Ravi Raghavan, Phil Ivey Among WPT Bellagio Cup Leaders on Play Down Day

Ravi “govshark2” Raghavan and 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner Phil Ivey are among the chip leaders entering the World Poker Tour (WPT) Bellagio Cup VI play down day. Today, the field will be slashed from 31 to just six, who will take to the felt on Thursday to determine a champion.

Men “The Master” Nguyen and David “Bakes” Baker were victims of a double elimination to close play on Tuesday. Eric Panayiotou held pocket kings and had Nguyen’s pocket tens and Baker’s A-J dominated. Panayiotou flopped one king and rivered another for quads in dramatic fashion, sending Nguyen and Baker out in 34th and 33rd, respectively. Both banked $17,000 for their efforts in the Bellagio Cup, which will shell out $875,000 to its champion.

Among those who waited until the last minute to register yesterday were Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke, Daniel Negreanu, Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron, and former WPT champ John “World” Hennigan. Ivey, UB.com front man Phil Hellmuth, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan took to their seats on Tuesday at the eleventh hour, as did Greg “FBT” Mueller, who busted after just two hands. Mueller folded one hand and sent his 20 big blind stack into the middle on the other with pocket tens, which fell to pocket aces.

Ivey, however, grew his 20 big blind stack to 568,000 and ended the day in eighth place. The overall chip lead belongs to New Jersey’s Panayiotou, who bagged up 1.34 million when the final gun had sounded on Tuesday night. Not part of Wednesday’s action is Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, a Full Tilt pro, who got her money in with a flush draw and open-ended straight draw, but bricked two streets to finish in 35th place. Obrestad, who recorded four in the money finishes at the 2010 WSOP, logged her very first WPT cash.

Also busting on Tuesday were David “Devilfish” Ulliott and Jordan Morgan, who hit the skids in 38th and 39th, respectively. Morgan’s pocket kings could not withstand the A-K of Mortiz Kranich, who spiked an ace on the flop to take a commanding lead. The hand left Morgan with a stack of just 1,000, which found the middle shortly thereafter. Other pros who found the exit on Tuesday after the money bubble had burst included Todd Brunson, Pam Brunson, Jared Jaffee, and Eric “EFro” Froehlich.

Ten countries are represented in the remaining field. Here’s how the very eclectic group of 31 stands entering the play down day at the Bellagio in Las Vegas:

1. Eracles Panayiotou – 1,335,000
2. Ravi “govshark2” Raghavan – 959,000
3. Moritz Kranich – 953,000
4. John Caridad – 838,000
5. Paola Martin – 760,000
6. Manfred Sierke – 646,000
7. Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll – 639,000
8. Phil Ivey – 568,000
9. Eric Afriat – 560,000
10. Justin “Boosted J” Smith – 531,000
11. Rob Akery – 519,000
12. Saar Wilf – 484,000
13. Kenneth Ettinger – 482,000
14. Maria Ho – 477,000
15. Corey Hochman – 444,000
16. Sacrispeyre Patrick – 437,000
17. Mark Entwistle – 414,000
18. Payman Arjang – 382,000
19. Jeffrey Lisandro – 364,000
20. Sekularac Ognden – 364,000
21. Zachary Hyman – 300,000
22. Alex Melnikow – 276,000
23. Joe Hachem – 260,000
24. Tom Macey – 228,000
25. Rick Salomon – 208,000
26. Lerner Leonid – 185,000
27. Dan Stojadinovic – 176,000
28. Vadim Trincher – 135,000
29. Giovanni Massa – 119,000
30. Jonathan Plens – 86,000
31. Takashi Ogura – 23,000

Despite talk of the WPT ultimately switching to a nine-handed final table format, the Bellagio Cup will still feature six players at its finale. Each will bank at least $118,000 for their $10,000 investment. The field ultimately numbered 353 after late registration was closed, meaning that it grew by 32% year over year, although the buy-in shrunk by a similar percentage.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT updates.

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Poker slang:

UNDERDOG - Before all the cards are dealt, a hand that does not figure to be the winner. Ant: FAVORITE.
DRAW OUT - To catch a card that improves your situation from a losing hand to a winning hand, especially when you beat someone holding a hand that usually figures to win.
BOAT - A FULL HOUSE, three of a kind and a pair.
CASE - The fourth card of a particular rank, as in "he folded the case 9" when describing where all the 9s were in a hand. Comes from the game of Faro where an employee of the house, called the "case keeper". kept track of the number of each rank of card remaining.
HOLE CARDS - In Stud and Hold'em, the face-down cards dealt to each player.
FILL - To draw a card that makes a five-card hand (straight, flush, full house, straight flush).

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