At the end of Day 9 of this years WSOP there had been one more new champion crowned and two multiple bracelet holders leading the charge in two of the other three events still currently in play.
After his breeze into the final of Event 6, $5000 NLHE Mixed-Max, 2010 November Niner and third place finisher Joseph "subiime" Cheong was looking to bring home his first WSOP gold bracelet. Unfortunately for the American pro he was defeated in a hard fought battle by French player Aubin Cazals who took both the glory and the $480k winners cheque.
It looked for all the world as if we were going to be in for another marathon as five hours into play both players had almost indentical chip stacks when Cheong in a moment of madness six bet all in for his entire chip stack holding just a pair of fours - after a moments deliberation Cazals called, flipped over pocket Kings and in an instant the bracelet had been decided as Cazals had Cheong covered by just 64,000 chips (effective 3 big blinds at this point!).
There were a ton of eliminations in Event 9, $1500 NLHE with Re-Entry as day 2's starting field of 514 was whittled down to just 33 players all in with a chance of scooping the bracelet and the handsome $780k first prize on offer. It was big name city towards the latter stages of the days proceedings and at close of play there are still a wealth of well known players in the running, with last years double bracelet winner Brian "tsarrast" Rast sitting pretty at the top of the pile with 1.5 million chips, his closest rival being Ryan Olisart on just over a million. Also hunting the big prize in the remaining field are Scott Seiver, Greg Mueller, Paul Wasicka, Ari Engel and former Main Event Champ Jonathan Duhamel - all will be trying to make the final table today.
Over in the $5k Seven Card Stud Event there is a familiar face atop the pile as three time Stud bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro leads the way with 267,500 chips, quite a commanding lead over the second placed (and another recent WSOP Stud Bracelet winner) Eugene Katchalov on 207k. In total 16 players from day 2's starting 91 will return tomorrow and all are now safely in the money after the bubble eventually burst last night. Big names also still in the hunt include Max Pescatori, Mike Sexton, John Monnette, Cyndy Violette, Nick Schulman, Bryn Kenney and Perry Friedman. This event will play to a finish later today.
The other event still running is Event 11 which played out it's day 1 today and saw a stcaked 970 strong field whittled down to the bubble (117 players) at the close of play. Once more Phil Ivey couldn't get out of the blocks and went out in the early stages, while Phil Hellmuth made it a few hours longer before also biting the dust in a pre-money position. The day was also a blow out for Daniel "KidPoker" Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Selbst, Eli Elezra and Annete Obrestad among others. The current event leader is Chuck Tonne on 192k chips and big names in the top ten include Vincent Van Der Fluit, Tristan Wade, Michael Binger and Noah Boeken - with the likes of Sorel Mizzi, Vitaly Lunkin, Lefi Force, JP Kelly, Isaac Barron and Shannon Storr still in with a shout as they play down to a final table today (hopefully).
Find more of the latest news and articles relating to the World Series of Poker in the 2012 WSOP-section.