flop dropped. Smith’s optimism was understood when the flop came T87, flopping Smith a straight with a flush draw. Peter’s dire situation caught a ray of hope when the T peeled on the turn but the A on the river capped off what has been a Jamie Gold-like run of cards for Smith, who was awestruck in the aftermath of an incredible scene which captured in its entirety by the ESPN crew.

Here are some more unofficial chip counts at the bubble:

Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 600K
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 530K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 500K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 485K
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 480K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 480K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 440K
Thayer Rasmussen - 420K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 370K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 330K
Aaron “NDGrinder” Steury - 260K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 260K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 245K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 235K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 217K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 193K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 160K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 160K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 145K
Hunter “THE_HUNT_D” Frey - 145K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnack - 140K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” - 110K
Jason Gray - 100K
Ben “astrolux85″ Roberts - 95K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 80K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 80K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 80K
Darren “DABADESTCHIC” Nelson - 63K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 62K
Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez - 46K

• July 11, 2008 -- Olly Olly Oxen Free!
• November 5, 2008 -- Beats Bust Thayer and Peters
• July 11, 2008 -- Money Makin’, Super Tables Breakin’
• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips

Plenty of media encircled Jeremiah Smith’s table as he was racking up a ridiculous stack as we quickly approach the money bubble on Day 3; when we first caught up with the former Poker Wire writer, he had built a fortress of more than 800K chips (that we could count). Greg “FBT” Mueller sauntered over to the table, took one look at Jeremiah’s stack, licked his lips and laughed. However, near the middle of the last level, PocketFives witnessed another run of cards for Jeremiah; he picked up aces twice and kings once in three consecutive hands, winning huge pots every time. PocketFives guesses his chip count now hovers just below the million mark.

However, he’s not the only huge stack at the table; eight out of nine players seated at the felt were well above the average stack of 186K. Seated immediately to his right is Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (pictured at left), who built a smaller castle of chips and was double the average with 350K. He reported to PocketFives that he also won a big pot earlier this level in the following hand: A player on the button raised 7.5K preflop and Jon reraised him to 26K, which he called. The board came a rainbow A-K-8 and Jon led out for 29K. His opponent called, the dealer turned a ten, and Jon bet out 49K. After taking what Jon said was forever to tank, the player reluctantly folded and the chips were shipped his way.

Also at the table sat Ryan “Daut44″ Daut, who was involved in a huge hand when another player at his table raised, only to have Ryan re-raise. The other player made the call and they saw the flop come QT7. Both players got all their chips in the middle and Ryan’s AA had been out-flopped by his opponents TT. The K came on the turn, giving Ryan a few more outs, but the K on the river couldn’t improve his aces and he was sent to the rail just short of the money. Adam “Roothlus” Levy ran over to the table and was disappointed to see that Ryan had been eliminated. Levy is doing well and is currently sitting on a stack of 440k. Also recently moved to the table? David “davidp18″ Peters.

Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (pictured at right) didn’t take very long to get involved in a huge pot after the dinner break. With blinds at 1.5K/3K/400, a player opened for 9K and Agarwal re-raised to 30.2K. Kush Patel re-reraised all-in directly behind for an additional 85Kgoogle.com. Having Patel covered by 70K, Agarwal called after the action folded back to him but was in bad shape when Patel showed KK to his AK. Patel was looking good when the board read QTTQ but was sent to the rail when the A dropped on the river. Agarwal’s stack shot up to 310k after the hand.

Agarwal and Brian “Like7″ Lamanna were talking about Agarwal’s call afterward and mentioned that it would be a good spot to re-raise Agarwal all-in from Patel’s perspective since Agarwal re-raised someone who had been very active preflop and that his hand would look very strong. Agarwal also mentioned that he was getting extremely compelling odds to chase down queens as well as possibly being up against the same hand. Either way, Agarwal was extremely happy with the result.

Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson had been sitting near 100k in chips for a good portion of the day. He had finally chipped up to a close-to-average stack of 160k when the following hand took place. After preflop betting, all the chips of a shorter-stacked player went in the middle with Johnson attempting to knock him out. Unfortunately for Johnson, his KK was up against the other players AA. The flop made the other player’s hand even stronger when it came down AT5 leaving Johnson drawing to runner runner outs. One of those possible cards came in the form of the K on the turn, but the 8 on the river wasn’t the second card he needed and his stack dropped back to 110k. He seemed rather disappointed but is still alive as bubble play approaches.

Peter “number1pen” Neff (pictured at left) found himself the benefactor of a generously large pot when, with the blinds at 1.5K/3K ante 400 he raised to 8K on the button and the big blind called. When the flop came out 7-7-5, the big blind checked and Neff bet 11K. The big blind then quickly moved all-in for 130K total. Peter obliged the other player by making the call with A7 and the other player turned over 35. After the player was eliminated, Peter added the pot to his stack, which has now increased to 395K.

UPDATE: Play has now gone hand-for-hand in the Amazon Room as only 674 players remain. The money bubble will burst shortly, as 666 players cash. Stay tuned!

In our attempt to try and take over the world in total chip count domination, here are the recent unofficial counts from PocketFives writers’ tired eyes:

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 620K
Dag Martin “dmmikkel” Mikkelsen - 510K
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 500K
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 480K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 440K
Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen - 420K
Jamie “TheCronic420″ Rosen - 440K
Paul “comeonphish” Lieu - 430K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 395K
Jon “Pearljammer” Turner - 350K
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 320K
Aditya “intervention” Argawal - 310K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 254K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 250K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 230K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 230K
Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter - 242K
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 200K
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 200K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 195K
Zelong “freeman” Dong - 194K
Derek “arodss3″ Buanono - 190K
David “DavidP18″ Peters - 190K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 170K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 170K
Jason Gray - 170K
Jeff “YoungSupremacy” Hakim - 168K
Bruce “cornellxc11″ Hyde - 140K
Josh “squintngo” Goldstein - 110K
Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson - 110K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 102K
Brian “Like7″ Lamanna - 90K
Jeff Papola - 90K
Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert - 85K
Jan “Erdnase” Heitmann - 75K
Doug “resilient” Smith - 67K
Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell - 60K

• July 10, 2008 -- Strasser vs. Nguyen
• July 11, 2008 -- People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?
• June 3, 2008 -- Stacked 5k Mixed field, Sowers Bad Beats Dicken
• July 12, 2008 -- Double Trouble