Just as we expected, the quick pace of play has continued throughout the last hour. It’s like these guys are trying to knock each other out. Are they playing for money or something?

Courtney: No Love! (8th)

They say that if you’re going to win a tournament, you have to win your coin flips. That’s especially true when your entire stack is in the middle like Jeff Courtney’s was a few minutes ago, when he held J J against Farzad Rouhani’s A Q. The bad news for Courtney was the queen on the flop, which gave Rouhani the lead in the hand. The board ran out full of bricks and Courtney took a walk to the cage to collect his eighth place prize of $84,546.

Daneshgar Doubles!

David Daneshgar took a big hit earlier when he ran his kings into Dan Heimiller’s aces, but he caught a good break a few minutes ago to climb back into the thick of things. Andrey Zaichenko opened for $105,000 and Daneshgar shoved for his last $360,000; Zaichenko called with A J, and Daneshgar flipped up 8 8. The flop was harmless, but 8 on the turn was a thing of beauty for the short stack, leaving Zaichenko drawing dead and boosting Daneshgar to almost $750,000 in chips.

Cole Comes Back, Mutilates Matros

When two big stacks go head-to-head, it’s bound to get ugly for somebody.

Corwin Cole opened the betting for $100,000 in the cutoff and Matt Matros called out of the small blind. The flop came down A K 6 and Cole led out for $135,000. Matros check-raised to $400,000 total and made the call when Cole shipped it. It was a cold deck for sure: Cole held 6 6 for the flopped set, while Matros had Q J for the flush draw and Broadway straight draw. Matros had plenty of outs going to the turn, but when it came the A he found himself drawing dead.

Matros was down to under $500,000 after that hand, while Cole crept up over $1,800,000.

The Chip Counts of Monte Cristo

Here are your current chip counts, according to WorldSeriesOfPoker.com:

A full hour has passed and we still haven't lost anyone. That doesn't mean there hasn't been a fair bit of action, though. The leaderboard continues to shift and we don't expect things to slow down any. 

Do They Give Away JV Bracelets?

If the atmosphere at the $50,000 HORSE event was akin to an NBA Finals game, the atmosphere around today’s final table is more like a junior varsity pre-season scrimmage. There are only about 40 or 50 people in the stands, about the same size crowd as we’ve been getting standing on the ropes outside of the final tables played out to the side of the ESPN set.

When someone wins a pot, the spectators aren’t really going crazy. Things are subdued, to put it lightly, and we can only figure that the presence of Ante Up For Africa is having an impact on how many people are watching these players vie for one of the last bracelets of the 2008 WSOP. It’s a good thing all those empty seats aren’t being broadcast on television somewhere.

Cole Come Tumblin’ Down?

Corwin Cole came in to this final table with the chip lead, but he relinquished that position just a little while ago even though he didn’t make any mistakes. The big drop came courtesy of Andrey Zaichenko, who shipped it for $379,000 from the small blind after Cole opened for $75,000. Cole did the math and made the call with A 10, finding himself ahead of Zaichenko’s K J. The A K 5 flop was a good one for Cole and the 9 left him in the lead, but when the river came the K he doubled up his opponent and dropped back to near $1,000,000 in chips.

I’ll Take The Hei-miller Road

There’s nothing better when you’re holding pocket aces than seeing a ton of action in front of you. That’s the spot Dan Heimiller found himself in a little while ago, and when he shipped it David Daneshgar made the call with pocket kings. The board brought no drama, meaning Heimiller doubled up and Daneshgar was left as the new short stack.

Chip Counts Rising

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