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WSOPE 2011 Main Event Day 4

In the original plans of the tournament organizers only 16 players were expected to come back for WSOPE 2011 Main Event Day 4 of the WSOPE 2011 Main Event. However it proved impossible to shrink the field of the record breaking size and star quality players down to 16 in three days. It was 25 players who took their seat for Day 4 in the Hotel Barierre. Erik Seidel, John Eames, Patrik Antonius, John Duthie and Tony G were all there for the start of the action. Unfortunately as the day went they all got eliminated to clear the space at the final table for the lucky eight with Elio Fox in the lead.

Philippe Ktorza was one of the first casualties of the Day 4. He was soon followed by Tony G who busted out in the 4^th place. Ricardo Tavares and James Schafer headed to the cashier next. Strangely Erik Seidel was at the rail next, he was expected by all spectators to go much further this time, alas, after another deep run he exited in the 21^st place when his Kd, Jd came across Alex Dovzhenko’s Ah, Qh and Seidel did not make it. Eames was out through the door next shortly joined by Jeramy Kottler and John Duthie.

At that time Dario Sammartino was having a rollercoaster day experiencing dramatic falls, skyrocketing to the stratosphere again and dropping back.  At some point it seemed he was on the top to stay however it turned out that he was just looking after the chips for Max Silver.

Silver got hold of Sammartino’s big stack in just a few hands. The final blow came just after a break with four player’s at the table and two of them sitting out on the blinds. Sammartino, under the gun, opened with A, K Silver pushed over a million big blinds holding pocket deuces. Sammartino called. The board came jack high,  the deuces stood, Sammartino was busted and Silver was in possession of a monster stack. The field was finally reduced to 16 players.

16 survivors relocated to the two table television studio, Majestic Room No 3, the set up of which was fit to stage a scene in a James Bond film.

The game pace changed dramatically at this stage and became full of caution. All players at the table fell silent as the importance of what was going on sunk in. There was not a lot of chip movement and it took over two hours before the first player headed through the door when Brian Roberts sent Michael Drummond to the cashier. After this elimination the action livened up a little. Amir Lahavot lost a massive stack of chips on the river and was the next to go. He was soon followed up by Steven Moreau and Andy Moseley.

At the same time Jake Cody began his attack. He began 16 player action with the shortest stack in the room but by the time 13 players left he was in the chip lead. First he triple up with 10d, 8d and then he doubled up against his fellow Brit Chris Moorman, when his A, Q stood against Moorman’s A, J, putting Coy into the third place on the leaderboard. He then took over a big pot from Max Silver and held the biggest stack in the room.

During the level 24 the action change completely, what had started a cautious, slow game ended up a furious, turbo jet madness when players came back from the break. Frist Thibaud Guenegou was crashed by Elio Fox within minutes and just a few seconds after another huge pot pushed Fox into the lead.

One of the most dramatic hands came next, in a three-way all-in. As the card were held down for the cameras to see them Arnaud Mattern, quietly said to his opponents “I have them” indicating that he had pocket aces. When the cards were opened, he did show pocket aces, Fox showed pocket tens and Alex Dovzhenko had A, K to contest for over 3 million pot. The board came up with a ten, awarding the massive pot to Fox and crushing Mattern and Dovzhenko. The field was reduced to nine ready to continue at the last table, however another hand was still being played.

Chris Moorman four-bet all his 940,000 chips to Patrik Antonius’s three-bet, after some thought Antonius called. Moorman opened Ac, 7s and Antonius showed Ah, Qd. The flop came with 8h, 6c, 6s. The turn brought 8d, making a likely possibility of a split pot when 7d came on the river giving Moorman a seat in the final and leaving Antonious with just 80,000 chips.

Shaun Buchanan quickly finished him off and the final table was set with eight players.

Final Table Chip Counts