On Tuesday night, the field of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event was chopped from 48 players to just 27. As the action quickly approached the November Nine, the eliminations were fast and furious. You can catch ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 WSOP Main Event every Tuesday at 9:00pm ET.
Danish pro Theo Jorgensen continued his strong run in the Main Event by knocking out a player early on with 9-7 against pocket eights. Jorgensen actually flopped two pair in the hand and never looked back. Meanwhile, Joseph “subiime” Cheong relegated former chip leader Evan Lamprea to the rail with pocket tens against A-J. Cheong led the field after Lamprea’s elimination.
At the feature table, Michael Mizrachi continued to carry the flag for the Mizrachi clan after all four brothers made the money, as he doubled up through William Thorson to move to 45 big blinds. Also doubling was PokerStars pro Jonathan Duhamel, who moved all-in over the top of a bet by Matt Berkey on a board of 6-3-6-8-2. Berkey called and tabled 10-6 for trips, but Duhamel showed pocket eights for a turned full house. Duhamel moved to 7.8 million in chips while donning his signature hoodie.
Also trending in the right direction was Jason Senti. The Bluefire Poker instructor was all-in and behind with A-J of spades against A-K on a flop of A-J-6. The turn and river blanked out for his opponent and Senti doubled to 6.2 million, or 75 big blinds. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements also doubled up to keep his WSOP Main Event bracelet hopes alive after cracking Ben Statz’s pocket kings with A-K.
The hand of the night featured Soi Nguyen all-in with K-J against Jorgensen’s A-3 of clubs on a flop of K-5-9 with two clubs; a mammoth pot of 19.5 million was up for grabs. The 10 of diamonds hit on the turn and the river was an offsuit three to double up Nguyen, who became the new chip leader. Amazingly, Jorgensen dropped 80% of his stack on a draw and Nguyen immediately busted out his cell phone to begin spreading the word. Then, John Dolan doubled up and Hasan Habib tripled his stack to close out the first of two one-hour episodes.
To kick off the second hour of coverage, which began at 10:00pm ET, Brandon Steven flopped the nut flush to knock out Jonathan Driscoll in 39th place and Jacob Toestesen in 40th place. Driscoll was angered that Steven had begun celebrating on the flop and muttered, “You should gloat more after you win.” Meanwhile, Senti continued to climb the leaderboard, leaping into fourth place after knocking out Edward Ochana.
Mizrachi eliminated Corey Emery after turning the nut straight against Emery’s set and he moved to over seven million. Then, Senti was at it again. This time, he took out German pro basketball player Michael Skender after hitting a full house on the river. Consequently, Skender’s run in the 2010 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas ended in 31st place.
PokerStars pro Johnny Lodden was on the brink of elimination twice against Duhamel, but managed to forge chopped pots each time. In the first hand, Lodden held A-5 of diamonds against Duhamel’s A-9 of spades, but the river put two pair on the board, chopping the pot. Nearly the exact same scenario occurred later on in the broadcast, as Lodden’s A-J chopped with Duhamel’s A-K.
Then, Jorgensen’s Main Event run came to an abrupt end. The one-time chip leader was all-in with A-K on a board of A-6-4, all clubs. John Racener made the call with A-Q, including the queen of clubs, and hit a queen on the turn to take the lead in the hand. Jorgensen was sent away in 30th place and Racener picked up a pot worth 5.6 million.
Finally, Pascal LeFrancois busted Bryn Kenney in 27th place with pocket aces against pocket deuces to set up the final 27 and the field erupted in applause as Day 7 came to a close. Catch Day 8 next Tuesday at 9:00pm ET on ESPN.
