Day Four at the World Poker Finals

Fifty-one players entered the Sunset Ballroom at Foxwoods Resort and Casino for day four of the 2007 World Poker Tour World Poker Finals, and all but one would make the money. Play had ended right on the money bubble the night before, and thus, action started hand-for-hand at noon. It took less than 15 minutes for the unfortunate individual to bust out in 51st place: Mike Meskin moved all in with pocket jacks, but he ran straight into the pocket queens of Kyle Orvis. No help came on the board, and Meskin was the last player to walk away empty-handed.

The elimination of Meskin at the beginning of the day meant two things. One was that everyone remaining in the field would walk away with at least $13,510 for their troubles. The second was less obvious, but much more impressive. Two brothers (Zvi Shiff and Daniel Shiff) remained in play at that point, meaning that both brothers cashed. Table 1 quickly emerged as … well … the No. 1 table of the day on day four. Here was the lineup when things got started:

Seat 1: Michael Binger
Seat 3: Ray "exit only" Coburn
Seat 4: Freddy Deeb
Seat 5: Tom "Durrrr" Dwan
Seat 6: T.J. Cloutier
Seat 7: Jimmy Tran
Seat 8: Ken Weiner
Seat 9: "Miami" John Cernuto

Michael Binger (47th place) and Ray "exit only" Coburn (37th place) would exit this table in the early parts of the day, but Nenad Medic was added for a large chunk of time to keep things interesting. Note: Medic was later moved to a table with Nick Schulman, which placed the 2005 and 2006 WPF defending champions right in each other's path to a second title.

Stacked tables aside, there was a lot of poker to be played, and a lot of players that busted during day-four action. Internet Phenom Hevad "Rain" Khan was the first of the notables to exit when he was eliminated in 50th Place ($13,510). The 2006 WPT Festa al Lago champion, Andreas Walnum, followed Khan to the rail in 46th place ($13,510). An hour of slow action transpired between these eliminations, which created a reverse money-bubble effect. One table where the chips did continue to move around with reckless abandon was table 1. Freddy Deeb was riding high when he took the chip lead away from Matt "mattg1983" Graham early in the day. Deeb held 1,130,000 to Graham's 1,034,000, but he was about to be tested:

Tilt Test No. 1: Jimmy Tran raised 25,000 preflop from middle position and Ken Weiner called from late position. "Miami" John Cernuto also called on the button and Deeb said, "I got a discount, I call." He then tossed his chips in from the big blind and the flop rolled out Q 8 5. Deeb and Tran both checked and then Weiner bet 75,000. Cernuto mucked and Deeb then moved all in, which was more than enough to cover both Tran and Weiner. Tran mucked and Weiner made the all-in call. They then turned up their hands:

Deeb: 5 5
Weiner: K Q

Deeb had the lead with a set of fives, which was ahead of the top pair that Weiner held. That was until the turn and river hit the table ...

Turn and River: 8 8

Weiner hit a runner-runner full house to survive, and he said, "There is a God." Tom "Durrrr" Dwan replied, "That's not what Freddy's going to say." Deeb followed that up with, "That was a sick beat ... sick beat." The amount of Weiner's all-in call was counted out, and it came out to 179,000. "Can I owe you 179?" Deeb asked as he counted out the chips from his stack.

Tilt Test No. 2: Cernuto moved all in from middle position preflop for 203,500 and Deeb made the call on the button. Deeb was in line for a cooler when he flipped up pocket queens only to discover that Cernuto held pocket aces. The board added insult to injury and made a wheel for Cernuto. Deeb was knocked down to 810,000 after the hand. Deeb was battered, but not beaten in the face of two unfortunate situations. He knows the value of controlling his emotions at the poker table. Deeb kept his emotions in check and eventually climbed back over the one-million mark.

