Poker contestants in deliberations

What started out as a sprint turned into a marathon for a $7.5 million prize as slow and deliberate play prevailed Friday evening at the final table of the World Series of Poker at Binion's in downtown Las Vegas.

By 9 p.m., only two of the nine players at the final table of the $10,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold 'em world championship had been eliminated.

Two hours later, five players remained. World Series Tournament officials predicted the winner wouldn't be crowned until early today.

Two hours into the action Friday, it was assured that an unknown player would be crowned world champion for the third straight year. Well-known professional Mike Matusow of Las Vegas became the first player eliminated, finishing in ninth place and earning $1 million.

About an hour later, Brad Kondracki, 24, a University of Pennsylvania law school student from Kingston, Pa., who came into the day with the least amount of chips, busted out and collected $1.15 million for eighth place.

The chip leader at the 9 p.m. dinner break was Andrew Black, 39, of Ireland, who has some World Series of Poker experience. Black, who finished 14th in the 1997 world championship, had $18.23 million when the players broke and was building his chip stack around 11 p.m.

Aaron Kanter, 27, from Elk Grove, Calif., who entered play Friday as chip leader, was down $20,000 by the dinner break, dropping to second place with $10.68 million. John "Tex" Barch, 34, of Richardson, Texas, had the third highest chip count with $10.48 million.

Play resumed at 9:45 p.m., and Dan Bergsdorff, 27, from Sweden went all in with a pair of jacks against Barch who held a pair of tens. The flop brought a ten, giving Barch three tens, and Bergsdorff was out in seventh place and winning $1.3 million.

About 10:30 p.m., Scott Lazar, 42, of Studio City, Calif., lost his remaining chips on two successive hands, finally losing with queen-ten against Black's pair of jacks.

Purchased by Harrah's Entertainment last year, the 2005 World Series of Poker was moved from downtown to the Rio and became the most successful tournament in the event's 36-year history with a record number of participants (more than 30,000) and richest prize pool ever, more than $103 million.

News Added: 16 July, 2005

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