Final 27 Vie for Main Event Title

Just 27 players remain in the World Series of Poker Main Event, as Day Seven cut the field to the final three tables in the race for the coveted gold bracelet. The final 27 contenders for the 2010 World Championship will return to the tables Saturday, when the field will be cut to nine who will wait until November to determine a winner.

At the end of Day Seven, it was Joseph Cheong of La Mirada, California who held the chip lead with nearly 24.5 million chips. Cheong has already won on the World Series of Poker Circuit this year, having won an event at the Harrah’s Rincon.

Cheong is closely followed by Cuong Nguyen, hailing from Santa Ana, California. With just over 23 million in chips, Nguyen is by far the closest competitor to Cheong; the two have opened a wide gap over the rest of the field. Pascal LeFrancois, the Canadian player who currently occupies third place, holds 15.8 million in chips.

Many of the previous day’s chip leaders did not fare well on Day Seven. Theo Jorgensen of Denmark came into the day’s play in first place, and entered the final hour of play with 12 million chips. However, the last hour proved fatal, taking him from a healthy stack to elimination. Evan Lamprea, chip leader at the end of Day Five, was also eliminated in 46^th place.

Other notable eliminations included David Benyamine (58^th) and Jean-Robert Bellande (78^th), who is perhaps best known for his appearance on Survivor.

The remaining players in the field are all guaranteed a minimum of $317,161. First prize is $8,944,138.

Coming into Day Seven, one of the biggest stories was the play of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who was in second place heading into Friday. Mizrachi struggled early on and found himself with a short stack, but battled back and now finds himself in 16^th place with 6.3 million in chips. Beyond playing for the title, Mizrachi is also holding on to his outside chance at sharing the World Series of Poker Player of the Year award. If he can win the Main Event title, he’ll tie for the Player of the Year award with Frank Kassela; otherwise, Kassela will win the award outright.