1 busts until World Series of Poker ends summer card marathon and determines Nov. final table

1 bust to World Series of Poker final table

LAS VEGAS — After 11 1/2 hours of play, just one elimination stood between a group of card players and the World Series of Poker main event final table early Sunday, as each card and wager twisted the fortunes of the top finishers in the marathon tournament.

Ten players remained in the hunt to win millions at the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament after five players were eliminated within two hours after the dinner break Saturday.

But the players remaining refused to surrender late into the night, more than 16 hours after the session started Saturday afternoon.

With a spot at the final table worth far more than the nearly $177,000 difference in prize money between 10th and ninth place, some players simply refused to play their cards.

Others, like 24-year-old John Dolan of Bonita Springs, Fla., took advantage to pick up chips without a fight. Dolan began 10-handed play with 24.55 million chips, and less than two hours later had the second-biggest stack at the table with 45.5 million chips.

Chips have no actual monetary value. Each player gambled $10,000 to enter the tournament — which started with 7,319 players — and must lose all his chips to be eliminated. The nine players who make the final table will play in November for a chance at $8.94 million.

The slow, quiet session morphed from the chaotic tussles seen earlier in the day, when short-stacked players gambled with any ace and others called loosely in hopes of bumping up their personal payday.

Matt Affleck, 23, of Mill Creek, Wash., was fifth in chips before he busted in 15th place, winning $500,165.

Johnathan Duhamel, who had the second biggest stack in the tournament at the time, called an all-in bet from Affleck with pocket jacks and the board showing a 10, nine, seven and queen. Affleck turned up pocket aces, but an eight on the river gave Duhamel a queen-high straight and a commanding 51 million chip lead.

“Don’t have any words to explain what just happened,” Affleck wrote on Twitter after being eliminated. Affleck said he lost despite being an 80 percent favorite to be the chip leader at the final table of the main event.

Duhamel had 51.1 million chips by the time players took their first break after sitting down at the same table.

Hasan Habib, a 48-year-old gold bracelet winner who placed fourth at the main event in 2000, was eliminated in 14th when his ace-nine lost to an ace-king. Habib took a slight lead in the hand with a nine on the flop, but a 10 paired the board and a river ace gave each player two pair, with John Racener holding the higher kicker.

Habib also won a half-million dollars for his finish.

Duy Le was eliminated with an ace high; Adam Levy’s tournament ended with a pair of kings.

Pascal LeFrancois, a 23-year-old Canadian student, was bounced in 11th when his queen-jack couldn’t beat pocket kings. He quickly rushed out of the tournament room, slamming the door on his way out.

Benjamin Statz, a 32-year-old trader from New York, was trounced in 16th place after gambling about 4 million chips with an ace-five and getting called by Matthew Jarvis with a king-queen.

The flop came king, king, queen, giving the 25-year-old Jarvis a full house. A king came on the river to give him four of a kind. Statz won $396,967.

Filippo Candio, a 26-year-old Italian poker player, knocked out two players and later raked in a huge pot on a bad beat against then-leader Joseph Cheong to take an early lead in the session with 27 million chips.

But it lasted less than one level. Jarvis and Duhamel were neck and neck with the top two chip spots by Saturday’s dinner break.

Candio built most of his stack calling Cheong’s all-in bet with about a 13 percent chance to win. His two pair, fives and sixes, were behind Cheong’s aces and sixes.

But running cards — an eight and a four — saved Candio’s tournament with a straight and sent the Cagliari, Italy-native into a frenzy as he scurried around tableside press and kneeled and pointed upward in celebration.

Cheong, a 24-year-old poker player with two degrees from the University of California, San Diego, shook his head and shrugged at the result, which dropped him from the chip lead to the middle of the hunt.

“You’ll be back next year,” Habib told 27-year-old Ronnie Bardah of Brockton, Mass., after Bardah lost the last of his chips to another opponent.

“I hope so,” said Bardah, who won $317,161 for 24th place.

Bardah, Johnny Lodden, Matthew Bucaric, Mads Wissing, William Thorson, Robert Pisano, Redmond Lee, Patrick Eskandar and Michiel Sijpkens each won $317,161 after being eliminated early in the session.

Michael Mizrachi, the biggest name left in the tournament who won a $50,000 buy-in mixed game tournament at the series earlier this summer, chipped up early to 7.2 million chips but was down to 3.21 million chips by the dinner break. But he battled back, and after 11 1/2 hours at the tables had the sixth largest stack with 16.8 million chips.