Jerry Yang just added #6 to his list of bustouts today when he made a very tough call. 

Jerry opened from the button to 2.6m and Raymond Rahne reraised to 8.6m and Jerry called.  Raymond checked the AJ8 flop to Jerry who bet 10m.  Raymond then came over the top all-in for an additional 17.35m.

Jerry took his usual time to think through the hand, pacing around the stage.  Then Raymond made his second mistake when he started talking.  That seemed to be the final nudge over the edge for Jerry as he made the call with A5 (the first mistake was check-raising all in once Jerry basically pot-committed himself).  Raymond was drawing to two outs or runner-runner with KK.  The turn 3 and river 2 sent him to the rail in 3rd place.

He earned $3,048,025.  2nd place will pay $4,840,981 while 1st is $8,250,000.

Tuan Lam and Jerry Yang are now on a 20 minute break before heads-up play begins.  Lam has 25m and Jerry sits atop a 100m stack.

Tuan Lam was just all in preflop with A5 versus Raymond Rahme's QQ.  Silly Rahme!  Lam doubled up when he spiked an A on the flop.  And another one on the river, just to rub it in.  He also picked up an extra 2.5m from Yang plus the 500k from Drago...er, Alex' big blind.  He now has 26m and Rahme drops to 17.1m.  Brutal.

Rahme was heard muttering after the hand, "If it wasn't for luck, I'd win 'em all..."¹

Rahme has been all in on 2 of the last 3 hands since the suckout.  Can we say tilt, anyone?

Before I could finish this post, Rahme moved all in for a 3rd time in 4 hands.

This is now tilt of the worst kind--full blown monkey tilt!  Although he did win all three times. Sometimes FBMT isn't a bad thing.  Until you get called.  With A5.  And lose to a 3-outer.  Twice.

The LA Mike predicted that there would be some craziness ensuing once players returned with full bellies.  I hate to admit it, but Michael from Los Angeles was accurate with his prophecies.

Shortly after play resumed, there was some all-in mania between Tuan Lam (the quietest player at the table today) and--that's right, ladies and gents--Jerry Yang.  Yang check-raised a 1.5m bet from Lam on a J104 board.  The pot was unraised preflop, but that didn't stop Lam from shipping his 10m into the middle.  It was another 6m to Yang and he went into the tank before folding.

Just kidding. Of course he called! He was ahead with A10 but the KQ of Lam had plenty of outs with 13.  A Q fell on the river and Lam doubled up to where he started today at 20m.  Yang was "down" to 57.5m.

At 9:13 PM Jack Effel announced that play had reached 100 hands.

Jerry Yang raised under the gun and Alex Kravchenko leaned forward, placed both hands behind his chips and slid them forward.  As was his custom, Alex slowly stood up when he was all in.  While Jerry was sweating his decision, the monitors showed an HD closeup of Alex’ face, his sunglasses offering a clear reflection of the table.  The briefest of smiles crosses his lips but they quickly purse when Jerry announces, “I call.”

Alex Kravchenko 33
Jerry Yang KQ

The crowd stood to their feet and just as someone mutters, “Wow, he’s gottalotta outs,” the dealer ends all drama when he turns over 832.  It’s tough to say “drawing dead” in poker—especially for Jerry Yang—but the turn and river cards were truly meaningless as there were no runner-runner possibilities.

Kavchenko’s impressive run continues.  He’s still on the short stack, but I have a feeling the disciplined Russian won’t be going anywhere anytime soon with his 18m stack.

Alex Kravchenko doubled up when he moved in on the short stack with KJ through the pocket 33 of “Rain” Khan.  The doubleup gave the stoic Russian nearly 6m and left Khan with 7m.

Alex Kravchenko has a string of cashes dating back to 1999 on the Hendon Mob database. In this morning’s press conference, he described himself as a businessman who plays poker recreationally.  The 36-year old Russian came across poker in a casino almost ten years ago and his business instinct kicked in.  “I saw that the good players made money from bad players.  So I started playing.”

Alex was in the running for the WSOP player of the year after an impressive summer.  He cashed in five events, with two final tables.  However, it was the first cash that counted the most.  Alex pulled down $228,446 and the gold bracelet in the $1,500 Omaha 8OB tournament.

It's tough to make this writer speechless, but I'm close.