Deeb had gone through a dog fight to reclaim his millionaire status, while Mike Vela (1,800,000), Matthew Ehrlich (1,700,000), and Mike White (1,446,000) took advantage of their softer surroundings to claim a stake at the top. One player who was surprisingly absent from this list was Graham. He started day four as the chip leader (1,161,000), but by this point of the day, he wasn't even in the top 10. A number of notable players busted during this stretch, as well: Frankie Flowers in 42nd place ($13,510), Tony Cousineau in 38th place ($13,510), and Matt "hazards21" Giannetti in 36th place ($18,914). Zvi Shiff also fell, in 39th Place ($13,510), during this period, which ensured that the bragging rights in the family belonged to his brother Daniel.

Five hours into the day Kevin Song busted in 28th place ($18,914), and play was paused for a table re-draw. Players took their seats at the final three tables and action was slated to continue until end of level five, or until 18 remained, whichever came first. The ball started rolling towards this inevitable conclusion when Steve Brecher was eliminated in 27th place ($24,318) and he was followed by Cernuto, who busted in 26th Place ($24,318). There was a violent restructuring of the chip stacks during the final stages of day four, and no one's stacked was shuffled more violently than Tom Dwan's.

At one point of the day, he held just 335,000, but he began his climb by doubling up through Matthew Ehrlich with pocket jacks. This catapulted Dwan's stack to 1,516,000, and he continued his march to the top by finishing off Ehrlich for good. Dwan stole more than 450,000 from Ehrlich when he picked off a river bluff, and this took Dwan up to 1,780,000. Dwan followed that up by calling Ehrlich down with A-J in the hole on a J-7-3 board. Ehrlich showed down K-J, and the turn and river brought two fives to eliminate him in 23rd Place ($29,722). Dwan now had 2.4 million, and he towered over the competition, he was almost a million ahead of the player in second place at the time, Mike White. Dwan's day was far from over, though. He was doubled up through by both John Myung and Robert Legendre during the final half hour of play, and this wild ride left him with just 1,160,000 at the end of the night. Take a look at the erratic movement of his chip stack by clicking here.

The end of the day was also a bitter experience for the day-three chip leader, Matt Graham. His early freefall continued and he ultimately met his demise near the end of play: Graham raised to 53,000 and Anthony Casagrande reraised to 200,000. Graham said "I can't fold, I'm all in." Casagrande called all in instantly (293,000 more) and flipped up pocket kings. Graham showed down pocket jacks. The board brought 10 4 3 9 10, giving Casagrande a huge double up to 1,035,000. Graham was knocked down to 55,000, and the end was near. His last gasp for air was quickly stomped out by Medic on the very next hand when he made a king-high straight to eliminate Graham. Graham's fall from grace was complete, and he took home $35,126 for his 21st-place finish.

This left an opening at the top for whomever wanted to fight for it, and like he had so many times throughout the day, Freddy Deeb rose to the occasion: Deeb limped under the gun, Billy Pilossoph also limped, and Mike Vela raised to 50,000 on the button. Both Deeb and Pilossoph called. The three players saw a flop of 5 4 3. Deeb checked, Pilossoph checked, and Vela bet 200,000. Deeb reraised to 500,000 and Vela quickly called. The turn was the 10. Deeb asked Vela "How much do you have left?" to which Vela replied "about 900,000". Deeb moved all in for 756,000, and the pot now had more than 1,800,000. Vela went into the tank and Deeb asked "Can you beat two sixes?" Vela said "Ok, I fold" and mucked A 5 faceup on the table. This left Deeb with 1,865,000, and he finished the day with chip lead.

At the end of the fifth level, 19 players remained. Here is how the top 10 chip counts looked at the end of the day:

1: Freddy Deeb - 1,865,000
2: T.J. Cloutier - 1,614,000
3: Mike White - 1,488,000
4: John Myung - 1,272,000
5: Tom Dwan - 1,160,000
6: Nick Schulman - 1,100,000
7: Billy Pilossoph - 978,000
8: Rodney Legendre - 951,000
9: Mark Weitzman - 901,000
10: Michael Vela - 884,000

The final 19 will start play at noon tomorrow to play down to a final television table of six. Tune in to CardPlayer.com to catch all the action in live updates, chip counts, photos, and videos.

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