WSOP: Johnny Chan well placed amongst remaining 205 hopefuls

It's been eight tough days since the 2010 World Series of Poker main event started with 7,319 hopefuls ponying up $10,000 apiece to be part of the action, but as Day 5 chips were bagged Wednesday night only 205 players could look forward to another day of play when the competition reconvenes Thursday afternoon.

It took the best part of four days just to reach the money bubble on the 748th elimination, but now the remaining players are guaranteed payouts of at least $24,079.

574 survivors came together again Wednesday afternoon for another session, with the immaculately suited Tony Dunst in the lead. During the first hour of play, 74 players were eliminated - more than one per minute.

By Wednesday night when Day 5 play ceased at level 21, the 205 survivors were led by Evan Lamprea on 3,564,000, and Michael Skender on 3,527,000, with average chip stacks at 1,071,073.

The previous day's leader, Tony Dunst was way down in the chip counts, and facing formidable challenges in Day 6 from players like Eric Baldwin, Theo Tran, Scott Clements, Alexander Kostritsyn, Phil Galfond, Johnny Lodden, David Benyamine and Jean-Robert Bellande.

And most notably, veteran player and two-time past champ Johnny Chan is still competing well and has 2,559,000 in chips. Another former champ, Scotty Nguyen, had an up-and-down sort of day, but had managed to rebuild his stack to around 572,000 by the break. At that stage it was well short of the average 703,750, making him increasingly vulnerable.

Departures just before the action closed after 12 hours of poker included Kevin Boudreau, Sam Haddad, Praz Bansi, Steve Billirakis, Jason DeWitt, Will Failla and Mark Teltscher. Two of the four Mizrachi brothers still remain in the field - Robert and Michael - although their siblings busted out earlier.

The tournament is on-track to meet the target of a final table sometime in the coming weekend.

Source: InfoPowa News