WSOP Day 7 - Main Event Field Culled to 27

When Day 7 began and the 64 remaining players took their seats, the final table still seemed far away. When play concluded only 27 remained, and the Amazon room at the Rio, once filled beyond capacity with thousands of players, seemed empty, the final table so close the players could taste it. Today, Day 8, will determine that final table lineup, before the long wait until the November Nine can duke it out for the title of world champion.

Prahlad Friedman, a poker pro known online as well as on the tournament circuit, was the first to exit. He had barely made it to Day 7 and when he found KQ he was more than happy to ship his small stack. Unfortunately for him, Bradley Craig woke up with AK and no magic queen appeared for Prahlad. He took home $90,344 for his 64th place finish.

Joe Sebok, stepson of poker legend Barry Greenstein, was the next big name to hit the felt. He got it all-in preflop with A9, but was dominated by the AQ of Ben Lamb. Sebok placed 56th and received $108,047. Tom Schneider followed Sebok’s exit soon after. The 2007 WSOP Player of the Year raised all-in preflop with A7 and got called by Marc McLaughlin in the small blind. Marc had pocket nines and Schneider didn’t hit his ace. Tom came in 52nd and won $138,568.

Another notable Day 7 elimination was Dennis Phillips. Phillips made the final table last year (despite some pretty shoddy play), and made another deep run this year. His luck ran out on a pretty brutal beat. He and Francois Balmigere were all-in preflop, each with AKs. Phillips had diamonds while Balmigere had spades. Two spades flopped and another came on the river, sending home Mr. Phillips. He won $178,857 for his 45th place finish.

With 38 players remaining a pretty insane hand went down between Gabriel Vezina, Marin Lapostolle and Joe Ward. Vezina raised preflop and Ward called; then Lapostolle reraised all-in and both players called. When the hands were tabled, Vezina had JJ, Lapostolle had QQ and Ward had KK. The cowboys held up and Vezina and Lapostolle were sent packing.

Leo Margets, the lone woman remaining in the field when the day began, managed to survive Day 7, but has little hope of reaching the final table. She saw her stack dwindle to just over 1.5 million in chips, far below the average stack of 7+ mil. The Day 6 chipleaders had little trouble on Day 7, as Darvin Moon upped his total to over 20 mil. Billy Kopp is still in second, now with almost 16 mil, and Phil Ivey had a good day despite a stumble at the finish. He’ll go into today’s action with over 11 million in chips.

Two other notable poker pros remain in the competition, Antonio Esfandiari and Jeff Shulman. Antonio is low on chips at 4,470,000, but he’s drawn a good table, and could still make some noise before this thing is over. Jeff Shulman, publisher of Card Player magazine is doing well at 10,170,000, but he drew the table of death, with Phil Ivey and chipleader Darvin Moon sitting near him.

Here is the complete chip and table information for Day 8: