Day 7 could have gone either way. If the players continued at the rapid pace at which they were playing, a short day was in store. But if they suddenly decided to tighten up and take fewer chances, the trip down to a 27-player field was destined to be a long one. Thus is the nature of the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Championship at the World Series of Poker.
The journey to Day 7 was a long one. Four starting days brought a total of 7,319 players to the tables, and two second days whittled the field down to 2,557. Day 3 brought it down to 1,203, Day 4 ended with 574, and Day 5 ended with 205. Day 6 slowed down considerably, naturally, and only 78 players survived. That brought us to Day 7 on Friday, July 16. Several weeks after the Main Event kicked off, it was down to the final two days to determine the November Nine.
Day 7 started with those 78 players but saw one of the better known players become the first to exit after play got underway. Jean-Robert Bellande promised his Twitter followers he would push early with his relative short stack, and he didn’t disappoint. His 815K chips went all-in with 
, Duy Le reraised with 
, and Jeff Banghart folded pocket jacks face up. The board then came 
to oust Bellande in 78th place, which was worth a payout of $94,942.
Others who busted in that payout bracket included:
77th place: Adam Etter
76th place: Mark Meloche
75th place: Jeff Banghart
74th place: Brock Bourne
73rd place: Gabriel Nassif
The next level of pay then went into effect, with the new guarantee set at $114,205. Those eliminated in that section were:
72nd place: Habib Khanis
71st place: Richard Morgan
70th place: Pierre Canali
69th place: Marcel Cole
68th place: Niklas Toorell
67th place: Meenaskshi Subramaniam
66th place: John Armbrust
65th place: Ismael Erkenov
64th place: Denis Pisarev
About three hours into the day, another pay jump hit to take the players to the $138,285 level, and some who busted after that point included:
63rd place: Gary Dishongh
62nd place: Jim McCrink
61st place: Rudy Miller
60th place: Bill Melvin
Two big bustouts followed. The first was UB Team Pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, who had a rough day and finally put his tournament life - less than 700K in chips - at risk with 
. Pascal LeFrancois called with 
, and the board came 
to give him the set of nines. Baldwin was gone in 59th place.
Next up was Full Tilt Pro David Benyamine, who pushed all-in for nearly 1.4 million chips with 
, and again it was LeFrancois who made the call, this time with 
. the board came 
to give LeFrancois the nut flush. And Benyamine was forced to go in 58th place.
Others to leave in the same bracket included:
57th place: Matt Harris
56th place: Jared Ingles
55th place: Josh Brikis
The next pay level then went into effect, and those to cash for $168,556 started with:
54th place: Peter Jetten
53rd place: Christopher Bolt
Alexander Kostritsyn was ready to gamble and did so with a solid . Bryn Kenney made the call with 
, and the 
flop gave Kenney the flush draw. The 
on the turn changed nothing, but the 
on the river made that flush. Kostritsyn left the tournament in 52nd place. James Manning followed in the 51st spot.
Soon after, Tony “Bond18” Dunst had very few chips left but was able to get them in with a solid 
. However, William Thorson woke up with 
with which to make the call. The board only produced 
to give Thorson the pair of kings and ensure he won the hand. Dunst was out in 50th place.
A few more players then departed in that same payout bracket, including:
49th place: Jacobo Fernandez
48th place: James Fennell
47th place: Evgeny Shnayder
46th place: Evan Lamprea
Yet again, another payout jump occurred, this one taking the players to $206,395 for a whole new level of excitement.
45th place: Sergey Rybachenko
44th place: David Assouline
43th place: Matthew Berkey
At that point, the 42 remaining players went on a 90-minute dinner break, and it was Cuong Nguyen who held a massive chip lead at that point. After doubling through Theo Jorgensen before the break, Nguyen sat with more than 19 million chips. More eliminations then took place at the same level as before dinner:
42nd place: Jerry Payne
41st place: Damien Luis
40th place: Jakob Toestesen
39th place: Jonathan Driscoll
38th place: Nicolas Babel
37th place: Dag Palovic
The next payout level then began as play moved along at a rather accelerated pace. Michal Wywrot started it off with his 36th place finish, which was worth $255,242. It didn’t take long after that for Gabe Costner to put his chips all-in, and he did it with . Scott Clements came along with 
. And the flop immediately hit Clements with 
. The turn and 
river cards ensured him the pot, and Costner took off in 35th place. Others who followed in with the same payout amounts included:
34th place: Edward Ochana
33rd place: Corey Emery
32nd place: Eduardo Parra
31st place: Michael Skender
Then one of the Scandinavian players, a favorite of many to run deep in this event, suffered some hardships before getting involved in a massive pot. Theo Jorgensen went to see a flop with John Racener, David Baker, and Duy Le. It came 
, and Jorgensen bet 1 million chips. Racener raised it up, Baker and Le folded out of the way, and Jorgensen reraised all-in for 2.22 million. Racener called with , and Jorgensen showed and looked to double up. But the came on the turn to give it to Racener, and the on the river ended Jorgensen’s run in 30th place.
After Gianni Direnzo exited in 29th place, one was left to go before the day could be done, and it was Bryn Kenney who got involved with Pascal LeFrancois on two consecutive hands that finished it. The first one saw a monstrous pot between the two go to LeFrancois, who thought he was calling an all-in from Kenney, but, in fact, he had just less than 1 million in chips behind. LeFrancois won that pot, and Kenney took his last 850K all-in on the next hand with , but LeFrancois just happened to have . The board of 
gave LeFrancois the set of aces, and Kenney was gone in 28th place.
Play then ended with 27 players remaining, and the top ten chip counts are as follows:
| Joseph Cheong | 24,490,000 |
| Cuong (Soi) Nguyen | 23,100,000 |
| Pascal LeFrancois | 15,780,000 |
| Jason Senti | 13,550,000 |
| Matthew Jarvis | 13,300,000 |
| Matt Affleck | 12,515,000 |
| Jonathan Duhamel | 10,520,000 |
| John Racener | 10,470,000 |
| Filippo Candio | 10,020,000 |
| Benjamin Statz | 9,885,000 |
And that brought us to Day 8 of the Main Event. Players were set to return on Saturday, July 17, to play down to the November Nine. What are they playing for?
Total Players: 7,319
Prize pool: $68,798,600
| 1st | $8,944,138 |
| 2nd | $5,545,855 |
| 3rd | $4,129,979 |
| 4th | $3,092,497 |
| 5th | $2,332,960 |
| 6th | $1,772,939 |
| 7th | $1,356,708 |
| 8th | $1,045,738 |
| 9th | $811,823 |
| 10th - 12th | $635,011 |
| 13th - 15th | $500,165 |
| 16th - 18th | $396,967 |
| 19th - 27th | $317,161 |