News / Matthew Pitt / 12 July 2009 / Leave a comment

Five members of Team Betfair returned to do battle at the Rio but by the end of play just two of them managed to survive and keep alive dreams of a life changing sum of money and the title of World Champion.

They were joined by 784 other hopefuls, 151 of who would end the day having not made any money on their $10,000 outlay.

From the off Sorel Mizzi took a couple of blows and was down to 150,000 chips from his 297,000 starting stack but we all know Imper1um is capable of grinding at the tables and bny the time the tournament director ended play for the day, the young Canadian was back up to 305,000.

As the money bubble approached, oversleep found himself all in with QdTd on a flop reading Jd5d9c against Michael Jansen's 9s9h. His open-ended straight and flush draw meant he was a 60/40 underdog but these odds widened as 6s fell on the turn and his WSOP was over when the 3s came on the river. A valiant performance from the man from Portugal.

E V V O found himself seriously short-stacked with just 38,000 chips with blinds at 2,500/5,000 and a running ante of 500 but he somehow miraculously survived to make the money before getting it all-in with AK against 99. Unfortunately for E V V O a nine spiked on the flop leaving him drawing extremely thinly and there was no help from the board and he was sent to the rail

In the meantime tcmoriera was busy chipping up and was over 570,000 chips at one point giving Betfair a small but welcomed dilemma as his flight was booked for today! After ending the day with 253,000 it looks like another flight will have to be booked, along with a hotel room as he is through to Day 5 of the biggest poker tournament on Earth.

Shortly after E V V O busted, DMSPSB joined him to rail his team-mates when his Kings ran squarely into pocket Aces. A cruel way to be eliminated but this can be a cruel game as we all know too well.

So 25 Betfair qualifiers have now become just two, two who are guaranteed to take home $27,469 but two who will be looking to go as deep as they can in this amazing tournament. Play resumes at noon Las Vegas time (2000BST) where 407 players will take to their seats

Sorel Mizzi will start at table Orange 92 as will be fourth in chips there and tcmoriera will begin play at Orange 85 where he will be eighth from nine in chips although there are plenty of similar sized stacks around him. Thankfully, out Team Betfair member have avoided the big-name pros, although I am sure neither are bothered by that fact either way.

Good luck guys!