As Level 4 comes to a close and players anticipate the blinds increasing from 150/300 to 200/400 for the last level of play this evening, many players were making moves and chipping up before the break. We caught up with Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke as he called a river bet with T9 with two tens on the board to take down a good-sized pot and increase his stack from 22K to 30K.

Two tables over, Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka (pictured at left) called an all-in bet on a flop of 443 against one opponent. He flipped over pocket kings to his opponent’s pocket nines; the dealer waved the magic “All-In” sign and the media descended on the table. The turn and river came 22 and Faraz increased his stack from 32.5K to 61K. His good-natured opponent shook everyone’s hand and exited the Amazon room.

In the Orange section, Jason Gray and one opponent saw a flop of QJ7 and both decided to check. When the 8 fell on the turn, Jason checked and the other player bet 2K. Jason made the call and the river brought the 2. Jason led out with a bet of 5K and his opponent called. Jason flipped over his 87 for two pair and the other player angrily mucked his hand and said “nice catch.” Jason just smiled and scooped up the pot. Jason is now sitting with a little more than 30K.

At the other end of the Amazon Blue section, PocketFives watched as Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen raised to 4.2K preflop with 23K behind. One opponent called after the rest of the table folded and the flop came JT6. His opponent pushed all in and Jamie snap-called him; he showed KK to the other player’s A-K. Jamie’s pocket kings held up effortlessly when turn was the 5 and the river the 4; he scooped the pot and was up to 67K, which he informed us was where he sat about ten minutes prior to the confrontation.

Other unofficial chip counts prior to the break:

Blair “blur5f6″ Hinkle - 86K
Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen - 67K
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka - 61K
Louis “MrBeeks” Werman (pictured at right)- 50K
Doug “Resilient” Smith - 40.3K
Brendan “moe86″ Mahoney - 35K
Jason Gray - 30K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 30K
Justin “looshle” Pechie - 17K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 17K
Adam “akat11″ Katz - 10.5K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 8K

• June 26, 2008 -- Rosen Rises in Event #44
• June 26, 2008 -- Mackey Riding High
• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found
• July 4, 2008 -- Short Stacked Shorr Looking to Chip Up

Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman’s meotoric rise through the 1k NL rebuy WSOP Event #44 continues to shoot skyward as his 860k stack is tops with 25 players left. Freeman had one third of the average stack late in Day 1 before going on a rush to end the day.

Not too far behind Freeman is Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen, whose 550k is in the top three stacks. Rosen’s life will be much easier after they just went down to three tables as he no longer has to deal with Freeman, who got the better of him earlier:

Rosen raised 64 preflop and Freeman called. Rosen bet 15k on a 9-9-7 flop and Freeman called. He then bet 30k on the turn when the 8 peeled and Freeman called. Both players checked the king on the river and Freeman won with A-Q high.

“This table is going to be a lot easier without Scott,” Rosen said. “He soul read me earlier.”

Although Rosen won’t have to contend with the overwhelming chip leader in Freeman, he will have to bang heads with two tough tournament players in Joe Tehan and Peter “Nordberg” Feldman, (pictured right)  whose 300k stack is to his immediate left. Tehan’s 260k stack is right at the average stack with blinds at 3k-6k-500.

Randy “Randers” Haddox was recently eliminated as was Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka, who was busted by Mark Seif when his straight and flush draw failed to improve against Seif’s top pair of aces.

Despite almost having the market cornered on orange 5k chips, Freeman’s table is perhaps the toughest one left with Mark Seif (400k), Alex Bolotin (150k) and Alan Sass (100k) — although Bolotin and Sass are short.

With his back nearly five feet in front of the rail, Freeman’s online posse was able to converse with him about his position in the tournament.

When Freeman was asked by a crew that included Adam “akat11″ Katz and Adam “Roothlus” Levy if he was ”pooping” on the table to get his stack, Freeman said quite the contrary.

“I’m running good,” Freeman said. “I’m real good at getting kings to ace-king.”

J.C. Tran (210k) and Eric “E-Fro” Froehlich (330k) highlight the third table.

The $5K Short Handed NLHE Event is back from break and Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar essentially doubled his stack shortly after play resumed.  With the blinds at 300/600 ante 75 Vivek raised to 1,600 and the player in the big blind reraised to 4,200.  Rajkumar told Pocket Fives that he and the player had been butting heads ever since they were moved to the same table. 

