Players have now gone on their second 20-minute break of the day, nearly midway through Day 6’s quest for the final three tables. Of the 79 players that began the day here in the Amazon Room, only 44 remain and are guaranteed $154,400.

The most recent PocketFives player to be eliminated is Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who had been nursing a short stack for the entire day. In his last hand of the series, Adam held AT and re-raised his opponent all-in preflop. The dealer ran out the board with {10-Diamonds} {6-Spades} {3-Clubs} {3-Hearts} {2-Spades}, but Adam’s two-pair, top-kicker was dominated by his opponent’s pocket kings. Adam takes home 48th Place for $135,100 and has been good-naturedly sticking around to rail his friends still left in the tournament. Many congrats to Adam on his deep run!

In the aftermath of his Main Event exit, Levy stood over Garrett “GBecks” Beckman who was sitting next to him. “I was gonna fold it,” Adam lamented to Garrett. Beckman affirmed that it wasn’t a bad play. PocketFives caught up with Adam about 45 minutes after the hand and it was still brewing in his head, just like it would be in anyone else’s. Adam said that since the guy who opened the pot had over a 6M stack, he could be opening a lot of hands that would fold to his re-raise — possibly even hands like A-J and most small pairs.

Given the dearth of hands Adam had played up until that point, he estimated he’d get a lot of credit for a hand and his move would have maximum fold equity. “Plus, I had the tightest image at the table by far,” Levy said. “It was amazing how many hands i didn’t see today and how many I saw in previous days.”

Adam compared this tournament to playing in the Sunday Million, where he said you really have to string hands together for such a long period of time to survive long enough to make the final table. “You have to run so good in this tournament for so long… just like in the Sunday Million,” he said.

The last hand before break, Andrew “foucault” Brokos (pictured at right) exacted discipline and punishment in a preflop pot of nearly 500K when he leveraged his power-knowledge and reraised his opponent. Action folded to Andrew and he increased his stack to 5M.

Team Ladbrokes player Peter “Pete4002″ Eastgate has been laying low and blinding down to 2.9M at the side featured table, apparently not catching any cards or unwilling to play back at the several big stacks at his table. One of those big stacks is Brandon Cantu, seated across from Peter, who has just inherited a big stack of new lilac-and-gray 100K chips after coloring-up.

As we approach the final three tables, here are some unofficial chip estimates at the break:

Chris “SLOPPYKLOD”Klodnicki - 5.2M
Andrew “foucault” Brokos - 5M
Peter “Pete4002″ Eastgate - 2.9M
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 2.75M
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 1.875M
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 1.35M

• July 13, 2008 -- Plens Jets from Main Event
• July 14, 2008 -- P5ers In the Hunt for “November Nine”
• July 11, 2008 -- Levy Cruising at Hellmuth’s Table
• July 11, 2008 -- Crowe Pecking Away

A host of P5′ers were featured at perhaps the most ballyhooed table on Day 4 of the Main Event. Playing amidst a strong contingent of photographers, film crews and spectators at this table was none other than Phil Hellmuth, who had a formidable table that included Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured left), Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen, Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera, and Evelyn Ng.

Nguyen was playing her short stack very patiently throughout with blinds at 4k-8k-1k and finally made a stand with KQ, moving all-in for 68k but ran into Hellmuth’s TT. Nguyen situation look dire on the turn when the board read 7864. Hellmuth mentioned that a five wouldn’t be so bad and sure enough the 5 peeled on the river. Although he could have bemoaned his fate to the ESPN cameras capturing the draw out, he congratulated Nguyen in what seemed like a genuine act of sportsmanship.

“I don’t care what they say…you’re a sweetheart Phil,” said Nguyen. “You’re okay in my book.”

Moments later, Nguyen moved in for her last 88K from under the gun and a player in middle position made the call. Nguyen’s A7 needed a lot of help against the AA of her opponent and couldn’t find a miracle as the board ran out QJ3Q6. Tracey earned $35,383 for her four days of work. And to make things even more interesting, Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert has taken Tracey’s seat at the table with a monstrous stack of 915K chips.

Levy and Ferrera (pictured right) played an interested hand a few hands earlier when Ferrera made it 20k from early position and Levy called. Ferrera bet 35k on a 442 flop and Levy called. The 9 dropped on the turn and both players checked. The 4 came on the river and Ferrera checked and Levy bet 55k and Ferrera called. Levy tabled the KK for a full house and Ferrera mucked. Levy’s stack has grown in the last level to over 800k and Ferrara’s has been steady over 1.1 million.

Edward “zaner1″ Zane hadn’t been too active today but when we walked by his table we noticed his chip stack had doubled in size. When we asked Edward about the hand he said that he “got lucky” and ran his pocket queens into another players pocket jacks all-in preflop and they held. He was sitting with around 375k in chips.

Unfortunately for Edward those chips didn’t last long. In one hand he raised on the button and when the big blind re-raised he pushed all-in. The big blind insta-called and Edward had to show the hammer, the 72 which was way behind the big blind’s KK. The board ran out AT296 and Edward’s stack dropped to around 150k.

It wasn’t long after that the rest of his chips went in preflop with pocket queens, but he ran into another player who held pocket kings. Edward was excited when the flop brought a third queen to give him a set, but the other player made a straight on the river to send Edward to the rail.

Garrett “GBecks” Beckman is playing at the featured table and with the flop already showing Q66 his opponent bet, Garrett raised, and his opponent pushed all in. Garrett instantly made the call with his KK and was ahead of the other players AQ. The other player had Garrett covered so his tournament life was at stake. The turn brought the harmless 9 and the 8 on the river was meaningless as well and Garrett doubled up to around 700k.

