News / Matthew Pitt / 15 July 2009 / Leave a comment

There is just one more day of play until the 6,494 players who paid $10,000 to enter the 2009 World Championship No-limit Hold'em Event will have been whittled down to form the November Nine.

Sixty-four players returned to unbag their chips and do battle at the felt and with the blinds now a significant 25,000/50,000 and a 5,000 running ante, it was no surprise that the first couple of hours saw no fewer than ten players eliminated.

First elimination of the day

The first player to exit on Day 7 was high-stakes cash game player Prahlad Friedman who moved all-in for 840,000 from the cut-off with KhQc only to see his bet snap-called by Bradley Craig in the big blind. Craig was in great shape with his AdKs and when the board ran out 9d7h2d8d9s, Friedman headed to the rail. Craig would later exit the tournament in 50th position after his AK could not outflop his opponents pair of Kings.

British pro James Akenhead started the day with just over 1,600,000 but soon found himself closer to 4,000,000 when his Kings flopped a set on a 4cKsJc board. Akenhead lead out for 420,000 prompting his fellow countryman, Adam York to move all-in with his Ace-Jack, a call which Akenhead instantly called. There was no help for York and Akenhead scooped a substantial pot.

The third Brit still in contention for the bracelet, Jeff Duvall was moved to the secondary feature table just before the players went on a break but he would not get much TV time as he busted out soon after the restart. Duvall thought his Ace-Jack was good on a AhTc2c board and moved the remainder of his stack in, only to find he had run into a set of two's held by Jeff Shulman. The miracle turn and river of 5s and 8s failed to alter things and Duvall was eliminated in 42nd position, picking up $178,857 for his troubles.

Joe Ward then seemed to be involved in some key hands, the first of which when he won a three-way all-in against Gabriel Vezina and Martin Lapostolle. In a hand made for the internet, Ward's Kings were up against the Queens of Lapostolle and the Jacks of Vezina. Ward's opponents were drawing dead by the turn as the board read 9sKh4d6s, taking Ward to 9,800,000 and busting his opponents in 38th and 37th place.

Phil Ivey cracks Ward's Kings

Ward then found Kings again, only to have them cracked by the 9c7c held by Phil Ivey. After checking the 7h4cQs board, Ivey fired out, and was called, on the arrival of the 7d on the turn and 4d on the river, catapulting him to 11,300,000 chips.

Unbelievably, Ward was again dealt KK and was all-in preflop against Jamie Robbins who woke up to find a pair of Aces in the hole and then went on to flop an un-needed Ace to knock Ward all the way back down to 6,000,000.

In total, 14 players were eliminated during level two but the bubble went on for almost two hours. It finally burst when that man Ward was again all-in preflop, and again he was called by Jamie Robbins. Ward held AK against his opponent's AQ and looked sure of a double up. This look even more certain as the board read AdTc8d2d but a cruel Qh was dealt on the river to send him to the rail in 28th place but also with $253,929 to console himself with.

Play resumes at 1200 Las Vegas time (2000GMT) and sees Darvin Moon return as chip leader with a staggering 20,160,000 stack. Hot on his heels are Billy Kopp (15,970,000), Steven Begleiter (11,850,000) and the ever-dangerous Phil Ivey (11,885,000), the latter still in the hunt for his third bracelet of the series.

Best of luck to everyone still involved, especially the last British player standing, James Akenhead (8,615,000) and the very short stacked last remaining female player, Leo Margets who returns with just over 1,500,000 when the average is 7,200,000.