The last hour has seen an eruption of action as the blind to average stack size ratio closes in. It's been a volcano of activity and the crowd of onlookers are loving the action as lava and magma in the form of chips flies all over the place.

Here's the low-down.

Catch-a-lot Katchalov

Down to a mere $70,000 in chips, Eugene Katchalov has miraculously managed to survive three all-in confrontations.

First he doubled up off Mike Matusow, his 7-2-3-4 besting Mike's A-2-T-K as he picked up a full house with no low dealt out. Next up, all his chips in the centre preflop again, he chopped versus David Benyamine, as he picked up a low with his 7-4-8-6 versus Benyamine's high only hand.

Finally he doubled through yet again, tangling with the imposing figure of Benyamine once more, making a full house to rake the pot and shoot up to a still vulnerable but much improved $300,000 in chips.

His short stack ninja skills have helped him ladder up several payout spots as you can see below.

Chiu Down (OUT - 8th)

David Chiu has been eliminated at the hands of Greg Jamison. He found himself pretty short and was all-in pre against Jamison's raise.

His 3-5-5-4 stood a chance of at least splitting versus Jamison's A-T-K-K as any non-counterfeiting low dealt out would give him half, but a board of J-7-T-8-Q gave Jamison a dominant broadway straight to send his opponent spiralling off to the rail.

David Chiu is OUT, eliminated in 8th spot, winning $71,792

Ram's Not The Man (OUT - 7th)

The last British player contending the bracelet, Ram Vaswani has fallen short of glory, Greg Jamison the executioner once again.

He was short enough that he elected to go heads up preflop with Jamison, holding Q Q 6 6 to Greg's A 2 8 7.

The first card dealt was an Ace, spelling disaster for Ram and as the rest of the board ran out low cards (but no 6) Vaswani's tournament was curtailed, as he was eliminated in 7th spot, picking up $88,360 for his troubles.

Kat's Nine Lives Gone (OUT - 6th)

Mad Ninja Short-Stacking Skills, Available From All Good Bookshops

Eugene Katchalov's luck has finally run out, taking another shortstacked shot with 6-7-8-9 versus the 2-A-3-J of Jason Gray, Gray bombed him out of the competition making the nut low and two pair.

Eugene Katchalov is off to an isolated cave in Tibet to further enhance his already impressive short-stacking Ninja skills, but for now, he is OUT, eliminated in 6th spot, picking up $110,450.

The final progresses slowly but surely. A thick throng of fans encircles the table, giving verbal encouragement to the various players.

Mike Matusow cuts a contrasting figure to the rest of the table, keeping a virtual constant stream of chatter going whilst his tablemates are motionless statues, the only indication that they are alive being the occasional movement of their arms toward their chips.

At present David Gray is in charge with a healthy chip lead.

Here's the action from the felt.

Chiu On This

Chiu was, and still is, short, although his position has been slightly improved through doubling up off Toto Leonidas, who has taken a dip down the leaderboard in recent times.

Chiu moved all his chips in with A 8 K T and Leonidas called with A 3 8 9.

Chiu needed some broadway cards to come out if he was to double and his wish was the dealer's command as it came Q Q A 6 3 to ship him the pot and bring him slightly more into contention.

Chiu Doubles Through!

Two Time Mike

As we watched on, Matusow caught the Pokerlistings.com crew's eye and mouthed "One more" holding a finger in the air indicating he intends to pick up another bracelet.

He has his work cut out, still with a chip deficit, but as he revealed when he won the bracelet earlier in the series, he is playing well and is clearly dripping with confidence about his game.

Here's the current standings as we home in inevitably on the bracelet, chip counts courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com.