With the rate of eliminations progressing faster than expected, it appears we’ll have another short day at the 2009 WSOP as numbers tumble towards the day’s target of 175.

Already more than 130 players have been sent to the rail, which means the three remaining Team APL players – Charlie Elias, Jonathan Wertheim and Craig Ivey – are guaranteed at least $32,963.

Elias has steadily built his stack back to 1.5 million and can rightly expect to go much deeper providing he continues to play solidly with a minimum of errors.

The story of Ivey and Wertheim has been nothing less than remarkable. They’ve been among the short stacks throughout the latter stages of day four and through the first three hours of play today, but both have picked their spots astutely enough to ensure a crucial double-up when most needed.

Just minutes ago, Ivey chased down pocket sixes with pocket 10s to climb back to 250,000 while Wertheim is on 200,000 and slowly adjusting the TV cameras following his star-studded table.

Indeed, one of the team from 441 Productions, who film the WSOP for ESPN, just quizzed us about TeamAPL – hope that means the guys will be featured when the 2009 Main Event airs later this year. Nice!

Overall chip count (approximate after level 18, thanks to www.worldseriesofpoker.com)

Matt Affleck 2,600,000
Tom Schneider 2,085,000
Ben Lamb 2,000,000
Tom Lutz 1,900,000
Ludovic Lacay 1,850,000
Kevin Schaffel 1,840,000
Chuck Clark 1,700,000
Bernhard Perner 1,675,000
James Akenhead 1,572,000
Owen Crowe 1,500,000

Team APL chip count (after level 18)

Charlie Elias (Sydney) 1,350,000
Jonathan Wertheim (Sydney) 196,000
Craig Ivey (Adelaide) 100,000
Emma Grace (Gold Coast) Out

Posted by Chris Wheeler, 3.30pm, 12/7/09

It’s getting own to the business end of the 2009 WSOP Main Event, with 46 tables spread across the blue and orange sections of the Amazon Ballroom where the remaining 407 players have just taken their seats for day five.

That figure included 11 Australians and four members of Team APL, but Emma Grace has bowed out on the opening hand after pushing all-in on a board of 6-3-9-6 with pocket sevens only to find Viet Nguyen waiting with pocket kings (the river bricked 2s).

No lucky sevens for Emma Grace 

Grace became the first Australian female to cash in the WSOP Main Event since Angie Italiano in 2007. The single mother of two earns $27,469 for her magnificent effort after nursing a short stack through much of day four.

Craig Ivey has tasted the highs and lows of poker in the first hour of play. The TeamAPL captain doubled through in the opening orbit of the day when his A-J improved to a full-house against pocket eights but he just took a massive hit and is down to just 40,000.

"The other Ivey" is drawing plenty of attention 

Charlie Elias, a staggering fifth overall coming into today, is one of the first players to have acquired a stack of the recently introduced dark green 25,000 chips. He was back to the form to which we’ve become accustomed in the early going with some aggressive pre-flop betting.

Charlie Elias is wielding that big stack with authority

Jonathan Wertheim has found himself among a smuggler’s cove on table blue 48, with the line-up including past WSOP bracelet winners Blair Rodman and David Benyamine, plus Sarne Lightman, who has a WSOP Main Event cash to his name from 2005.

The ESPN cameras can't get enough of Jon Wertheim

We’re expecting to play five levels today, with the structure:

Level 18: 4000/8000 (ante 1000)
Level 19: 5000/10,000 (ante 1000)
Level 20: 6000/12,000 (ante 2000)
Level 21: 8000/16,000 (ante 2000)
Level 22: 10,000/20,000 (ante 3000)

Overall chip count (after day 4)

1 Matt Affleck (Seattle, WA) 1,819,000
2 Ludovic Lacay (Paris, France) 1,608,000
3 Tom Lutz (Las Vegas, NV) 1,600,000
4 James Akenhead (London, UK) 1,572,000
5 Charlie Elias (Sydney, Australia) 1,540,000
6 Miika Puumalainen (Kuipio, Finland) 1,492,000
7 Jordan Morgan (Tulsa, OK) 1,489,000
8 Bernhard Perner (Austria) 1,426,000
9 Blair Hinkle (Kansas City, MO) 1,399,000
10 Ben Jensen (Herning, Denmark) 1,394,000

Team APL chip count (after day 4)

5 Charlie Elias (Sydney) 1,540,000
336 Jonathan Wertheim (Sydney) 196,000
337 Emma Grace (Gold Coast) 194,000
388 Craig Ivey (Adelaide) 101,000

Payout structure

1st $8,546,435
2nd $5,182,601
3rd $3,479,485
4th $2,502,787
5th $1,953,395
6th $1,587,133
7th $1,404,002
8th $1,300,228
9th $1,263,602
10-12th $896,730
13-15th $633,022
16-18th $500,557
19-27th $352,832
28-36th $253,941
37-45th $178,857
46-54th $138,568
55-63rd $108,047
64-72nd $90,344
73-81st $68,979
82-90th $57,991
91-99th $47,003
100-162nd $40,288
163-225th $36,626
226-288th $32,963
289-360th $29,911 (current)
361-432nd $27,469
433-504th $25,027
505-576th $23,196
577-648th $21,365

Posted by Chris Wheeler, 1.10pm, 12/7/09