After a big preflop raising war Soon Hwang's full stack worth 925,000 ended up in the pot on one of the first hands after the break. Hwang was up against Dan Sindelar and the showdown went as following.
Sindelar:
Hwang:
The board ran out and Sindelar raked in a very big pot. Hwang looked very disappointed as he was taken to the payout desk, as he finished in 144th place.
Huy Nguyen opened from the hijack seat with a raise to 55,000, and then action folded over to Timothy Reilly in the big blind. He moved all in for 330,000, and Nguyen called.
Reilly was at risk with the and dominated by the for Nguyen. Despite that, though, Reilly came from behind after the board ran out and doubled up.
On dinner break we caught up with Kane 'NASCAR_1949' Kalas who's going deep in his fifth World Series of Poker Main Event. Kalas enjoys the spotlights and with an above average stack he's in the hunt for a spot at the final table.
With 146 players remaining at the dinner break in the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event, we decided to take a look at how the current field and pace of play stacks up against that of recent years. The table below depicts how the field and average stack looked for each year following the completion of the 10,000/20,000/3,000 level of play, with the average big blinds being based on the start of the next level where the big blind will be 24,000.
Year
Entrants Remaining
Field Size
Percentage of Field Remaining
Average Stack
Average Big Blinds
2014
146
6,683
2.18%
1,373,219
57.22
2013
137
6,352
2.16%
1,390,949
57.96
2012
139
6,598
2.11%
1,424,029
59.33
2011
142
6,865
2.07%
1,450,352
60.43
Since 2011, the percentage of the field remaining has risen each year, the average stack has gotten smaller, and the amount of big blinds per stack heading into the next level will be less.
What this information tells us is that the pace of play has slowed from year to year over the recent four years of the Main Event. With a smaller average stack, a smaller amount of big blinds per stack going into the 12,000/24,000/4,000 level, and a greater percentage of the field remaining, 2014 looks to be the field playing the "slowest" — with our definition of "slowest" being the field that loses players at the slowest rate.
As poker, and specifically no-limit hold'em tournaments, become filled with more and more players with an increased level of skill and awareness, it's proving to be a lot more difficult to bust people. The evolution of small-ball strategy and more post-flop play lends itself to a more cautious standard in events these days, and when you couple that with such a player-friendly structure like the WSOP Main Event, fields are learning there is much more maneuverability available and less of a need to put all of one's chips on the line and risk busting.
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The 90-minute dinner break has commenced, Bruno Politano has continued to gobble up chips during Level 22.
Politano grabbed the chip lead with a monster set-over-set pot last level, and he’s stretched it in the two hours since. With 5.271 million in chips, he holds a wide lead over second place.
Benger picked up a big pot late in the level when he picked up against the of Bob Miller, busting Miller when he failed to find another jack.
Benger will have the opportunity to significantly chip up (or down) before the night is over, as he just got moved to one of the secondary feature tables with fellow hefty stacks Dan Smith and Tony Ruberto. Benger’s position is ideal, as he drew Seat 4, to the immediate left of Ruberto (Seat 3) and Smith (Seat 2).
The leader coming into the day, Matthew Haugen, has been unable to gain any traction, finding himself under the 2 million mark after he came into the day toting 2.8 million.
A noble cause received a nice donation, as David Einhorn was eliminated in 173 when his failed to improve against an opponent’s . Einhorn collected nearly $45,000, which will go to a charity called Robin Hood.
Blake Cahail (172nd), Rep Porter (174th), John Kabbaj (179th), Roland Israelashvili (180th), Jeff Madsen (188th) were among the other notable names exiting this level.
While you wait for the return of play, enjoy this timeless video from the 2012 WSOP Main Event where Mickey Doft races to count "the stack."
![[user20283]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and Sindelar raked in a very big pot. Hwang looked very disappointed as he was taken to the payout desk, as he finished in 144th place.
and Charette doubled through to 520,000 as Baron slipped to 2.2 million in chips.
and dominated by the 
and Ezzie hit the rail as Zervos climbed to 1,150,000 in chips.
of Bob Miller, busting Miller when he failed to find another jack.
