The race for Daniel Negreanu to reach the 2015 WSOP November Nine has reached fever pitch in the Amazon Room as they've winnowed down to just 11 players.
Heading into a 20-minute break after the fourth level of the day Negreanu is holding on with 6.8m chips - ninth of the 11 left.
He's slightly above Josh Beckley and Alex Turyansky - all three of which have had the misfortune of being at the same table as chip leader Joe McKeehen, who has 73% of the chips in play at the table.
Heading into the break McKeehen now has nearly 55m chips in front of him - almost 30m more than second-place Zvi Stern.
Fast on One Table, Hand for Hand After Break
With just two tables left and a massive $230k bubble from spot 11 to 10 play has been harried on one table and slow on the other.
Negreanu's table, featuring McKeehen, Beckly, Turyansky and Federico Butteroni has played at least 30 more hands than the outer table.
That table features Stern, Pierre Neuville, Neil Blumenfield, Max Steinberg, Thomas Cannuli and Patrick Chan.
The difference has become so notable, in fact, the WSOP has decided to go to hand-for-hand play after the break.
Regardless the Amazon Room has been electric for hours, much of which has been on the behalf on Negreanu.
Fans have relentlessly cheered anytime he's added to his stack, which has been tough in the face of McKeehen's aggression.
Still Negreanu seems in good spirits and even did a round of 30 pushups last level to keep his enthusiasm high. The current chip counts as they return from break:
Joe McKeehen 54,950,000
Zvi Stern 28,500,000
Neil Blumenfield 23,000,000
Max Steinberg 19,850,000
Pierre Neuville 15,725,000
Thomas Cannuli 14,950,000
Patrick Chan 9,325,000
Federico Butteroni 9,300,000
Daniel Negreanu 6,825,000
Josh Beckley 5,675,000
Alexander Turyansky 4,550,000
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