Tom “titantom32″ Braband is sitting near top of the chip count of the $2k NLHE event #23 and looks like he’s poised to end the night strong even after his stack has swung up and down over the past couple hours of play.

He and 2 other players saw a flop of K54 and all checked. When the 8 came on the turn the player first to act bet out 4.8k and the next player called. As still as a statue, Tom sat contemplating for a minute before raising to 12k. Both of the other players reluctantly folded and Tom scooped up the pot putting his chip stack over the 100k mark.

A little while later a player raised to 3.3k preflop and Tom and one other player called the raise to see a flop of 874. The original raiser bet out 7.7k, Tom smooth called and the other player folded. The 7 fell on the turn and both players checked to see the 3 come on the river. Tom’s opponent bet out 15k and after tanking for a couple minutes Tom eventually folded.

As the clock ticks down on the last few minutes of play for the night there are still quite a few P5ers who will return on day 2 to try to make the money. 136 players are left in the field but only 99 will get paid. Notable players still in contention include: Matt “Mattster24″ Sterling, Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck, Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Vivek, “psyduck” Rajkumar, Brock “t_soprano” Parker, Barry Greenstein, and our very own Court Harrington.

• June 13, 2008 -- Harrington on Helium
• June 12, 2008 -- Ryan Doubles Alongside Maimone’s Big Stack
• June 16, 2008 -- Greenstein Wins Third Bracelet
• June 13, 2008 -- Brock Solid