PokerWorks

The fifth full day of the 2010 World Series of Poker $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship was a fast-paced, action-packed one, full of rapid eliminations, hundreds of significant payouts, and the final exit of many well-known pro players.

It was on Wednesday, July 14 that 574 players entered the already half-empty Amazon Room to play their fifth day of WSOP Main Event action. From an original field of 7,319 players, Day 3 took it from 2,557 to 1,203, and Day 4 brought it down to a manageable 574. The Pavilion Ballroom was closed for business, and the Amazon Room was half empty by the time Day 5 got underway. It signified the near-end of the 2010 Series as well as the fact that the Main Event was ever closer to finding its November Nine.

Day 5 started with those 574 players guaranteed a minimum payout of $24,079, and by the midway point of the day, the money jumps became more significant, as the ending payout for the day was $48,847, nearly five times the buy-in originally necessary to play.

The first player to cash on Day 5 was Peter Bronstein in 574th place, and James Gaffney followed. Others who left in that payout bracket included Lauren Kling, Fabrice Soulier, Matt Matros, Brian Rast, and Danny Estes. Can Kim Hua leaving in 531st place led the next bracket of $27,519 payouts, and others like Shannon Shorr, Karina Jett, Brian Saltzman, John Esposito, Michael Chow, Bart Hanson, Carter Phillips, Vince Van Patten, Bruce Buffer, Vanessa Selbst, and Jason Mercier followed. It was a painful portion of the day that saw many players leaving the tournament with sad faces and many fans and media disappointed as some of the best potential stories departed the room.

The next portion consisted of players leaving with $31,647, and some of those players were Sammy Farha, Dean Hamrick, Evelyn Ng, Brandon Cantu, Michael Woo, Anthony Lellouche, Dwyte Pilgrim, Bernard Lee, Kevin MacPhee, Simon Watt, and Alex Jacob. Moving up to the $36,463 level, names on the list included Adam Schoenfeld, Cole South, Michael Bunin, Peter Hedlund, Allie Prescott, Eric Liu, Danny Mizrachi, Mori Eskandani, and Hoyt Corkins. And the next round of exits were in the $41,967 range and included Vitaly Lunkin, Thayer Rasmussen, Marlon Shirley, John Kabbaj, Will Failla, Padraig Parkinson, Brett Richey, Steve Billirakis, and Steven McLoughlin.

During the last few hours of the night, the aforementioned $48,847 payout level was in force, and it was during that level that Dorothy Von Sachsen was eliminated, which left one woman standing, a PokerStars qualifier by the name of Breeze Zuckerman. Her presence in the field was noted, while more big names were sent to the cashier cage, including Praz Bansi, Mark Teltscher, Zach Clark, Richard Ellis, Shawn Rice, Michael Souza, Kevin Boudreau, and Eric Blair.

One of the last eliminations of the day was that of Scotty Nguyen, when his short stack of 310K went all-in with against the of Mads Wissing. The board read , and Nguyen was sent out in 209th place. And with David Emmons out in 206th place, the day came to a close.

In the field of 205 players remaining, a few notables remained, including two Mizrachi brothers - Michael and Robert - as well as 1987 and 1988 WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan. Other big names in the field included John Racener, Johnny Lodden, William Thorson, Scott Clements, Peter Jetten, JP Kelly, Jacobo Fernandez, Adam Levy, Karga Holt, Phil Galfond, Jean-Robert Bellande, Gualter Salles, Dragan Galic, Juha Helppi, Jimmy Tran, David Benyamine, Tony Dunst, Theo Tran, Jesper Hougaard, and Hasan Habib. Also still in the field was Breeze Zuckerman. The official top ten chip counts from the end of Day 5 were as follows:

And that left 205 players to return for Day 6 on Thursday. What they’re playing for is as follows:

Players:  7,319
Prize pool:  $68,798,600