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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, November 9, 2008 Four players left in World Series of Poker Associated Press LAS VEGAS -- Scott Montgomery watched Peter Eastgate hit a full house on the river, and the rest of the players watched their paydays rise at least $700,000 at the World Series of Poker on Sunday night. Four players remained in the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament after playing more than six hours of a marathon session that showed few signs of ending quickly. Each of the players left had taken a turn at the top, shifting chip stacks and jockeying with an eye toward a $9.15 million top prize. Montgomery was an underdog when he risked his tournament life, but looked to be in good shape after pairing an ace on the flop. He hit a third ace on the turn, but a six on the final community card matched Eastgate’s pocket pair for a full boat. “I saw it coming,” said Montgomery, 26, of Perth, Ontario. Montgomery lost most of his stack while holding similar cards a few hands earlier when he ran into the pocket kings of Ivan Demidov. Montgomery, apparently trying to steal blinds to give himself more chips and make a run at the title, moved in with an ace-eight of diamonds and Demidov called quickly. Montgomery won $3,096,768 for fifth place, and Eastgate moved to 47.6 million chips. That was just behind the 49.1 million chips of leader Ivan Demidov. “It wasn’t quite as much money as I would have liked,” Montgomery said. Darus Suharto failed on a last-ditch effort to add to his short stack of chips when he lost an all-in bet to Montgomery. Montgomery ended Suharto’s tournament by hitting a fourth spade on the turn to make a flush. Suharto won $2,418,562 for sixth place. Two more players were to be eliminated before the final two played heads up for the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em main event championship on Monday night. Eastgate, a 22-year-old professional from Odense, Denmark, became the fourth of nine players to take the chip lead on Sunday when he took a pot that included 10.5 million chips from Dennis Phillips, who began the day in the lead but struggled after dropping to eighth of nine by the first break in play. Phillips and Eastgate played back and forth, betting and raising, until Eastgate went all-in over the top of Phillips’ 7 million chip raise, prompting Phillips to fold his hand. Without showing his cards, Eastgate overtook 27-year-old Russian Ivan Demidov for the lead. David “Chino” Rheem, the most well-known poker player coming into the final table, busted out in seventh place when Eastgate hit a pair of queens to upend the 28-year-old poker professional from a dominant hand. “I put my heart into it and my heart is broken,” a visibly upset Rheem said. “This one really hurts.” Rheem won $1,772,650 for seventh place. Two players were eliminated in back-to-back hands, and each bust out brought higher guaranteed paydays and inched those remaining closer to poker’s richest crown. Kelly Kim, a big underdog because of his severely low chip stack coming into the final table, held out one hand longer than Craig Marquis and was rewarded with an extra $387,547. “You play this game, you take the abuse and you give the abuse,” Kim said. “I hung on as long as I could.” Marquis, a 23-year-old former college student from Arlington, Texas, lost with three sevens to Scott Montgomery, who drew a straight on the turn and river to send Marquis home in ninth. “You got to try to win the tournament,” Marquis told Kim as the first two players eliminated from the final table greeted each other away from it. Ylon Schwartz started the day in the middle of the pack and quickly moved to the top with aggressive raises. Phillips — hoping to salvage a lousy start — doubled up through Rheem on his way back into serious contention. By the time Rheem was eliminated, Schwartz and Phillips were essentially tied in chips, an indication of the big swings in the seesaw battle for the top of the poker world. Kim, a 31-year-old poker professional from Whittier, Calif., survived two all-in bets after watching his stack slowly whittle away at the start of the final table. The final players at the World Series of Poker resumed play Sunday morning the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to determine the champion at this year’s no-limit Texas Hold ‘em main event. Fans waited outside the Penn & Teller Theater at the hotel as early as 2 a.m. in hopes of nabbing one of the 1,000 seats inside, a security guard said. Most were taken by friends and family of the players. The nine players will split $32.7 million — the lion’s share of a pool built on the $10,000 entry fees of 6,844 players who began play in July. The pool accrued $98,179 in interest during the break, which was enough to shift some of the prizes significantly. The top prize, originally $9.12 million, gained $32,899. The last nine players returned to the table after a break to build up interest in the event with vastly different sized chip stacks. Chips don’t have monetary value, but they tell players where they stand compared with their opponents and significantly affect how they can maneuver in the game. A player who loses all his chips is eliminated.

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