Ole Schemion has won back-to-back pots that have helped push his stack northwards of 50,000.
The first saw Schemion raise to 750 from under the gun and the button called. Both players checked the flop, but Schemion led for 1,200 on the turn and the button folded.
The second saw Jamie Roberts complete in the small blind and Schemion check in the big blind. Roberts fired a bet of 525 on the flop but then folded when Schemion, under the gaze of a television camera, raised to 1,350.
Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger had bet 2,100 on the river of a board reading and his opponent had raised him 6,100. Lichtenberger had 12,750 behind and was deep in thought.
Too deep in thought for the player in seat two who called the clock. The player who had raised seemed irritated at the clock being called and said, “You’re not in the hand.”
“I’m in the game, right?” came the response, and he was within his rights to call time on Lichtenberger. The floor arrived and began the countdown but Lichtenberger soon released his hand.
On the final hand before the break at the feature table, the player in Seat 1 opened to 1,200 from under the gun. Bill Perkins called from the cutoff, as did the player on the button, and action folded to Greg Merson who three-bet to 6,000 from the big blind.
Back on the original raiser, he four-bet to 13,200, prompting folds from Perkins (who accidentally flipped over the ) and the button. Merson then moved all in and counted down his stack which totaled 25,000. Seat 1 thought it over for about a minute before releasing, and Merson took down a big pot without even seeing a flop.
The remaining players are heading on a 20-minute break.
Following the resumption of play after dinner break, the tone of the level would be eliminations with "All American" Dave Swanson being eliminated by Kenny Tran. Swanson called all-in holding on a board and was up against Tran's . The river landed the and Swanson was headed to the rail.
Jean-Robert Bellande entered late and exited early as Mustapha Kanit had his aces cracked before being eliminated shortly after as Trishelle Cannatella, Blake Bohn, Jeff Gross, Phil Laak and David Chiu all found themselves on the rail also.
However level four would really belong to only one player; Martin Jacobson. Jacobson began the day see-sawing up and down, but this level saw him win a pot holding against on a before scooping another pot with a bet on the turn to push his stack upwards of 120,000. At-the-time chip leader Jon Broderick then sat on Jacobson's right, but after he lost a pot to John Monnette, Jacobson took the top spot on the leaderboard and ended the level as chip leader with 122,800. Sitting directly behind the Swede include Ezzie (116,250), Broderick (103,600), DiVella (99,350), and two-time WSOP Main Event Champion Johnny Chan (88,000).
The big news that also got announced in the closing few minutes of the level were that a total of 771 players entered Day 1a to be substantially lower then the 943 that took a seat in last year's Day 1a.