News / Matthew Pitt / 14 July 2009 / Leave a comment

After five two-hour long levels, just 64 of the last 185 players still had chips remaining and with them the now real possibility of winning over $8,500,000.

Amongst those returning for Day 7 of the World Championship No-limit Hold'em Main Event is none other than Phil Ivey who has a monster stack of 6,345,000 and will be most people's favourite to claim his first Main Event title and his eighth WSOP bracelet of his career.

Day 6 did not last long for British pro, Michael 'Beppe' Greco as he pushed his last 520,000 chips into the middle of the table preflop with AcKh only to run into Scott Bohlman's pocket Aces. He caught a King on a Ks5h4d board but running Tens on the turn and river saw him heading for the rail.

Another British hopeful then lost a huge pot in a battle of the blinds. After the action folded to him, James Akenhead put in a standrd raise from the small blind, only to be called by the big blind, Steven Begleiter. Both saw a flop of 9c8cQh which saw Akenhead check-raise Begleiter's 85,000 bet to 190,000.

Begleiter called then lead out for a big bet of 850,000 when Akenhead checked the 3s on the turn. Akenhead eventually made the call and once again checked to hi opponent when the 7s came on the river. Begleiter announced he had two-pair before tabling 9d7c to show he hit two pair on the river prompting Akenhead to stare at the ceiling in disbelief before mucking his hand.

Elsewhere a 'Table of Doom' was being created as 2008 World Champion, Peter Eastgate found himself at the same table as November Nine member Dennis Phillips, JC Tran and Joe Hachem, with on Dennis Phillips having chips left as play drew to a close.

Two more Brits exited the tournament, Karl Mahrenholz and popular blogger Chuck Clark, also known as ex-Snowman online. Both players picked up $40,288 for their 114th and 115th respective finishes.

Meanwhile, Phil Ivey was busy adding to his rapidly growing chip stack and he claimed a major scalp in the form of Hac 'Trex313' Dang, which took him to 3,260,000 in chips. All the money went in preflop with Ivey holding Jacks and Dang a pair of Queens but a Js9s4c5c7c board saw Ivey outdraw the high-stakes cash guru and move up the leaderboard.

As play ended for the day, it was announced that Darvin Moon was the overnight chip leader with 9,745,000 closely followed by Billy Kop with 8,245,000 and Phil Ivey in third with 6,345,000. With Ivey running well, combined with a big stack he could be unstoppable as the players return for the seventh day where it is rumoured they will play down to the last 27 players.

Mentions must also go to the three remaining British players, Adam York, Jeff Duvall and the aforementioned James Akenhead. A special mention also for Leo Margets who has the honour of being the last woman standing at this years World Series of Poker.