Smith, Julius & Vilandos Will Return to Battle for the Bracelet on Day 4
On Saturday, the remaining 48 players of a 1,001 player field in Event #50 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em returned to the Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to battle down to a winner; however, given the field exceeded even the wildest expectations, an impromptu Day 4 was expected before the tournament would reach its conclusion.
After ten levels of play, that’s exactly what will happen as the remaining three players will return on Sunday to play for the $952,694 first-place prize. Leading the way is Dan Smith, who bagged up 6,620,000. Contesting him are Kyle Julius (4,435,000) and Panayote "Pete" Vilandos (3,955,000), the latter seeking his third gold bracelet.
Day 3 kicked off with a bang as the eliminations came fast. Dominykas Karmazinas (48th-$17,360), Galen Hall (40th-$20,324), Brendon Rubie (36th-$24,041), Andrew Weisner (33rd-$24,041), Randy Lew (32nd-$24,041) and Alex Kravchenko (31st-$24,041) were all among the early eliminations.
During the midday levels, the eliminations continued as Cary Katz (29th-$24,041), Eric Cloutier (28th-$24,041), Sam Chartier (26th-$28,793), Micah Raskin (24th-$28,793), Andrew Lichtenberger (23rd-$28,793), Jeremy Ausmus (21st-$28,793), Thiago “xTHEDECANOx” Nishijima (18th-$35,003) and Jason Wheeler (17th-$35,003) all took their leave.
Not long after, Daniel Perper opened to 42,000 from early position and action folded around to Joseph Cheong in the small blind, who announced he was all in for about 440,000 total. Directly behind him in the big, Kyle Julius also announced he was all in. Perper tanked, but eventually decided to fold and hands between Cheong and Julius were revealed.
Cheong: 
Julius: 
The 
flop looked good for Cheong, however, the 
turn and 
river would give Julius a runner-runner straight to send Cheong home in 15th place ($43,095).
After a few more eliminations, a sick hand occurred when action folded to Dan Smith in the hijack and he raised to 65,000. Erik Aude then three-bet to 150,000 in the small blind, the big folded, and Smith made the call, bringing about the 
flop.
Aude proceeded to check-call a bet of 100,000 before checking the 
turn. Smith kept the pressure on with a bet of 220,000, but this time Aude woke up with a check-raise to 500,000. Smith made the call and then snap-called when Aude moved all in for about 660,000 on the 
river.
Aude rolled over 
for a set, but it was no good against Smith's 
set of aces. It was a monster pot, and Smith took right around 3,000,000 million to the final table.
Speaking of the final table, the final nine players played through the night with four of them hitting the rail along the way:
Final Table Results
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ??? | $952,694 |
| 2 | ??? | $589,687 |
| 3 | ??? | $368,943 |
| 4 | Kevin Schulz | $267,792 |
| 5 | Derek Gregory | $197,691 |
| 6 | Thomas Conway | $148,198 |
| 7 | Matt Giannetti | $112,725 |
| 8 | Tommy Vedes | $86,889 |
| 9 | Amir Lehavot | $67,889 |
Action is set to resume on Sunday at 2 PM PST at Table 444 in the Purple Section of the Amazon Room, so join us then as look to award nearly a million dollars to the winner of Event #50 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em.