Quartet back for Fourth Day in WSOP 2011 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event

Just four players remain in contention for the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em at the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet and $650,223 after three days’ play in Las Vegas.

Event #48 will now enter a fourth day – as so many poker tournaments have since this year’s introduction of the hard-stop rule following 10 levels of play – with American Athanasios Polychronopoulos holding the chip lead on 3,680,000.

Ukrainian Yevgeniy Timoshenko is in second place on 3,460,000, while New York State’s Peter Ippolito (2,835,000) and Canadian Simon Charette (2,245,000) are not too far behind in what should be a classic evening’s play in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino.

German Sebastian Winkler had entered the third day as chip leader from the 30 survivors from an original field of 2,713, but crashed out in fifth place for $150,677.

In fact, the first two levels last night saw 14 players eliminated, including Vegas-based pro Mike DeMichelle.

The final 10 was reached just as we arrived at the conclusion of level 24 – and almost immediately before the players’ dinner break – while Corey Burbick, of Florida, was sent to the rail just 45 minutes later in 10th spot for $37,394.

Thereafter, Winkler, Pennsylvania’s Alexander Queen (sixth for $111,341), German Pius Heinz (seventh for $83,286), Matt Stout (eighth for $63,032), of Vegas, and Niklas Heinecker (ninth for $48,272) – another German – were eliminated to leave us with the final four for tonight.

That quartet of Polychronopoulos, Timoshenko, Ippolito and Charette played on for the final 40 minutes of level 28, as well as levels 29 and 30, before the hard-stop rule ended their battle for WSOP glory.

However, while the chip lead changed hands several times over those last hours of day three, Polychronopoulos emerged as the front-runner, although he suffered a big loss near the end of last night when Timoshenko took down an important pot.

On the button, Polychronopoulos opened for 200,000, with Timoshenko in the small blind – and big blind Charette calling.

The flop showed 4c-Ac-5d to see all three check. The Js came on the turn and, following two checks, Polychronopoulos put in a 250,000 bet, only for Timoshenko to raise that to 650,000 as his opponents folded for the pot.

The closing trend showed that Polychronopoulos had dropped 1,020,000 in chips, while Timoshenko moved up by 730,000 and Ippolito increased his stack by 605,000. Charette also finished down by 105,000 late in the day.

Final four players and chip counts at the WSOP 2011 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event:

1. Athanasios Polychronopoulos (USA) – 3,680,000

2. Yevgeniy Timoshenko (Ukraine) – 3,460,000

3. Peter Ippolito (USA) – 2,835,000

4. Simon Charette (Canada) – 2,245,000

Places 5-10 and payouts from the WSOP 2011 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event:

5. Sebastian Winkler (Germany) – $150,677

6. Alexander Queen  (USA) – $111,341

7. Heinz Pius  (Germany) – $83,286

8. Matt Stout (USA) – $63,032

9. Niklas Heinecker (Germany) – $48,272

10. Corey Burbick (USA) – $37,394