After nearly ten full hours of play during Day Seven -- which included five complete levels -- the poker deck has been shuffled and reshuffled again and is now down to just 22 remaining players.
The survivors have all come far -- both in terms of the cities and countries where they’ve traveled from, and what they've accomplished in what amounts to the biggest poker game of their lives. A massive tournament field that began nearly two weeks ago with 6,865 players from 85 different nations has now been reduced to just 22 aspiring champions with their eyes on the ultimate prize – poker’s world championship, a gold and diamond bracelet and $8,711,956 in prize money.
Here’s a look at the rest of the top ten:
1. The end of Day Seven chip leader is Anton Makievskyi (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) with 21,045,000. He had been relatively quiet until late in the day when he became the first player in the tournament to surpass the 20,000,000 mark. He is a 21-year-old poker pro making his first WSOP visit.
2. Very close behind is Eoghan O’Dea, a 26-year-old student and poker player from Dublin, Ireland. He currently has 19,050,000 in chips, which ranks second in chips in the WSOP Main Event. He is the son of Irish poker pioneer Donnacha O’Dea, who won a gold bracelet in 1998, and also made two Main Event final table appearances. Eoghan O’Dea enters Day Eight of the 2011 Main Event with 19,050,000 in chips, which places him near the chip leader
3. Khoa Nguyen (Calgary, Alberta – Canada) is in third place with 16,435,000 in his stack. Nguyen is a 29-year-old poker pro and businessman. He plays both live and online. He has a college degree in electrical engineering.
4. Andrey Pateychuk (Moscow, Russia) is in fourth place with 16,245,000. Pateychuk is a 21-year-old college student and part-time poker player. He was born in Vladivostok, Russia.
5. Ben Lamb (Tulsa, OK) is closing . He currently ranks in fifth place, with 14,690,000. Lamb is perhaps the hottest poker player in the world at this moment. He won a gold bracelet three weeks ago, and now has 1st, 2nd, 8th and 12th place finishes at ths year's WSOP. Now, he appears destined to make a very deep run in the Main Event, which would wrap up one of the best WSOP showings in recent memory. It's also no surprise that no matter where Lamb finishes in the Main Event, he is guaranteed to leave Las Vegas as the 2011 WSOP "Players of the Year" point leader.
6. Phil Collins (Las Vegas, NV) arrives at the start of Day Eight with 13,805,000 in chips. He is a 26-year-old pro poker player. Collins was previously a college student. He attended the University of South Carolina. He met his wife Katie while in school. She lived across the hall from him. They were married last year. He played a lot of online poker until the developments of April 2011. He has been at or near the top of the leaderboard during much of the last two days.
7. John Hewitt is a 23-year-old poker pro now residing in San Jose, Costa Rica. He is originally from Chicago. He was a full-time student before starting to play poker full time. He has 13,265,000 in chips and will be a force on Day Eight.
8. Ryan Lenaghan (New Orleans, LA). He catapulted into the chip lead during the previous day and was one of only two players with in excess of ten million in chips. He continues to wield a gigantic-sized stack that’s drawn the attention and envy of every poker player. No doubt, Lenaghan is enjoying the his greatest rush ever in a poker tournament. Almost everything hand he's played over the last two days has added more chips to his impressive stack, which sits at 10,415,000 entering Day 8.
9. Matt Giannetti is a 26-year-old poker pro from Las Vegas. He is self-taught. Prior to playing full time, Giannetti graduated from the University of Texas. He has 8,920,000 chips.
10. Konstantinos Mamaliadis (Durban, South Africa) s a 34-year-old shipping professional from South Africa. He hopes to become the second final table player in history from the continent of Africa, after Raymond Rahme made the first such appearance in 2007. Chip count: 8,195,000.
Other notable Day Seven developments included the elimination of a few notable players. Former WSOP "Player of the Year" and gold bracelet winner from 2008 Erick Lindgren (Las Vegas, NV) went out in 43rd place. Another former gold bracelet winner who hit the rail was David Bach (Athens, GA). He took second place in the last tournament before the Main Event started and added a 45th-place finish in the Main Event to what has been a very impressive year at the WSOP. Adding his name to the list of eliminated players was Tony Hachem, from Australia. Hachem, the brother of 2005 world champion Joe Hachem, exited in 37th place.
Some notable names that remain very much alive in the Main Event include – Bryan Devonshire (Henderson, NV), Sam Barnhart (Little Rock, AR) and others.
Erika Moutinho (Easton, CT) was the last female player still sitting in the Main Event. Her goal was to become only the second female in history to make it to the Main Event final table. Instead, she offered a handshake and smiles for anyone who was watching.
Based on payouts, every player remaining in the tournament is now guaranteed to receive at least $302,005 in prize money. Once players reach 18th place, the money guarantee increases to $378,796. A complete list of PAYOUTS can be seen at WSOP.com.
Day Eight includes a rendezvous with the November Nine for the first time. Players come back on Tuesday, at 12 noon, which promises to be a thrilling partial-conclusion to what has been a record-smashing WSOP.
SOURCE: www.WSOP.com