Vivek made the call and the duo saw a flop of AT3.  The player in the big blind bet out 5K and Rajkumar called.  After the 7 came on the turn, his opponent led out again, this time for 8.5K and Vivek called once again.  The river was the 5 and the big blind thought some time before moving all-in for 21.3K.  Vivek just barely had the other player covered and began to contemplate making the call.

After his opponent said, “I told you we’d play a big pot together,” Vivek thought some more and announced, “man, I just got these chips too.” 

Another minute or two passed and the other player asked Rajkumar, “do you have K-10 or something?”

“Pretty much,” Vivek responded.  Then, Jason “JCarver” Somerville, who was playing at the next table over, craned his neck to see what was going on and Vivek called out, “Jason–every hand”, referring to the number of big decisions he had been put to the past couple of levels.

After 4-5 minutes passed, the other player called the clock on Vivek and, as time wound down, Rajkumar asked if the other player would show if he folded.  His opponent said nothing and the floor person began to count down the final ten seconds.  With two seconds remaining, Vivek announced “call” and turned over J-10.  The other player said “good”, mucked his hand, and walked away from the table and Rajkumar increased his stack to 75K.

Here are some updated chip counts coming back from the dinner break: 
Jason Somerville (pictured at right) - 63K
Matt “mattg1983″ Graham - 58K
Shannon Shorr - 36K
Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier - 32K
Glen “choron” Chorny - 30K
Jason Gray - 28K
Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis - 21.5K
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 20K
Andy “BKice” Seth - 16K
Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal - 12.5K
Thayer Rasmussen - 11.5K

• June 26, 2008 -- “Whoa! Who Won that Pot?”
• June 27, 2008 -- Short-Handed Event Calls It a Night
• June 25, 2008 -- “The Toilet” Makes Flush
• June 25, 2008 -- Diamonds-A-Plenty for Rosen

Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen, who built up an impressive stack yesterday, has just doubled up to join the chip leaders of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys event. Sitting on the button with blinds at 1500/3000, Rosen re-raised a player in middle position preflop with J5 and the player called. On a flop of J43, Rosen was check-raised all in by his opponent and he called instantly. Jamie was in excellent shape to pick up one of the biggest pots of the tournament as his opponent revealed his 77. The 5 on the turn and 4 on the river helped earn Rosen a pot worth more than 350,000.

Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka was just seen smiling as he raked in a monster pot to join Rosen at the top of the leaderboard. Jaka got involved in a three-way preflop all in against AK and 65, having both players covered, and his AT got the best of it in the end as the board came T9335. He is now up to 340,000 chips.

Justin “looshle” Pechie and Jeff “yellowsub” Williams have also increased their stacks in the past level. Williams raised to 7,200 under-the-gun and was re-reaised all in by a player in late position for 26,000 more. Williams called with AJ after working through the math and pumped his first when his opponent showed A6. Both players missed the board completely but Williams’ ace-jack high was best and he chipped up to 105,000.

Pechie got his QQ in preflop and was able to hold as he flopped top set and is now at 150,000.

Michael “mossified84″ Skomack and Mike “SirWatts” Watson were eliminated in the past hour.

Here’s a look at some other chip counts as we’re now down to 72 players left in Event #44:

Eric “E-Fro” Froelich - 120K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 116K (pictured right)
Keven “Stammdogg” Stammen - 115K
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 87K
Stu “thedonator” Patterson - 80K
Randy “Randers” Haddox - 49K

• June 26, 2008 -- “Whoa! Who Won that Pot?”
• June 25, 2008 -- “The Toilet” Makes Flush
• July 4, 2008 -- The Toilet-0 Dethrones His Opponent
• June 28, 2008 -- Seat Open!

Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen has escalated to near the top of the leaderboard of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/Rebuys after picking up a massive pot. Rosen raised to 500 from middle position and two players called. On the flop of T64, the small blind checked and Rosen (pictured left)bet 1,050. The cutoff raised all-in for 3,650 and the small blind called, forcing Rosen to a decision. He decided to move the rest of his chips in, having the entire table covered and the small blind called:

Rosen: K9
Small blind: 42
Cutoff: QT

The 4 on the turn changed nothing, but the 8 on the river gave Rosen a flush and now puts him at 59K. Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier is the current chip leader with 65K.

Jason “JP OSU” Potter has been very aggressive at his table, opening several pots preflop, but the players at his table have began playing back at him. He finally found a spot to get his chips in during Level 4. With the blinds at 100/200, Potter raised to 575 in early position and a player in middle position called. The cutoff then re-raised to 1900 and Potter moved in for his last 5375. The flat caller folded and cutoff quickly called with JJ, which was in a flip situation against Potter’s AK. Potter rose to his feet when the flop brought KK2 and he was able to avoid a two-outer to chip up to over 11K.

