Event 37 - $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship - Live Updates

A festive mood surrounds the final table as it’s still four players remaining.

Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss is in Las Vegas, perhaps celebrating the recent NBA championship for the Lakers.

Right now Buss is quietly taking in the action at the final table, seated on a platform just above spectators’ row. He's sweating Frank Mariani.

Mariani is short-stacked but has big vocal support. Mariani’s entourage erupted into a loud chant of “FRANKIE-FRANKIE-FRANKIE!” after Mariani survived an all in against Jeffrey Lisandro.

Mariani is still dangerously low on chips, however, and Farzad Rouhani has built an even bigger chip lead.

Chip Counts Courtesy of www.worldseriesofpoker.com

Mariani Makes A Stand

The end appears to be near for Mariani, who had his chip stack decimated after two big losses in hands to Rouhani.

The crowd favorite continued to hang on, however. After Rouhani’s wins decimated Mariani’s stack down to about 250,000, Mariani survived three all ins and is still hanging around with a very short stack.

Lisandro mucked his river card in disgust when he failed to eliminate Mariani on the first all in. Mariani hit sixes and deuces to win the high and scooped the low with A-3-4-6-7.

He doubled up again through Liandro shortly afterward and doubled up yet again after that. The crowd erupted in “FRANKIE-FRANKIE-FRANKIE!” chants once again as Mariani still survives.

We’re down to the final four as Abe Mosseri was eliminated in the last hour, followed closely by Yan Chen.

Farzad Rouhani, Jeff Lisandro and Mousseri continued to entertain in the last hour.

The trio of pros engaged in a seemingly friendly banter with some of the spectators in attendance at the ESPN feature table.

Mosseri is most famous for his standing as a regular in the Big Game at Bellagio, but he’ll have to settle for a fifth place finish tonight.

Chip Counts Courtesy of www.worldseriesofpoker.com

Big Game Mosseri Busts Out (Fifth Place)

After surviving most of the hour short-stacked, Mosseri’s night comes to an end at the hands of Frank Mariani.

Mosseri and Mariani engaged in a one-on-one battle, with Mosseri shoving his remaining chips in after sixth street.

Mosseri had gotten a pair of queens on the original draw and improved on sixth and seventh street to end up with two pair, queens and eights.

Mariani drew an even bigger hand though, hitting a nine on the river for a full house of nines full of sevens.

Mosseri finishes in sixth place and cashes for $74,258, which he might be able to use to tip one of the dealers at the Big Game.

Chen Goes Next (Fourth Place)

Chen’s exit from the tournament seemed all but inevitable after Mosseri’s elimination, as Chen was holding on to precious few chips with about 40,000 remaining.

The final table for Chen is his second in the 2009 WSOP. He cashes for $93,513 for the fifth place finish.

It’s still anyone’s bracelet to win as Lisandro has won a couple of big pots to get back in contention.

The players have returned from their dinner break and have been at the felt for fifteen minutes or so.

The major change in that time has been the ascent of Scarface aka Farzad Rouhani to the chip lead and it all happened in one big pot versus Jeffrey Lisandro.

Here's the low-down.

Scar-Face Off

Showing (x,x) 2♣ J♣ 5♠ 5♦(x) Rouhani check-called 4th street, led fifth, led sixth and called a raise, then checked seventh versus Lisandro's (x,x) 8♠ 6♠ Q♦ 3♣(x).

When Rouhani turned up with jack, deuce, deuce in the hole for a full house, Lisandro mucked and Rouhani was left sweeping up a big pot thinking "first you get Lisandro, then you get Mosseri, then you get the bracelet!"

That small but important piece of action changed the leaderboard thusly. Thanks to worldseriesofpoker.com for the chip counts.

For much of the last hour, the players have disappeared to fill their bellies to prepare for the final run-in to the bracelet.

There was a significant elimination prior to that though and it is with heavy hearts and minds, we relate the tale of that bust-out.

Brunson Burned (7th)

At one point Brunson was reduced to just a single big bet, but he managed to claw his way back to 180k.

He was always going to be up against it however and  it was Farzad "Scarface" Rouhani who dealt the final blow to the online legend.

Brunson had a promising board of (x,x) 2♣ 4♠ 9♦ 7♠ (x) showing by seventh, meaning he had a potential low for at least half the pot but when Rouhani flipped up fours full of tens, Brunson had no better high and no low either.

The bid for bracelet number eleven ends in failure then, but the resounding applause from every single member of the table and rail as he left showed the reverence in which he is held by peers and fans alike.

Good game Doyle, he collects $62,234 for his 7th place finish.

With the players off to dinner, here are the chipstacks they will resume with when they return to battle for the bracelet six-handed.

We're down to seven here with one more elimination.

Despite courting Mike Matusow's mockery earlier, it is Abe Mosseri who is in control of the table right now, leading the chip counts despite a small verbal tussle with Farzad Rouhani.

