WPT World Championship: Two Bubble Boys On Day 4

The WPT Championship continued with Day 4 and 62 remaining survivors,
the blinds were 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante and an average chip
stack was around 545,000.

At the end of the night, only 24 players
defended their seats and will return for Day 5 when the field will come
down to the final 10 players.

Day 4 kicked off with short stacks coming on top of nearly every
encounter and to make the matter worse for their victims, it was mostly
river cards which decided the winner. One of such hands saw Jimmy Fricke
moving all-in with against Christian Harder's .

The board came
and Fricke won the pot with a rivered pair of kings to double up to
550,000 in chips, while Harder was left with 280,000. However, things
turned completely around some hands later.

This time Christian Harder held against Jimmy Fricke's . Action began with a 30,000 bet from Fricke, Harder making a raise, Fricke moving all-in and Harder calling all-in for 445,000.

The board came and Harder rose to 960,000 in chips while Fricke was severely crippled to 60,000, just 6 big blinds.

It was a blow Fricke tried but couldn't recover from. He soon hit the
rail after going all-in pre-flop for his last 60,000 with Q-8 against
Harder's pocket deuces. Another 2 came on the flop and Fricke was out
of the tournament.

Other notable encounters during the early stages of play include a short stacked Jimmy Tran with going up against Nenad Medic (pictured left) who held .

A rivered ace gave Tran the pot and  double up to 370,000 in chips,
while Medic still looked at a nice 1,120,000 stack in front of him.

In overall, there were at least six all-in situations where the short
stack came out victorious, which certainly prolonged the inevitable
bubble boy. Sam Farha, Kathy Liebert, Michael DeMichele and Mike
Matusow were not one of those to see the bubble burst, as they hit the
rail relatively early in the day.

Boris Becker moved all-in pre-flop with not long before the bubble and Steve Billirakis called with . The board came
and gave Becker an important double up to 380,000, while Billirakis
wasn't worried about his survival as he still had 1,500,000.

The play reached bubble boys, rather taking two down instead of just
one. What happened  is that Ron Levi and John Martin got eliminated
during the same hand but at different tables. The remaining 50 players
were now guaranteed at least $32,685.

As the play continued, David Benyamine (pictured right) and Freddy Deeb got themselves involved in a big pot. The board read
on the turn and there was 100,000 already in the pot, Benyamine bet
83,000, Deeb moved all-in and Benyamine makes the call after  a long
consideration.

Benyamine showed to win the pot with two pair, kings and fours, while Deeb fell short with
for a lower two pair, fives and fours. Benyamine did double up to
660,000 but he didn't last much longer, ending his run some time later
in 45th place.

With the play coming to an end, some interesting chops occurred at the
tables. First Eric Liu and Steve Billirakis split the pot in which Liu
moved all-in with and Billirakis made the call with . The board came and the pot was chopped with an ace-high straight on the board.

Boris Becker had an even more unlikely chop only a few minutes later
when he moved all-in with pocket kings against Sinan Yoyen's pocket
jacks. The board came A-Q-Q-A-Q to give a full house on the board and
chop the pot between the players.

The day finished with some notable names packing their bags, namely
Phil Ivey in 34th place and Chris Ferguson (pictured left) in 28th place. Ivey's
executioner was Scotty Nguyen who said later on that he felt some
weakness in Ivey's play and pounced on the opportunity.

The hand began with Nguyen betting 55,000, Ivey raising to 125,000,
Nguyen re-raising to 325,000 and Ivey moving all-in for 480,000. Nguyen
made the call with and Ivey turned over .

The board came
and Nguyen ended on top of this one. Phil Ivey was trying to become the
first player in WPT history to make the Championship final table three
times, but he will remain tied with Hasan Habib with only two final
table appearances.

Day 4 ended with 24 players remaining and an average stack reaching 1,404,166 in chips. Here are the top 10 chip stacks before Day 5:

WPT World Poker Championship Day 4 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Eugene Katchalov	4,294,000
2nd	Christian Harder	3,083,000
3rd	Yevgeniy Timoshenko	2,613,000
4th	Justin Young	2,553,000
5th	Brian Rast	1,931,000
6th	Scotty Nguyen	1,823,000
7th	Andrew Lichtenberger	1,663,000
8th	Freddy Deeb	1,575,000
9th	Ross Boatman	1,545,000
10th	Owen Crowe	1,500,000