Peter “Nordberg” Feldman added to his already ample chip stack when, with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25, he raised to 1K out of the small blind and a player who had limped in early position made the call. When the flop came AKK Feldman bet 1.6K and the other player threw out 5 blue 500 chips. The player then explained to the dealer he intended to call. Feldman had the dealer call over a floor person and they ruled that, since the amount of chips the other player put in the pot was more than half the size of the raise, the player was required to raise to 3,200. The player had only had 2.5K left in his stack and tried to move all-in, but he was told he could only raise to 3.2K. Peter then reraised enough to put the other player all-in and his opponent reluctantly made the call with A5. Feldman showed KQ and, when the turn and river were blanks, he took down the pot and increased his cihp count to 20K.

Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul (pictured right) cut his chip stack in half when a player in early position limped, another player raised to 700, Kevin called the raise, and the limper then moved all in for 8.5K total. As Saul mulled over his decision, he asked the player, “why so much?”, but he remained silent and stone-faced. After a couple minutes of thinking Kevin counted out the chips to make the call, kissed them goodbye, and threw them in the pot. The other player showed AA while Saul held QQ.

With a J on the flop and a K on the river, the table pointed out that every paint card except the one had shown up on the board. Humberto Brenes then jokingly called out, “he needs one more card.” Saul then burned and turned off the top of the deck and, to add insult to injury, it was the Q. Saul was left with 8K after the hand was over.

Several other players were unable to stick around through the end of Level 3. Recent eliminations include Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer, Shane “shaniac” Schleger, Blair “blur5f6, Chris “sooooted” Vaughn, Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar, Danny “THE_D_RY” Ryan, and Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci.

With 420 players remaining, here’s a look at some of the notable chip counts:

Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 35K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 25K
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams - 24K
Steve “gboro780″ Gross - 21K
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 19K
Craig “MrCasino” Gray - 18K
JC “PrtyPSux” Alvarado - 16K
“Bodog” Ari Engel - 15K
Brock “t_soprano” Parker - 14.5K
Amit “amak316″ Makhija - 14K
Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks - 14K
Matt “AllInat420″ Stout - 13K
Faraz “The Toilet-0″ Jaka - 13K
Stu “thedonator” Paterson - 13K
Thayer Rasmussen - 12K
Joe “Dyzalot” Morneau - 10.5K
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 9.5K
Jeff “jeffboski” Sluzinski - 9K
Cody “thugmoneymakr” Slaughbaugh - 8K
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 7K
Josh “pbdrunks” Van Duyn - 6K

• June 27, 2008 -- Freeman Chip Leader in $1K Rebuy
• November 7, 2008 -- Day 2 Complete, Potter and Fineman Eliminated
• November 7, 2008 -- Potter Still Leads
• November 5, 2008 -- End of Day 1A

The final table of the $1K rebuy got underway a little while ago and two players were recently eliminated when the following hand transpired:

With the blinds 8K/16K ante 2K the action folded around to Steve “gboro780″ Gross who moved all-in for 104K.  Jamie “TheChronic420″ Rosen moved all-in behind him for 421K and Jeff “yellowsub86″ Williams (pictured at left) thought for some time before folding.  Lyric Duveyoung then moved all-in for 600K and Williams let out a noticable sigh of relief at his decision to fold.  Groso held KT, Rosen had AQ, and Duveyoung showed QQ.  The board came out T9395 and Duveyoung eliminated the two smaller stacks, increasing his chip stack to 1.15 million.  A few hands later, Jeff Williams eliminated Michael Binger in 7th place.

In the 2K NLHE event several Pocket Fivers were sent to the rail recently, including Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, Zak “traaction” Gilbert, and Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert.  Phil “USCphildo” Collins has also had a rough go of it lately.  Collins built his stack up to 125K before running kings into aces.  He now has 44K.

The final table of Event #8, the $1500 O8 event is underway.  Stay tuned for updates on Chris “SKOAL” Falconer and Scott “BigRiskky” Clements.

• June 5, 2008 -- Williams Makes Phenomenal Call
• June 6, 2008 -- “Worldsgrtest?” World’s Greatest!
• June 15, 2008 -- Yellowsub Refuses to Sink
• June 5, 2008 -- Singer and Lindgren Take Home Bracelets, Event 7 in the Money