Posted by Andrew Feldman
5:50 p.m. ET: Antonio Esfandiari was wearing Doyle's Room branding -- for which one of the agents reported that The Magician got "a good deal" -- but he couldn't pull off the biggest trick of them all and make it to the November Nine. Holding pocket fives, Esfandiari was eliminated by Steve Begleiter's K-10 after all the chips went in on a 10-high flop. Begleiter chipped up to more than $15 million that level, but he still trails chip leader Billy Kopp, who is at $21.2 million.
Phil Ivey's chips were also spread out among the feature table today. First, he lost with J-J to Nick Maimone's Q-5 … and I'll get to Maimone in a second. After that hand, Ivey was knocked down another $2.5 million with J-J against Marco Mattes' Q-Q. Ivey ended up at just less than $7 million for the level, and the hopes of poker fans everywhere that a big name pro will make the final table have been slightly diminished. At the start of the next level, Ivey doubled up George Caragiorgas when his A-10 couldn't win a race against 2-2. His stack currently sits at less than $4 million.
After the queens versus jacks hand, Mattes then gave the chips he won off of Ivey to Maimone, but as I said, I'll get to Maimone in a second. Mattes was crippled and moved in on the very first hand of Level 31 against Joe Ward and managed to double up. He's still the short stack, and with the blinds at $80,000/$160,000, he'll need to make a move here in this level.
Then there's Nick Maimone and perhaps the greatest level of his life. If there ever was a player who was destined to make it into November, at this point, I would say that it's Maimone. He has less than $10 million, but that doesn't even matter. OK, I'll explain why.
First, Maimone was all-in against Joe Cada with Q-8 versus Q-J. The board double-paired and the players chopped the pot. Then came the miracle turn 7 with Maimone holding 7-7 against his opponent's 10-10. Then came the winning race for Maimone with Q-Q versus Mattes' A-K. He started the day with $1.5 million. He headed into the first break with $9.4 million.
What a level.
Also of note, Maimone told ESPN.com that he doesn't care about the bracelet. It's all about the money for him, but since he sold pieces of himself, he won't be getting all of whatever he takes home in main event prize money.
And we're down to 22. Mattes has just been eliminated when his 5-5 couldn't beat out Cada's 8-8.
Just kidding : Make that 21. Warren Zackey out, too. Here's a look at our chip leaders:
Billy Kopp ($26.8 million)
Darvin Moon ($16.8 million)
Steven Begleiter ($13.4 million)
Kevin Schaffel ($13.1 million)
James Akenhead ($12.0 million)
Small blinds: Jeff "Happy" Shulman said he won't do any interviews as the tournament is in progress. … Thanks to all of those who have spent the past six weeks chatting with me. … Three more players need to be eliminated until the next pay jump. … For those that were wondering what the Jeff Shulman rumors are, there's a Web site that has just reported the rumors. … It seems that Maimone and Andrew Lichtenberger have a little bit of history. Maimone spoke about "LuckyChewy" as if they've played before in a recent interview.
Poker
