Bracelet Winners Out Early On Day 6

Online, July 17, 2012 (Newswire.com) - LAS VEGAS -- It's crunch time here at the WSOP main event. The final 97 players strapped in for a long day at 3 p.m. ET with five two-hour levels, or more, being played on Sunday. Tournament director Jack Effel said the goal Sunday is to reach the final 27 players and no matter what, we will have at least that number at the end of the night. If five levels are completed and there are more than 27 players remaining, action will continue until only three tables remain.

After two hours of play, only 80 players remain at the nine tables. The eliminations began quickly as Frederick Vogt, Gavin Smith and David Warady were heading to the cage in less than 20 minutes of action. Smith wasn't the only bracelet winner to be sent home during Level 25, as Erik Cajelais and Dung Nguyen also failed to make it through.

Isaac Baron, David Randall, Fabio Sousa (finished 42nd in 2011), William Hefflefinger, Manos Foudoulakis, Ben Greenberg, Stephane Bisson, Roman Valerstein, Lawrie Gibson and Susie Zhao, one of the final five women, were also eliminated.

Amit Makhija's day started off with a downswing as an hour in he was under 1 million in chips from his starting 1.4 million. He's been active thus far and caught a key river queen against A.J. Jejelowo (holding 7-7) to double up with A-Q and save his tournament. After the double, he eliminated Valerstein by winning another coin flip (A-K over J-J) and headed to the first 20-minute break with 3.4 million in chips. Makhija has a number of good tournament scores, but hasn't pulled off a major live victory. He has two previous WSOP final tables and is making his 15th career WSOP cash in this event.

Day 5 chip leader Kyle Keranen dropped 2.6 million in chips during the first level to finish with 4.3 million. Jeremy Ausmus was the biggest beneficiary of Keranen's failed bluff and he moved into fifth overall. Vanessa Selbst was crippled as she lost a race to David Balkin during one of the first hands of the day (A-J lost to 4-4), but fought back from 375,000 to finish the level with 1.08 million in chips. For what seems like the fourth consecutive day, she is seated at a feature table and fans will definitely be able to go through the highs and lows of tournament play when her main event journey airs on ESPN this summer.

Sam Holden, the final member of last year's main event final table, made his move during the last level. Holden started the day with 765,000 and for just slightly less than that, moved all-in. He was first called by Andrew Flaherty from the cutoff before Jean Malherbe moved all-in from the big blind. Flaherty folded and Holden revealed 4-4 to be ahead in the race against Malherbe's A-Q. The board ran out and gave Holden a straight and a desperately-needed triple up, which provides him with a more legitimate shot at a repeat appearance at the final nine once again. He has 2.08 million in chips to start the next level.

The blinds are now 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 ante.

The top 10:

1. Robert Salaburu (6.50 million in chips)
2. Taylor Paur (5.82 million)
3. Elisabeth Hille (5.48 million)
4. Gaelle Baumann (5.00 million)
5. Jeremy Ausmus (4.75 million)
6. Erik Hellman (4.71 million)
7. Shahriar Assareh (4.66 million)
8. Wilfried Haerig (4.50 million)
9. Kyle Keranen (4.30 million)
10. Charles Coultas (4.20 million)