Posted by Andrew Feldman
11:59 p.m. ET: For the second night in a row, play was stopped after three levels. When play began today, tournament director Jack Effel said his staff wanted to get down to 175 players by the end of the night, and after a flurry of eliminations during the first two levels, the staff decided with 20 minutes to go in Level 20 that this would be the last level of the night.
What does this mean for the remaining 185 players? Some very long days are ahead. I know I've said it repeatedly in this blog, but this time, it's actually going to happen. The average chip stack is over $1 million and with the blinds at $8,000/$16,000 (ante $2,000), players will be in no rush as the prize money and pressure increases. After speaking to many of the remaining professionals in the field, they believe that the slow and steady approach is right, but with the aggressive nature of their opponents, trapping with big hands will be key.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider (left) is in fourth place heading into Day 6.
Nick Schulman made his exit during the last level of play today when his A-Q ran into his opponent's A-K in a $1.4 million preflop pot. Schulman, eliminated after seeing a board of 8-4-2-K-10, moved to an empty table in the Amazon Room, where friends attempted to console him. Schulman took the loss and needed some time to himself before finally leaving to collect his winnings. Also eliminated during the last level on the very last hand was Lou Diamond Phillips, in a monstrous pot that left Kasper Cordes, a friend of Peter Eastgate, among our chip leaders.
Perhaps the bigger story surrounds those who remain in the field, and the discussion will begin with the accomplishments of defending champion Peter Eastgate and 2008 third-place finisher Dennis Phillips. Both players have made it through two large main event fields, and although they don't have massive stacks, they have positioned themselves for another impressive finish this year. Eastgate, who enters Day 6 with $927,000, played solid poker today and avoided the mistakes he's made over the past few days (mostly the calling massive river bets of his opponents). Phillips was patient all day, but became aggressive during the last level to chip up to over $1 million. The other main event champion remaining, 2005 winner Joseph Hachem, has $540,000.
Phil Ivey had tremendous swings during Day 5, but ended on a high note. Ivey was down to less than $200,000 at one point, then began his upward surge to finally finish at $1.38 million. Ivey's closest competitor to start the day was Bertrand Grospellier, who lost half of his stack on one of the first hands of the day. Aces didn't hold for Grospellier the first time around, but the second time was for his tournament life and they came through. Grospellier ended the day in 82nd place with $973,000. Surging ahead to fourth place overall was Tom Schneider, who started his day when Kevin Saul moved $1 million into the pot preflop with A-K against Schneider's pocket aces. From that point on, Schneider continued to chip up and finished the day with $3.17 million.
Also making it through to Day 6: Blair Rodman, Jordan Morgan, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, Blair Hinkle, Joe Sebok, Prahlad Friedman and Noah Boeken. There are two women left standing: Nichoel Peppe (who I interviewed on the Poker Edge podcast 
after Day 3) and Leo Margets of Spain. Although the title of "Last Woman Standing" doesn't mean much to them, Peppe is ahead of Margets by $1.1 million. However, all these players trail one man: Warren Zackey of South Africa. Zackey, a product of the Raymond Rahme final table a few years ago, has $4.87 million and will start Day 6 with Eastgate at his table.
Here are the top five:
Warren Zackey (South Africa): $4.87 million
Kasper Cordes (Denmark): $4.35 million
Darvin Moon (Oakland, Md.): $3.2 million
Tom Schneider (Scottsdale, Ariz.): $3.17 million
Bernhard Perner (Austria): $3 million
Play is planned tomorrow until the field reaches 63 players.
Small blinds: The families are most definitely in town as the rails are getting populated by hand-made T-shirts promoting their favorite players. … All tables now are in the blue and green sections. … Antonio Esfandiari spent the entire day at the secondary feature table. … Hachem sat with Eastgate on Saturday and Grospellier on Sunday. … Poker Edge podcast guests include Tom Schneider, Blair Rodman, Matt Affleck and an interview by Gavin Smith with Joe Sebok. … Now I know why Adam Schoenfeld was here. He was cheering on Jeff Shulman, who finished the day with $1.2 million. … I still find it funny that Joe Sebok and Joe Serock have both made it this far. … Kara Scott, Sorel Mizzi and David Levi were all eliminated on Day 5.
Poker
