WSOP day 5 - Down to 36 players

Some of the most entertaining players in this year's Day 5 of the World Series of Poker Main Event were among the 76 contenders who had exited the race by the end of Day 5. Of the original field of 112, only 36 go through to Day 6 and sadly some of the competition's most exciting players were eliminated.

Among those was Mr. "Chark" - Humberto "the Shark" Brenes who collected a paycheck of $82 476 when he fell to Hevad Kahn in 83rd place, and the last woman in the competition, Maria Ho who was eliminated in 38th place ($237 865) by Kevin Farry. Exiting in the 73rd slot was Huckleberry Seed ($106 382), the 1996 WSOP World Champion, leaving Scotty Nguyen as the last of six former Main Event champs still in action.

In the 96th slot the odds finally caught up with the exciting 22 year old Italian player Dario Minieri, out with a $67 535 payday after a clash with Reagan Silber ended the adventurous Roman's run at the biggest prize in poker. Day 5 also saw the end of Gus Hansen's bid for the 2007 winner's bracelet, out in position 61 to Jason Koshi and earning $154 194 for his trouble.

Internet expert players Jared 'WacoKidd' Hamby and Dag Martin 'dmmikkel' Mikkelsen also headed to the rail, whilst long haired tournament young gun Isaac Haxton was been eliminated too - in 94th place by Richard Harris.

The good news is that 1998 Main Event winner Scotty Nguyen is still very much in contention, along with courteous and skilful pros like Bill Edler, Lee Childs, William Spadea, Daniel Alaei, Ray Henson, Scott Freeman, Philip Hilm, Lee Watkinson, Kevin Farry, Alex Kravchenko, David Tran and Kenny Tran, together with Internet phenomenon Hevad Khan who has been cutting a swathe through the many contestants who have faced him, and celebrated each win with boisterous victory cheers.

Entering Day 6, the top ten chip counts look like this:

David Tran 10 280 000
Philip Hilm 9 950 000
Ray Henson 8 250 000
Hevad Khan 7 585 000
Kevin Farry 7 400 000
Scott Freeman 7 360 000
Lee Childs 6 520 000
Jerry Yang 5 090 000
Kenny Tran 4 955 000
William Spadea 4 575 000

At the other end of the 36 player list is Robin Bergren with the smallest stack at 520 000.

First man out on Day 5 was Andrew Gunderson eliminated by Jeff Bryan, and the last player eliminated before the 36 player list for Day 6 was decided was Ayaz Mahmood who fell to Mikkel Madsen in 37th place. collecting a check for $237 865 on the way out.

The remaining 36 players are guaranteed at least $237 865.