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

Ryan “youngluck” Young is sitting a little prettier than he was earlier. Young raised to 550 from under the gun and a player in late position called. The small blind raised to 2k and Young made the call but the other player folded. The flop came 852 and the small blind checked over to Young who bet 2.5k. The small blind then check-raised to 6k. Young thought for a little bit before he pushed all in and the small blind, who had Young covered, made the call. The small blind flipped over the AA but his aces were no match for Young’s flopped set with the 88. The turn and river were the K and the 7 and Young doubled up to a little more than 35k.

Ryan “Daut44″ Daut (pictured at left) was having a hot run of cards when we caught up to his table. Ryan held a 20K stack and had just shoved all his chips into the middle on a board of J-K-2-7-A when he was in the under the gun position; a player in late position with a similarly-sized stack called him and the All-In paddle flew up in the air. Ryan flipped over pocket jacks for a flopped set and his opponent mucked his cards, leaving a crippled stack behind.

The next hand from the big blind, Ryan did not use his option to check and instead made a 2K raise preflop. All players remarked on the huge raise, but the several limpers sent their chips his way. Two hands later, from the button, Ryan called down a 600 chip raise from a player in middle position and the flop came 66K. Both players remaining in the hand checked down the flop and the turn to see the board run out 2Q. His opponent checked to him on the river and he flipped over pocket eights, which were good enough to pick up the pot and increase his stack to 34K.

Though not a comprehensive list, here are some of the recent chip counts.

Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 39k
Hevad Khan - 35.5K
Michael “shipitthisway” McNeil - 35k
Ryan “youngluc” Young - 35K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 34K
Mike “BraveJayhawk” Jensen - 33K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 32.5K
Ronald “jus2awsum” Lee - 32k
Adam “adamoos” Elpayaa - 29.5K
Mathew “dippydough” Diapoli - 28k
Russel “rcrane082985″ Crane - 26k
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 25k
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 25k
Jonathan “BigChuck” Marshall - 23k
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 22k
Carl “colson10″ Olson - 22K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 21.5K
Grant “drossxyu” Hinkle - 21k
Frank “Round42″ Rusnak - 21K
Nicholas “snowman2k6″ Young - 19k
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 17.5K
Brett “Gank” Jungblut - 14.5K
David “ComptonMasta” Barter - 14k
Mike “inissint” Glasser - 12.5K

• July 11, 2008 -- Olly Olly Oxen Free!
• July 7, 2008 -- By the Numbers: 2008 WSOP Main Event
• July 7, 2008 -- WSOP ME Day 1D End of Day Chip Counts
• July 7, 2008 -- The Titan Can’t Sink

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

Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson’s (pictured at left) tournament run also came to an end when he finished 2nd in the $2K No Limit Hold Em event.  Johnson and fellow Pocket Fiver Alexandre “allingomes” Gomes battled back and forth in their heads up match before Gomes gained the upper hand when he cracked Johnson’s pocket aces with AT after the board ran out KT3TJ. 

A few hands later, Marco moved in for the remainder of his chips with QJ and Alexandre quickly made the call with AK.  After a flop of 432 and an ace on the turn, Johnson was drawing dead to a 5 for a chop.  When the river came 4, Gomes scooped the pot and the victory, sending his large Brasilian contingent into a roar of applause.  Gomes earned $770,540 for his finish and Johnson took home $491,273 for 2nd.

Gerry “TheGatherer” Kane’s run in the $1.5K No Limit Hold Em event has come to an end.  Gerry was in the big blind when he and another player got it all-in on a board of 543K.  Kane flopped two pair with his 34, but he needed to fill up in order to best the other player’s 67 for a flopped straight.  The 2 on the river was no help to Kane and he was eliminated in 45th place, earning $10,759.  Taylor “tdomeski” Douglas was also eliminated recently.  He finished in 72nd place, good enough for $7,420.

The $50K HORSE event lost a couple of players before pausing the tournament to take a dinner break.  Huck Seed was eliminated in 7th place and Barry Greenstein was out shortly afterwards in 6th when his pair of aces in Stud 8 were no match for Scotty Nguyen’s full house.  Shortly after pocketing his $355,200 prize, Barry registered for his third tournament of the day and is now playing in the $1.5K HORSE event.

A handful of P5er’s are left in the 10k PLO WSOP Event #50. With a small 381 player field, not many tables featured players that were known from either live or online poker.   However, Tim “TMay420″ West had a below average stack of 23k at a table full of live pro’s with Tony Cousineau, Tony G, Dan Shak, and Joe “The Elegance” Beevers from the Hendon Mob.

