Shankar Pillai won a WSOP bracelet in 2007 when he took down the $3,000 No Limit Hold'em event for a cool $527,829. Since then, Pillai has accumulated an additional nine WSOP cashes and is on course for a tenth here in Event #12.
As we head towards the final break of the day and with 117 players remaining, Pillai is one of the biggest stacks in the room with 57,000 chips.
A player raised from early position to 1,200 and Phil Ivey made the call from late position. The flop came down and Ivey's opponent bet 1,200. Ivey put in a raise to 3,600 and his opponent folded.
Ivey has two more levels tonight to try to run it up to something a little more comfortable.
Level eight has ended and the players sent on their final break of the night. When they return they will play two more levels before bagging up their chips and heading into the warm Las Vegas night.
British professional poker player Kevin Allen has had a tough table all day long, but he's come away from it relatively unscathed. Going into the last two levels of the night, Allen has 20,000 chips in his stack and is in the hunt for even more.
French grinder Gabriel Nassif has 24 cashes at the World Series of Poker, including one from Event #3 this year, but if he wants to be able to boast about a quarter-century of them he is going to have to play in more events this summer because he's been eliminated from Event #12.
"Seat open table one," came the cry from the dealer as Nassif came by the media desk to collect his phone that was on charge.
Dylan Linde raised to 1,800 from early position and Jonathan Little three-bet to 3,500 from late position. Linde called and they were heads up. The flop was and Linde checked. Little bet 3,200 and Linde made the call. The turn was the and both players checked.
The river was the and Linde fired 8,500. Little thought for a moment before eventually throwing out chips for the call. Linde showed and Little mucked.
Ryan Riess has had a good level, improving his stack to 54,000 to keep him up their among the chip leaders.
Former chip leader Shankar Pillai has slipped a little, but still has 44,000 chips in his arsenal. Slightly further down the leaderboard we have Joseph Cheong and Darryll Fish, while towards the bottom end reside Keven Stammen, Marvin Rettenmaier and Dan Kelly.
Kevin Allen was first to act from his seat on the button and he raised twice the size of the big blind to 1,600. The small blind ducked out of the way, leaving Jonathan Little to defend his big blind.
A flop reading was initially checked by Little, leaving the door open for Allen to bet 900. Little then check-raised all-in for around 3,600 and Allen beat him into the pot with a call.
Allen:
Little:
Allen had flopped a straight and had a redraw to a diamond flush. Little on the other hand held a pair of kings and needed running cards to either a full house or a flush. The turn bricked and Little stood and was on his way out of the tournament area before the meaningless river card was dealt.