Yesterday we interviewed Lee Watkinson on the radio show he talked about making a mistake by moving all in with AK versus an opponent he knew would call.  History repeated itself as Jerry Yang raised to 1m and Lee moved all in for 9m.  Jerry called with A9 and Lee showed A7.  Lee's hand didn't improve and he was sent to the rail in a very disappointing 8th place. Jerry paid no attention to Lee's table image; Lee gave no mind to the reckless abandon Jerry has displayed.

A few hands later, Lee Childs raised from the small blind to 720k and Jerry Yang shoved from the big blind.  Childs tanked--then decided to call his remaing 5m with KJ.  Results aside, I have to ask,"What are you hoping for?"  A race?  It's tough to have someone dominated with Childs' hand, but he was actually in a great spot to double up when Jerry turned over J8.  But, Yang crushed another player's dreams when and 8 hit and Childs was sent to the rail.

Yang's push not a bad play--he has so many chips that losing 5m wouldn't hurt very much.  More importantly, Childs had showed a reluctance to gamble that Yang hoped to take advantage of. 

Yang now has over 60m chips. 

In a conversation with ESPN columnist Andrew Feldman today, he correctly predicted that Philip Hilm would be mixing it up a little too much and would be busted early.  After remembering how often I saw Hilm defend his blinds and play big pots out of position, I thought Andrew's reasoning was sound.  But I never thought he would be gone in such an abrupt fashion.

Jerry Yang raised to 1m and Hilm called in the small blind.  Hilm check-called a 2m bet on a KJ5 flop.  Hilm again checked the 2 flop, Yang bet 4m. 

Now here's where things get wacky.  Hilm decides to move all in--into the only player who has him covered.  On one level, I'll give Hilm the benefit of the doubt.  While Yang has had no problem moving all of his chips into the middle, he has shown reluctance to call all-ins.¹

Perhaps this was what Hilm was thinking about; more likely it was the pair and flush draw he had that made him shove in.  He had a number of outs as he turned over 85 but the 6 fell on the river sending him--and the opportunity to win $8,000,000--home.

Seat 1:  Jon Kalmar
Hometown:  Chorly, Lancashire (UK)
Chip Count:  20,320,000
Jon Kalmar is a 34-year-old professional poker player, who plays mostly in clubs located in the north and the Midlands region of England.  He is married with one child.  Among his prior accomplishments, Kalmar was once the lead singer in a punk rock band.  Before entering this year’s world championship, Kalmar admitted to enduring a “terrible” run of bad fortune at this year’s World Series of Poker.  He failed to cash a single time in the preliminary tournaments. 

But everything changed the night before the main event began.  Dejected, Kalmar tried to switch his airline ticket and return home early.  But he was told the cost to change his departure from Las Vegas back to England would be about $600.  So instead, Kalmar decided to enter the last mega-satellite at the Rio just before the start of the main event.  He ended up winning a $10,000 seat.  And now, here he is at the final table ten days later – third among the chip leaders. 

Seat 2:  Lee Childs
Hometown:  Reston, VA
Chip Count:  13,240,000
Lee Childs is a 35-year-old aspiring poker professional from suburban Washington, DC.  He is married with no children.  Childs holds a BBA in computer information systems from James Madison University, in Virginia.  Just two months ago, he voluntarily took some time off from a high-tech position with a firm affiliated with the National Geographic Society.  He worked on “The JASON Project,” which is an educational foundation for students dedicated to scientific expeditions and research founded by the person who first located the Titantic.  Childs has been on his own for a few months – and is pursuing one of his dreams which is to play in the World Series of Poker.  He says that he would not be here without the love of his incredible wife, dad, and all the support of his family and friends.  His is currently fifth in the chip count.   

Seat 3:  Philip Hilm
Hometown:  Cambridge, England
Chip Count:  22,070,000
Philip Hilm is the chip leader coming into the final table of the 2007 World Series of Poker.  He is a 31-year-old online poker pro.  Hilm is a native of Denmark, but currently lives in England.  Family is very important to Hilm.  He spent two years living in Poland to get to know his mother’s side of the family before moving on to England.  Ten years ago, Hilm earned a degree in economics from the Copenhagen Business School.  He formed a company with 12 employees, but eventually went bankrupt. 

Just four years ago, Hilm was at his lowest point – selling coffee machines at grocery stores to make Christmas money so he could buy presents for his family.  Then, Hilm discovered poker on the Internet.  Before long, he was earning enough money to make a decent living.  And now, he is the largest stack at the final table of the main event.