We're still in action on the ESPN set - and we've still got three players left. The limits are so high that it could end at any point, though, so be sure to stick with us.

The Peanut Gallery

The longer we go into the night, the more the stands fill up with a Who’s Who of Poker. Among the railbirds tonight are Layne Flack, Todd Brunson, Gavin Smith, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, Bill Edler, Chris Bell, Daniel Alaei, Joe Sebok, Phil Hellmuth, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Tex Barch, and Shannon Elizabeth.

Nguyen’s Revenge

Something- maybe his wife, maybe just desire - straightened Scotty Nguyen up during the last break. All his chips are neatly stacked now, divided into $25,000 chips and $5,000 chips on either side of him, and he’s also been playing with a fire in his belly.

He won one big pot, worth about $2,000,000, in a hold’em hand against Michael DeMichele. Nguyen flopped top pair on the Q 3 2 board, and it held up through the 7 turn and the 8 river; luckily for Nguyen, DeMichele got overaggressive on the river because he paired up with his A 8. That extra bet was worth $300,000, a very costly mistake at this point in the tournament.

Added to several Stud and Stud-8 pots that Nguyen picked up, that hand boosted the former world champion’s stack to over $9,000,000.

DeMichele Deflates

Since poker is a zero-sum game, it follows that when there’s a winner there has to be a loser. Right now Scotty Nguyen is up, and Michael DeMichele is on the way down. What was once an intimidating chip stack in front of the kid has turned into a pittance as he finds himself unable to gain any traction.

The saving grace for DeMichele has been his ability to survive all-ins. On one Stud hand he made a full house on the river and got Lindgren to raise him on the river.

Meanwhile, Lindgren is hurting, partly thanks to that Stud hand against DeMichele. He’s back down to life support territory after surging earlier on. With a structure this good and the overall skill level this high, it’s more a test of endurance than anything else.

Chip Counts from Heaven

Here are your current chip counts as reported by WorldSeriesOfPoker.com:

We’re still three-handed and waiting to see who’s going to make the heads-up match. Will it be the two veteran pros fighting it out for the bracelet? Or will one of them fall by the wayside, leaving the other to battle young up-and-comer Michael DeMichele?

Equality Rules the Roost

After Erick Lindgren went on a tear during Hold’em in the last hour to get back in the game, things have evened out. Nobody has been dominant in the last hour at all; instead, the money is making its way from stack to stack. One rush could be all it takes at this point, though, especially if there’s a multi-way pot in the mix. With the limits up to $150,000-$300,000, nobody is immune to a bad run.

Scotty Really Wants to Nguyen

Scotty Nguyen appears to be a man divided tonight. On the one hand, he’s determined to make up for his failure to make last year’s Main Event final table. On the other, he’s drinking heavily, failing to stack his chips at all, and yelling at the dealers or floor staff over seemingly random transgressions.

Nguyen’s chips appear to be pretty indicative of his mental state right now: scattered across the felt, with enough of them to still be a force at the table but no sort of an organization to them at all. We’re pretty sure this has a good bit to do with the fact that a waiter is camping out near the table, ready to serve Nguyen two beers at a time whenever he’s summoned.

The NASCARization of Poker

Before coming to the WSOP, Jeffrey Pollack was once the commissioner of NASCAR. His influence is showing at this final table, particularly with Michael DeMichele. The kid is sporting four patches on the front of his shirt, one on his shoulder, and a logo on his hat - as if he needed any more cash after going this deep in the biggest buy-in event of the year.

Bedtime Chip Counts

Here are your current chip counts, courtesy of WorldSeriesOfPoker.com: