The fourth and penultimate level of Day 3 has been completed with roughly 855 players remaining. Those players are now on a 20-minute break.
On the resumption of play following dinner break, it would be Mehrdad Yousefzadeh taking a sizeable pot off Phil Ivey to launch himself to roughly 660,000. Although Matthew Haugen would have the biggest flirt of reaching a million in chips when he peaked at 945,000 it would be Yousefzadeh who catapulted himself to 1,050,000 late in the level before heading to break with an impressive 1,049,500.
The other story of the level would be the one that left Huck Seed as the only remaining World Champion in the field following the earlier eliminations of Ryan Riess, Johnny Chan, Robert Varkonyi and most recently Chris Moneymaker. After Moneymaker moved to the action table that included Paul Pierce and Michael Binger, Moneymaker would see the last of his chips enter the flop with his in the lead against Raymond Ezzie's . The on the turn and on the river would ensure Moneymaker's exit as Seed became the last Main Event Champion standing.
Speaking of Pierce, the 10-time NBA All-Star would have a heavy rail for the majority of the level but he would float above and below the 200,000-chip mark before ending with 180,000, while the likes of Steve Dannenmann, Marvin Rettenmaier, Aaron Steury, Jason Koon, Bryce Yockey, John Hennigan and Hac Dang weren't as fortunate as they found themselves on the rail.
Joining Yousefzadeh up top on the leaderboard include Haugen (938,000), Raul Mestre (910,500), Andrew Liporace (899,500), Eric Hicks (848,000).
Harry Kaczka raised to 8,000 in late position, Raymond Ezzie three-bet to 21,000 on the button, and a third player cold four-bet all in for 77,500 out of the big blind. Kaczka folded, and the action was back on Ezzie.
"Courtesy double up," he said, tossing in a call.
Ezzie:
Opponent:
The player improved to a pair of queens on a flop of , but Ezzie had a gut-shot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw. The on the turn kept the latter draw alive, but the bricked off on the river.
Ezzie gave the player his courtesy double up, and dipped to 375,000 chips.
With close to 45,000 in the pot on a board of , Ruth Graham was facing a bet of 23,500. She moved all in for approximately 135,000 total causing her opponent to shake his head. He stared down at the food in front of him and then looked upwards as if seeking some divine intervention. After nearly three minutes, he released his hand.
Graham has been surviving with a moderately short stack for most of the day but now finds herself over the 200,000 chip mark.
Jonathan Little reported that he ran his stack up to 110,000 by stealing and then dwindled to 70,000 by not stealing. Little was then all in with versus and held after a flop to finish on 134,000 at the break.
Little opened to 8,000 just after the break and got one caller in the cut-off. They saw a flop of with neither player wagering chips so the dealer put out the turn card . This time Little check-called a bet of 13,000, whereupon his opponent remarked, “You can write more hands for your book.”
The river card was the . No chips went forward and Little turned over for the nut flush. Perhaps that one will make his next book after all.