It was another long, long day at the World Series of Poker as the original 27 players battled down to the final nine to contest this monster prize pool. PokerStars began the day with four contenders: Greg Raymer, Bernard Lee, Brad Kondracki and Daniel Bergsdorf and when the final cheer of the night went up at around 3.30am, Vegas time, two of those were still standing.

Congratulations Brad and Daniel, you are both millionaires.


The tournament reconvenes at 4pm today, when the nine players will seek that $7.5million prize.

Continue to check www.pokerstarsblog.com for all the very latest from the final table. It'll be blow-by-blow action until we have a winner.

Good luck to them all.

Welcome to Binions in Downtown Las Vegas, home of Jonny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Amarillo Slim, et al. The home of poker, no less.

It's the old school. The sanitised conditions of the Rio Convention Centre are but a distant memory. The maroon carpet here is suitably soiled, the tattered crimson furnishings suggest basement bars and cigarettes, the lights are low and stay low, hiding a century of sin.

Wi-fi internet access? Ain't got none of that darn stuff.

It's not ideal for the modern, want-it-now-if-not-quicker news services, but we have a plan to continue offering the same peerless service established over the past week. Both PokerStars blogs have joined forces to follow our four remaining players from the 27-strong field. James Hartigan, an erstwhile audio blogger, is shovelling coal to fire the stoves, Mad Harper is sending morse-code chip stacks from the gaming floor and I am running on a giant hamster wheel to keep the communications coming.

Brad Willis will co-ordinate us as we post everything we have over on www.pokerstarsblog.com. Check there for regular updates on Greg Raymer, Brad Kondraki, Bernard Hill and, representing Europe, Daniel Bergsdorf, from Sweden.

Good luck to them all.

In real terms, it was shorter than any of the previous four, but day five of this World Series main event seemed to last as long as the others put together. That's what six-figure payout cheques can do to poker players - keep those chips in front of you for 15 minutes longer, and you could be $100,000 richer.


The 27 players remaining as the tournament now shifts to Binions casino in downtown Vegas - its spiritual home - will each earn a minimum of $304,680. One of those will be Daniel "berka" Bergsdorf, who will be around average chips (at an early prediction) with $2.5 million.

While the others sweated on every hand, dwelling up as though that was what would make good TV, Daniel picked his spots and made his moves with the absolute minimum of fuss. Sitting between Phil Ivey and a guy who claims to be "the worst player in Baltimore", Daniel has played it steady, strong and right.

We'll be watching tomorrow.

Daniel "berka" Bergsdorf is now up to $2,570,000 - and has found the tactics to get the most from his unenviable table.

Phil Ivey and Minh Ly, among the most aggressive of all the high-stakes cash players, continue to lock horns for hundreds of thousands of chips, leaving the rest of the table no option but to pass anything marginal. They would soon be facing a decision for all their chips otherwise.

Berka, however, is picking his spots with style and his rock-like image is allowing him to pick up pots uncontested. Take this for an example: Ly makes it about $60,000 to go from four off the button. There's one caller from two seats to his left and Daniel, in the small blind, flat calls. This looks dangerous.

The flop brings a king, a deuce and a six. Rainbow. Daniel's presence in this pot has obviously unnerved even the fearless Ly and it's checked round. The turn is another deuce, surely a blank, and Daniel sticks in $150,000. It's passed, and he picks it up.

No frills, but solid poker. It's taken him this far, and there's just one more elimination until we hit Binions. We'll see the Swede there.