Day 6 of the World Series of Poker main event is currently about halfway through in Las Vegas, having started Sunday afternoon Vegas time with November Niner Mark Newhouse holding the chip lead and 79 survivors from an original field of 6,683.
One of the early eliminations was the last woman playing in the match, Maria Ho, who departed in the 77th spot for $85,812, her second deep run in the main event (in 2007 she finished 38th).
Other notable names to fall during Day 6 thus far have included Brian Hastings at 64th for $103,000; Vitaly Lunkin at 57th for $124,447; and Michael Kamran, Shahen Martirosian and Paul Senter on $186,3888.
Also gone are David Tuthill, Matt Waxman, Clayton Maguire and Isaac Baron.
Newhouse lost the chip lead before the dinner break to Martin Jacobson, who has been playing consistently well, but after the break it was Louis Velador in charge on 14,320,000, with Dan Sindelar his nearest rival on 12,750,000. Newhouse was around number ten in the big stacks and still had almost 7 million chips.
There are currently just 36 players left, making the achievement of a final table during this session a good possibility.
Newhouse is hoping to set a new record for a back to back presence on a main event final table, a feat only previously achieved in 2003 and 2004 by Dan Harrington, when entry fields were less than a third the size of more modern events.