Event #5, the $100 Rebuy with a guaranteed prize pool of $300k began at 4:30pm EDT.  That event is being hosted by Roland De Wolfe.  It drew 1,678 players for a pool of $476,200.  The final 153 players  will all earn at least $571.44 with the last man standing going home with $102,383.

Many of FTP's "red" pros came out for the action on this Saturday afternoon.  Some of those seen at the tables included: Roland De Wolfe, Andy Bloch, Rob Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, Stuart Paterson, Steve Brecher, Allen Cunningham, Max Pescatori, Eddy Scharf, Toto Leonidas, Steve Zolotow, Berry Johnston, Ram Vaswani, Karina and Chip Jett, Lee Watkinson and Greg "FBT" Mueller.

While every player is keeping an eye on the tournament clock (which shows how many players are left), Bill Baxter thought he saw a chance to make some money. He gave a guy 2-1 odds that the field wouldn’t get pared down to 350 before the fifth level ended, going contrary to popular opinion. “The longer you play the fewer shorter stacks there’s going to be,” he said. “I can’t imagine there are 73 short stacks left in this room.” At that point the field was down to 423. It seemed to hold steady at that total for nearly five minutes, far longer than the usual pace, which had been roughly one bust-out every minute. It’s now down to 405.

At this point in the tournament the measure of a player’s success is how many orange 5k chips they have sitting in front of them. My dark horse Lasse Aspen Melby only has two, but he still has several stacks of yellow chips, so I’m not giving up on him yet. Ethan Steinberg, a friend I used to play with in a home game in Jackson Hole, started the day with 12k, which he has since pumped up to nearly 100k. These are a couple of the lesser known stories that interest me just as much as those of the well known pros. The World Series of Poker is about chasing a dream, and for many of the players whose goal is to simply cash they have gotten oh-so close.

Ask any of the top pros which bracelet they most want to win. The $10,000 PLO tournament will make everyone’s top three, and for some, the Europeans predominantly, it’s the one they desire the most. There’s a good reason these guys flew 5,000 miles to get here, and it’s not the $10,000 crapshoot that’s about to start up in three days. For them this is their Super Bowl.

If Rene Mouritsen goes on to win this thing, he will be able to point to one key hand that opened the door for him. With five players left, Robert Mizrachi raised to 200k with AA85. This is a great Omaha hand: aces with the nut heart flush draw. There aren’t that many hands that are better, but Mouritsen had one of them: AAKQ. At first glance Mouritsen’s hand seems nearly the same, aces with the nut diamond draw, but his king and queen gave his hand far more value than Mizrachi’s 8 and 5. As if to show us all just how important it is to have big cards in your hand in addition to aces, the poker gods served up a perfect flop for Mouritsen: J109. Mouritsen had flopped the nut flush although Mizrachi had nine outs to make his flush draw. When the board blanked off, Mouritsen was suddenly the chip leader with 2.69 million. In triumph, Mouritsen emitted a primal scream that is sure to make the highlight reels.

I didn’t think I would see a more exciting confrontation today, and then the following hand developed. With three players left Patrick Antonius raised from the button to 280k. Mizrachi called from the big blind and the flop came KJ10. Both players checked. The J fell on the turn, which paired the board. Mizrachi checked, and Antonius took his time deciding what to do. He is an incredibly deliberate player. He seems unwilling to make a move until he is sure that it’s the right one. And then he stares straight ahead blankly, giving absolutely nothing away about the strength, or weakness, of his hand. Mizrachi called. The river was the 9. Again, Mizrachi checked and Antonius resumed thinking. Finally, he pushed in the last of his chips, 660k. Mizrachi called with a pretty good hand. His pair of tens gave him a full house. Unfortunately for him, Antonius had flopped a royal straight flush with AQXX! You don’t see many of those, especially at a final table, and the crowd showed its appreciation, screaming wildly. If Antonius goes on to win this thing, he might credit this hand. At last glance he was third in chips, but with the blinds at 60k/120k a single hand can wipe out any of these players at any time. Stay tuned…

2. Steve Sung has quietly proven himself to be one of the better all-around players in the game.
The first time I met Steve he was playing a late night Chinese Poker game with Nam Le, JC Tran, and Danny Wong in Reno.  Steve has several final table appearances in the last six months, including two $100k+ cashes in December.  He placed 12th and 23rd in the main events at Foxwoods and Mandalay Bay, with an elite eight appearance in the Mirage Heads-up event in between. Steve's game seems to closely resemble Nam's, but he might actually be the best all-around player of the four (at least currently). 

Steve has already made a final table in the $1,500 7-Card Stud event this summer, placing third.  Today, he will be one of the players standing in Doyle's way at the $10,000 PLO final table.  He's entering play as the short-stack, but you can never count out this quiet and unassuming pro because of his strength: patience.

3. Robert may be the best player of the Mizrachi brothers
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi has definitely earned the respect of his peers with back-to-back WPT victories last season.  Youngest brother Eric has yet to break through.  But Robert (like Sung), has quietly had a great career as a professional poker player.  To the casual observer, Robert may still be in Mike's shadow, but no one on the tour thinks so.  Robert has a number of big scores (including two cashes in the $500k range) in no-limit holdem,  but his mixed-game ability has turned the heads of more than a few people.

He already has four cashes this summer including Omaha 8OB and Omaha 8OB/Stud 8OB.  He made both the $2,500 and $5,000 HORSE final tables.  He's now at his third final table of the series.  He has just over 1m chips and will begin play in 2nd place in the $10,000 PLO World Championship. 

4. Michael Craig has played his way to another final table
Michael has not played in many events, but now has three cashes and two final tables under his belt.  He is an incredible student of the game, and it looks like his work on the Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide has paid off.  After finishing seventh in the $1,500 Mixed Holdem event, I'm sure Michael will be fighting it out until the very end in the $1,000 SHOE.