Monday, July 14, 2008

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2008 WSOP: Main Event down to three tables

By Sarah Polson

The 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Day 6 played on Sunday, taking the playing field from 79 down to just 27.

The unlucky player to bring an end to the day at about 11:45 p.m. on Sunday was Nikolay Losev. Losev went out on a hand against Nicholas Sliwinski.

The two had been sparring all evening, and this time around the action folded to Sliwinski in the small blind and he called. Losev, sitting in the big blind, raised it to $775,000 and got an all-in move from Sliwinski in return.

Losev tanked to decide if it was worth putting his own tournament life on the line and eventually made the call. His 38 ended up against Sliwinski's A5, and when the board came T4T94, Losev was eliminated in 28th place.

Mike Matusow was also one of the players who busted out in Day 6. He lasted most of the day, hitting the rail in 30th place.

Matusow had reraised Paul Snead's $200,000 to $660,000 from the big blind, and then both players checked the AA5 flop.

When a 9 fell on the turn, Matusow bet another $500,000, and Snead moved all-in. Matusow called and found that his AJ for flopped trips was dominated by Snead's A9 for the full house. A K on the river sealed the deal and Matusow was out.

The only former WSOP Champion still in the mix on Day 6 was Phil Hellmuth, and he landed in 45th place. He got it all-in with AQ against Andrew Rosskamm's JJ and couldn't improve. The board came 4K3T2 to send the Poker Brat to the rail, but not before extending his record for WSOP cashes.

More important than who went out on Day 6 is who is still surviving after the day. The players returning today and their chip counts are:

Name	Hometown	Chip Count
Dennis Phillips	St. Louis	11,910,000
Craig Marquis	Arlington, Texas	11,460,000
Tiffany Michelle	Los Angeles	9,755,000
Peter Eastgate	Odense, Denmark	9,325,000
Kelly Kim	Whittier, Calif.	8,840,000
David Rheem	Los Angeles	8,280,000
Gert Andersen	Herning, Denmark	6,740,000
Paul Snead	Kings Park, N.Y.	6,600,000
Chris Klodnicki	Voorhees, N.J.	6,245,000
Judet Toni Cristian	Bucharest, Romania	5,000,000
Ivan Demidov	Moscow, Russia	4,965,000
Nicholas Sliwinski	Las Vegas	4,925,000
Joe Bishop	Cincinnati	4,855,000
Brandon Cantu	Las Vegas	4,740,000
Darus Suharto	Toronto, Canada	4,510,000
Scott Montgomery	Perth, Canada	4,320,000
Owen Crowe	Halifax, Mass.	3,800,000
Albert Kim	Staten Island, N.Y.	3,675,000
Ylon Schwartz	Brooklyn, N.Y.	3,655,000
Jason Riesenberg	Halbur, Iowa	3,405,000
Anthony Scherer	Truckee, Calif.	2,385,000
Dean Hamrick	East Lansing, Mich.	2,375,000
Tim Loecke	Highland Park, Ill.	2,280,000
Aaron Gordon	Brighton, England	1,790,000
Niklas Flisberg	Stockholm, Sweden	1,330,000
Phi Nguyen	Hawaiian Garden, Calif.	1,020,000
Michael Carroll	Carson, Calif.	1,015,000

Sitting third in chips, Tiffany Michelle survived Day 6 to become the last woman standing in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, and she is on track to possibly be the highest female finisher in the Main Event since Annie Duke finished in 10th place in 2000.

Susie Isaacs also finished in 10th place in the Main Event in 1999, and the highest-placed-female record goes to Barbara Enright, who took fifth place in 1995.

Only two former WSOP gold bracelet winners remain in the event as well. Brandon Cantu, who won a bracelet in 2006, sits somewhere in the middle of the chip count coming into today, and Phi Nguyen, a two-time bracelet winner, is coming in fairly short-stacked today.

Action resumes at noon and will play down to the final nine players. PokerListings.com will be there all day to bring you the best updates, videos, photos and more from the Main Event in the Live Tournaments section.

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