It seems like Chris “panamatony” Barrile is an action magnet today as we can’t walk by his table without finding him involved in a big hand. Most recently he got involved in an all-in preflop confrontation with a player holding the 99 which was ahead of Chris’s AK. The flop made Chris’s hand look even worse when it came 963. The 8 on the turn and 8 on the river were no help and Chris doubled his opponent up while his stack dropped down to around 470k.

Here’s a look at the chip counts as players go into their dinner break:

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 1.2M
David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 1.1M
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 1.1M
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 1.025M
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 830K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 755K
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 585K
Chris “panamatony” Barrile - 570K
Brent “astrolux85″ Roberts - 570K
Cort “the cortster” Kibler-Melby - 460K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 360K
Josh “theNorfman” Norris - 300K
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 260K
Andrew “tufat23″ Teng - 260K
“therookieqq9″ - 185K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 60K

• July 11, 2008 -- Rasmussen Crippled, Tripled, Then Out
• July 11, 2008 -- Together They Fall
• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)
• June 28, 2008 -- CrazyMarco, Roothlus Chip Up

Day Three has come to a close here at the Rio, with 474 players remaining in the race for the bracelet. All remaining players are guaranteed $25,090 with each lusting after the $9.1M prize. Because hand-for-hand play continued for quite awhile this evening, the tournament ended in an interesting fashion: staff held a draw to determine the number of hands remaining. Mike Matusow was given the opportunity to draw the number, and eight hands it was before play concluded after 2am in the Amazon Room. Day Four will begin at 1PM PST tomorrow.

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe came through a table stacked with online pros on Day 3 of Main Event and emerged as one of the top stacks at day’s end.
Crowe wielded one of the top stacks at his table throughout the night and picked it up late, elevating his stack to 950k, well over the 288k average.

Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens overcame a tough table that featured Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (270k) and Brian “Like7″ Lamanna (61k). He improved his 38k starting stack to become one of the chip leaders at his table with 560k.

Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured at right) maintained the 450k stack he acquired earlier in the day and will hit Day 4 with 480k. It’s been an incredible run for Levy, who got down below 20k on Day 2. Levy clipped a two-outer when he was all-in preflop against Brad Booth when he hit a set on the river to best Booth’s flopped pair with overcards.

Peter “number1pen” Neff ran on a heater the last level of the night; at one point, Neff picked up pocket fives and flopped a set to eliminate his opponent, who held K-T. His P5s held strong and he went on to end the evening with 600K in chips.

Here are some chip counts at the end of the day, despite the tournament staff’s insistence that the media not mingle amongst the tables any longer for fear of getting run over by ESPN camera crews.

Congratulations to all for their deep run and good luck tomorrow!

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 960K
Chris “Panamatony” Barrile - 873K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 600K
Derek “arodss3″ Buanono - 558k
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 520K
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 510K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 480K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 480K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 400K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 400K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 360K
Edward “zaner1″ Zing - 330K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 305K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 300K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 275K
Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 254K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 175K
Bruce “Cornellxc11″ Hyde - 102K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 90K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 89.5K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 75K

Recent eliminations include the following:
581st - Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell
556th - Zelong “freeman” Dong
545th - Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson
519th - Doug “Resilient” Smith

• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips
• July 10, 2008 -- Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
• July 10, 2008 -- Strasser vs. Nguyen
• June 22, 2008 -- Slaubaugh Takes 2nd

Adam “Roothlus” Levy’s (pictured left) resurrection from a short stack last night to 230k at the start of Day 3 of the Main Event has continued escalate. Levy scooped a 280k in the last level in a cutoff vs blind battle when Levy raised in late position and got reraised by his opponent out of the blind. Levy put in another raise, resulting in the massive all-in pot with his AK trailing his opponents pocket jacks. Levy clipped a pair and currently sits with 400k.

Matthew “Burton1080″ Jensen has also been on an enormous tear today, starting with the second hand of the day.  A player opened for 4K and Jensen raised to 14K out of the big blind with A-K with the king of clubs.  The flop came out {ac]72 and Matt led for 20K.  The other player raised to 55K and Jensen moved all-in.  The other player then folded and Matt picked up a nice sized pot. 

Leo “SuperfluousMan” Wolpert has been treading water all day but has managed to keep his 160k starting stack intact. Increasing that stack will be much more difficult after Wolpert drew an extremely tough table with Owen “ocrowe” Crowe (300k) and “Bodog” Ari Engel (130k).

Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury continues to ride the roller coaster he boarded last night as his stack continues to fluctuate in six-figure swings. Steury started the Day 3 with 121k after getting up to 250k late in Day 2. Steury ran his starting stack up to 250k again but got back down to 185k after losing a big pot post-flop with pocket jacks.

Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez continues to build a big stack and recently just busted a player in an all-in preflop confrontation. Ramirez re-raised a 10k open to 25k out of the blind with blinds at 1k-2k-300. Ramirez’s opponent went all-in for an additional 40k and Ramirez called with his AK way ahead of his opponents A-10. The board ran true for Ramirez, who has 225k.

Mohsin “chicagocards1″ Charania was fighting the deck most of the day and eventually hit the exit when his kings ran into pocket aces on a ten high flop. Charania started the day with 65k and was able to get up to 125k before his bustout.  Others eliminated recently include Bobby “gettindeep” Hodson, Mike “RunScreamin” Herder, Kevin “kice32″ Iacofano, Mark “sideshowgil” Gilbert, and Darren Elias.

• July 10, 2008 -- Strasser vs. Nguyen
• July 11, 2008 -- Crowe Pecking Away
• July 10, 2008 -- Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
• July 11, 2008 -- Double Double (or Toil and Trouble)

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