The $1.5K No-Limit Hold’em tournament was down to 32 players of its original 2,706 when PocketFives last visited the Brazilia room where play was taking place. Jason Gray (pictured at right)was looking short-stacked with 150K in chips as he was moved to another table to balance play out. Justin “loosh31″ Pechie was one of the recent eliminations in the event. He pushed in all his chips preflop with A-K, but was called by pocket aces. He couldn’t catch up and left the Brazilia room.

Barry “BarryGS” Schultz, however, was tearing up Event #27 with 460K in chips. We witnessed the friendly action at his table as most everyone was discussing Dario Minieri and their various run-ins with the scarf-wearing Italian. Barry discussed Minieri’s implosion in the event, stating that it was inevitable when he had so many chips in front of him and he was playing so aggressively. The last remaining woman in the event, Deb Blair, discussed the tell she had on Dario when he planned to go all-in. Meanwhile, Barry took down a few pots in bullying the blinds, joking with the player to his left every time he won: “Winner, Winner! Chicken dinner!” We can’t even make this stuff up.

Across the Brazilia room, the final 20 players in the $10K Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys tournament duked it out for the final table race which should conclude this late this evening. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (pictured at left) recently tangled in a pot with David Benyamine and another player. Phil opened with a raise, met a reraise from the other player, and a call from Benyamine on the button. Phil called and the flop came Q59. Phil checked, the other player went all in and both Benyamine and Phil called after quite a stint in the tank. The turn was the T. Phil bet 40,000 and Benyamine called. The river came the T and both checked; Phil flipped over KJ for straight - enough to pull down the side pot against Benyamine. However, his other opponent flipped over pocket queens and took down the main pot. Though Phil made back some of his money, Benyamine was obviously upset.

However, he was not as upset as Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis who was busted in 22nd place by Daniel Negreanu. KidPoker hit a flush to eliminate Billirakis from the running for the bracelet.

In the Amazon room, play in the $3K No-Limit Hold’em event continued with the average stack at 43K. Craig “MrCasino” Gray was recently eliminated when his preflop all-in with Q-J was called by Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert, who held pocket fives. The fives held up and MrCasino left to go rail his short-stacked brother as the $1.5K progressed.

Recent chip stacks from the event:

Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin - 107K
Ryan Young - 80K
Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke - 73K
Kathy Liebert - 70K
Amir Vahedi - 70K
John Phan - 60K
Matt “All In At 420″ Stout - 60K
David Singer - 56K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 45K
Jason “JCarver” Somerville - 44K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 39K
Kristy Gazes - 37K
Fred Goldberg - 28K
Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz - 20K

• June 16, 2008 -- Hoping Nobody has a “Case of the Mondays”
• June 16, 2008 -- Schultz Surges, Negreanu Dominates
• June 16, 2008 -- Get Your Fricke On
• June 13, 2008 -- Wolpert and Gray Get Coolered in 10k Heads-Up