On Tuesday night, action from Day 6 of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event aired on ESPN. The two-hour broadcast saw Matt “mcmatto” Affleck, who had the chip lead for an extensive period of time last year, take to the feature table alongside tennis pro turned poker player Nick Rainey. The day began with 24 tables from what was once a field of well over 7,000 players.
At Table 2, UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin doubled up after getting his chips into the middle with pocket queens against an opponent’s A-J. Baldwin hit a set on the turn and grew his stack to about half of the chip average. Then, Joseph “subiime” Cheong flopped aces-up with A-8 to knock out an opponent holding A-K to become the new Main Event chip leader.
Rob Pisano was all-in with pocket aces and a 4:1 favorite over former back-to-back Main Event champ Johnny Chan’s pocket kings. A pot of 4.4 million hung in the balance as the dealer spread out 4-10-5-7-4 in the middle of the table. Pisano claimed the chip lead after the hand and Chan was crippled. Elsewhere in the Amazon Room, John “$JMONEY$” Racener flopped a set with pocket queens in a three-way all-in to win a pot of 4.1 million.
David Benyamine, still alive in the Main Event, but receiving little love from ESPN, doubled up through Evan Lamprea, who began the day as the chip leader. Then, Robert Mizrachi, one of two Mizrachi brothers left in contention, flopped Broadway to double up through Pisano. Back at the feature table, more chips were on the move as Danny Chamberlain bet 550,000 on a board of 9-7-A-10 holding 8-2 of hearts for an open-ended straight draw. Brandon Steven called all-in with a set of sevens and the river was a five, awarding him the double up to 1.4 million.
The final hand of the first one-hour episode saw Chan move all-in with pocket jacks and run into Jonathan Driscoll’s pocket aces. No help came for the 10-time bracelet winner and he was eliminated after losing with two big pocket pairs to aces.
In the second episode of the night, which aired at 10:00pm ET, Theo Tran doubled through Pisano after spiking an ace on the river against Pisano’s wired pair of deuces. Then, “The Grinder” claimed the chip lead. Trending in the opposite direction was Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, who was all-in with pocket sixes against an opponent’s pocket jacks. Neither player improved and Galfond was ousted in 141st place.
Robert Mizrachi doubled to 884,000 with pocket sevens against A-Q, while former Bodog pro Jean-Robert Bellande sent David Peters packing after picking up aces. At the feature table, Gary Kostiuk doubled up with A-K against pocket queens, but then doubled up Christian “charder30” Harder after the latter called all-in with A-5 on a board of 3-A-6-5 for aces-up. Kostiuk showed A-Q for top pair and no lady came on the river, giving Harder the 1.6 million-chip pot.
Then, Pascal LeFrancois was all-in with pocket aces and up against Jesper Hougaard’s 8-6 on a flop of 6-Q-8. The turn was a queen, giving LeFrancois a higher two pair, and a jack on the river didn’t change the status quo. LeFrancois doubled up as a result to fuel his deep WSOP Main Event run. Kostiuk would later shove his chips into the middle with A-9 and run into A-10. However, he flopped a nine to take the lead in the hand and doubled once more.
Catch new episodes of the WSOP Main Event on ESPN every Tuesday at 9:00pm ET. The action replays throughout the week as well, so check your local listings for more information.