Here's the latest from the felt.

Justin "Booted - J" Smith (8th)

Yan Chen accounted for Smith when he led on seventh holding (x,x) T♦ T♠ Q♦ J♥ (x)

It was all of Smith's stack to call this bet and he took a long time to consider his options and mull over the action.

Eventually he made the call, only for Chen to turn up J♦ 6♦ 4♦ in the hole for a flush. Smith could do no better, had no low and thus was sent packing in 8th spot, winning $54,896.

Kings-Up Maricon!

Farzad Rouhani bears more than a passing resemblence to Tony Montana, the infamous anti-hero of Scarface.

So when Abe Mosseri gave him a small dressing down following a hand, we half-expected Rouhani to leap from his chair, pull out some sort of sem-automatic weaponry and shout "Shay hello to my leedle frehn!" as he filled Mosseri with bullets.

I bury those cock-a-roaches!

He disappointed us, but he did fire back with a few words of his own, defending his play. The pair ended up splitting the side pot, whilst Rouhani split the main pot with the all-in Frank Mariani, whose ace-up bested Mosseri's kings-up hand.

Rouhani first sprang to fame by winning a bracelet at last year's series in the $2.5k Omaha/ 7 Card Stud split event.

(He went on to further fame and fortune by violently storming to the top of an international drugs cartel, leaving a trail of bullet-riddled bodies in his wake.) *

Doyle Short

Doyle is just hanging on at the moment, reduced to just a few big bets after running his pair of jacks into Mosseri's flush and following that up by being involved in a hand with Rouhani and Wattel, where Brunson's sevens-up hand came second to Wattel's trip aces.

He's managed to chip up slightly though to over 100k, mainly through splitting several pots in a row.

Count The Cost

All those pots have left the leaderboard shaped like this. Thanks to worldseriesofpoker.com for the counts.

One more bust-out means the players have been transported as if by magic over to the televised main final table area, where the dissolved rail re-formed like the bad guy from Terminator 2.

Here's news of the elimination as well as bringing you up to speed with the other chip fluctuations.

The Riviera Skid (9th)

Trips are a pretty big hand in Stud, so Anthony Riviera must have been fairly sure he was getting half the pot when his split tens hit another on 5th.

Yan Chen had other ideas though, flipping up a delicious six-low and nut spade flush by seventh to send Riviera to the rail, bustified in 9th spot.

Riviera collects the not inconsiderable sum of $41,885 for his efforts but he'll be sad to be missing out on what will be a tense, dramatic final table.

Doyle Chips Up

Doyle Brunson can't quite seem to catch up with the chip leaders, but he is maintaining his stack at least, up to nearly 300k now.

Recent hands saw him make exposed trip deuces and then a wheel versus Frank Mariani's trip eights. The last hand sent a lot of the crowd into raptures, applauding Doyle and his powerful hand.

It's a testament to his enduring poularity that the stands appear to be filled with fans of his here at the Rio.

Feeling Chipper

Click through to our chip count s for the latest from the felt. Counts courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com.

We're down to nine now, so the players have been consolidated to a single table. With some big names contesting the bracelet, the rail is thick with enthusiastic poker fans, crowding round to view their heroes battling it out at the felt.

Of course with nine left, it means two unfortunate players have been shot down and here's news of those eliminations.

No Nguyen For Scotty (11th)

Scotty Nguyen has busted out, at the hands of chip leader Jeff Lisandro.

Showing the 4♣, Scotty completed with his shortstack and when Lisandro raised showing the 5♥, he called the rest of his stack off.

He had three to a low in the hole, but never got there, whilst an increasingly big-stacked Lisandro made trips to scoop the lot.

Nguyen picks up $33,668 for his 11th place finish. He's some way off his target of $4 million for the series but his first cash reduces the target to just $3,966,332.

From small acorns, mighty oaks can grow as they say. Keep applying the fertiliser Scotty!

Perry is Fried, man (10th)

Perry Friedman just missed out on the cut for the final table, falling to Justin Smith in a three-way pot with Jeff Lisandro.

Friedman was short, and when Justin Smith folded out Lisandro on seventh street and showed down trip threes, Friedman had no answer, busting out 10th for $41,885.

No one can silence the mouth!

Matusow Hits The Rail

Most of the talking around the table is being done by Mike Matusow, not an active participant at the felt, but a very active participant from the rail.

He was heard needling Abe Mosseri, saying "You know things are going bad when you don't cash and Abe Mosseri makes the final table!"

Someone shouted out from the rail, "When I hear that voice I always know it's you Mike!"

"Well I don't cash anymore, so I just turn up at the final table and pretend I'm playing!" retorted The Mouth, who usually gets the last word.

Chips fo' shizzle!

Click through to the chip count page for the updated counts . It's still Lisandro holding sway at this early stage of the final.