Jason “JP OSU”  Potter just bricked out on a massive multiway 90k pot when his freeroll with pocket aces and a nut flush draw didn’t come to fruition. Potter’s 34k stack is below the 48k average.  Ryan “Daut44″ Daut also just lost a big pot when his opponent rivered a nut flush and Daut led for 8k on the river and called another 12k more when he got raised. Daut had 44k earlier in the level and currently has 14k.

Eric “Rizen” Lynch is nursing an extreme short stack at 13k with blinds at 400-800 but remains optimistic at a table that includes Noah “Exclusive” Boeken’s massive 105k stack and Chris Moneymaker.

“It can change in a hurry,” Lynch said. “It will in one way or another shortly.”

Here’s a list of other notable chip stacks left:
Shawn “buck21″ Buchanon - 120k
David “Raptor57″ Benefield - 110k
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 64k
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 55k
Dario Minieri - 43k
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 19k

• June 29, 2008 -- To Reload or Not to Reload?
• June 30, 2008 -- Clements Holding Steady in 10k PLO
• June 30, 2008 -- Daut Busted in 10k PLO
• June 29, 2008 -- 36 Left in $2K Event

Chris ‘cmoney3′ Kline came into Day 2 of the $5K No Limit Hold Em 6-max with only 16K in chips.  Chris informed us he came in 95th in chips out of the 96 players who made it to the second day of play and, with the blinds starting at 800/1,600 with a 200 ante, he knew he had his work cut out with him to make it to the money.

Now there are 30 players left in the event, Kline is guaranteed $20,430 and his stack is beginning to grow.  Chris nursed his short stack for some time and finally found a good spot to double up.  With the blinds at 3K/6K ante 500 a player in early position raised to 16.5K and Kline moved all-in for around 70K total.  The other player thought for a minute or so before making a crying call with AT.  Chris was in a race situation with 88.  The board came K7793 and his pocket eights held and increased his chip stack to nearly 150K.

Other players who failed in their attempts to double up include Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski, who reraised all-in for 70K with 44 after a player under the gun raised.  The other player made the call with KJ and, when the board ran out AAJJ6, Dombrowski was eliminated in 34th place.

Ryan “Daut44″ Daut took a big hit to his already dwindling stack when he moved all-in from the cut-off for just shy of 80K.  The player in the big blind made the call with TT and Daut was in bad shape with his 88.  The cards ran out 733K2 and Ryan was left with only 5K. 

Two hands later, Daut was all-in in the big blind for his remaining chips and the same player who held pocket tens earlier raised on the button.  The small blind folded and the other player again turned over pocket tens.  Daut was in even worse shape the second time around with 39.  His hand failed to improve and he was eliminated in 31st place.

Here are some selected chip counts of a few of the remaining players:
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 590K
Steven “CornellFiji” Ware - 420K
Jason Gray - 420K
Shannon Shorr - 187K
Alex Jacob - 135K

Over in the $2K No Limit Hold Em Event, David “ComptonMasta” Barter was on red alert with a short stack when he picked up A-Q in the hijack and shoved it in preflop.  One opponent with pocket tens called Barter down, but he managed to flop an ace to double up.  Moved recently to a new table, he sat much more comfortably with 21K.

Daniel “voff” Deveau (pictured at right) was sitting pretty with about 65K when we caught up to his table, though he reported he’s been moved four times in the last level. His newest table had more chips, but he was still feeling them out. Under the gun, after a short-stacked player in the big blind raised, Daniel called. The flop came 963 and Daniel bet out, forcing him to make a decision for all his chips. The short-stacked player called and showed 10-9 to Daniel’s 9-2. The turn and river came 64 and was no help to Daniel, who looked up and said “Oops!” before laughing. His stack took the hit and was down to 50K, still double the average.

Meanwhile, Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade won several more small pots over the last level, which he reported has been his strategy all day.  In  a hand that exemplified this no-showdown policy, he reraised 10K more against a player raising under the gun and one caller.  The other players folded and he was up to 35K.

John Wein has also chipped up to healthy 30K, though he previously held a larger stack that he spewed through the following hand: There was a late limper and Wein checked in the big blind.  The flop came AQ8 and he held A-T with no hearts.  His opponent bet 2.5K after the flop, which Wein called.  A blank came on the turn, and his opponent shoved for 13K more.  Wein called with his pair of aces, but the A on the river caught up his opponent’s J9 for an ace-high flush.  Later on, however, Wein looked down at pocket aces and raised 3K on the button.    An early player shoved for 13K and Wein called.  He won the hand and caught himself back up to 30K.

• June 28, 2008 -- Mo’ Money, No Problem
• June 27, 2008 -- Stud Players in the Money
• June 28, 2008 -- No Way, Jose!
• June 28, 2008 -- Basebaldy Bullies Bubble and Whiffs