The snow came down hard on the Las Vegas Strip again today, but the flakes weren't the only thing falling on Day 4 of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, as 55 was turned into just 18 by the time five levels of poker were through.

Tim "Tiny Dancer" Vance was the first to fall, committing the majority of his stack with jacks facing a raise and reraise. When the reraiser shipped, the EPT Copenhagen champ made his second mistake by calling all-in and was quickly plowed down by pocket rockets.

Two-time WPT winner Tuan Le was the next to be salted away, but he was quickly followed by a gang of top pros including Nam Le and Allen Cunningham, who ran pocket kings into Ben Straate's aces.

That wasn't the first piece of good fortune Straate would find, however. Ben reportedly crushes the $25/$50 games online and treated the field at the Five Diamond much the same way today.

While players like Hunter Frey and WPT title holder Nick Schulman grabbed chip leads that would not last, Straate waited patiently for his opportunity.

Eventually it came in the second-last level of play as a battle of the blinds with Steven Landfish played out and Straate was able to snatch a $1.5 million pot pushing all-in on the river on a board holding four spades. Without showing down the hand, he was suddenly on $2.8 million in chips and on his way to the overnight chip lead.

You got what I need.

In fact, Stratte will start the final 18 tomorrow with $3,197,000 and only Brett Richey even close as the one other player over $2 million in chips.

As the TD was announcing airport and road closures due to the rare Las Vegas snowfall and Full Tilt pros like Andy Bloch and David Oppenheim were falling short of their Five Diamond dreams today, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow found a way to get his going.

His wild ride really started when he ended up in a three-way all-in with Jacobo Fernandez and Mohsin Charania. It was a massive cooler of a hand that saw Matusow get crippled with queens against Fernandez's aces. Charania had kings and said goodbye when it was all said and done, but Mike was lucky enough to be left with a few hundred thousand.

Lucky doesn't even begin to describe what happened next, however. First he shoved face-first into Robert Mizrachi's aces with J-Ko only to flop three kings. Then he doubled up again, winning a race with nines.

Before the day was through, Matusow would double up a third time with kings over Fernandez' nines, and suddenly the Mouth found himself with a realistic shot at back-to-back final tables coming off a sixth-place finish at Foxwoods last month.

Mouth wide open.

He'll come into Day 5 over $1.4 million, behind the guys on top and in a pack with previous tournament chip leaders Jack Wu, Evan McNiff and Justin Young.

John Hennigan and Chuck Kelley, the player he beat heads-up to win 2007 WPT Borgata Winter Open, both looked good for deep runs here, but fell short of the mark today. As did Team PokerStars Pro's Barry Greenstein, who ran sevens into queens and will tell you bluntly that's never a good idea.

Coming off a win at Foxwoods last month, Jonathan Little was in the mix today, but never got big stacked in his attempt at back-to-back WPT titles, and that's now over.

However, when things do get going Thursday, just after 12 p.m. PT, two-time WPT final tablist Amnon Fillipi will be right there on $1.3 million. Two-time WPT final tablist Steve Sung is equally as stacked, and the WSOP bracelet-adorned Robert Mizrachi is not far off the pace.

Having been here and done that before, WPT Title holder and two-time runner-up Hoyt Corkins is also over $1.2 million and right in the thick of this thing, while November Niner Chino Rheem, newfound tournament circuit cash machine Clonie Gowen and successful poker vet Tom Pniak are the only other players over $1 million in chips. Although William Klein is right there on $999,000.

We need more cowbell.

The shorter stacks include Martin de Knijff, Joe McGowan, Benjamin Tollerene and the aforementioned Nick Schulman, who actually looked like he was ready to take this whole tournament over before self-proclaimed donkey Evan McNiff called his push with A-Q and three-outed Schulman's kings.

A good mix of young talent and proven players fills the roster here in the final 18 and they'll play down to what should be an excellent final table of six tomorrow.

Unless the forecast calls for a few more feet of the white stuff, PL.com will be on the scene and you're welcome to join us. Just take a snow day, cozy up in front of the computer and click right here.