Live blog coverage of WCOOP Event #29 $530 NLHE with rebuys is brought to you by Johnny Kampis, April Kyle, Jennifer Newell, and Jordan Raanan.

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5:11pm – The house of Griffin

Gavin Griffin is holding his 12th place spot on the leaderboard steady, thanks to a run of good cards and big hands like the one he just had over at table 42.

In the small blind with Td-9c he limped in to the 9d-9h-Kd flop along with two others. First to act he checked the board and both checked behind him. When the Th hit the turn he decided slow playing would get him nowhere with that crowd and bet out 300, losing one player and getting one caller.

The payoff came for him when the Qs hit on the river. There he bet out 950 and got a raise to 1,900 from jarbot, the remaining opponent in the hand. Griffin raised him back to 3,500 and jarbot called, building the pot to 8,050 which shipped Griffin’s way at showdown.

5:07pm - Victor not victorious

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin was down to 9,455 when he re-raised preflop to 1,350 out of the small blind after westmenloAA had raised to 450 from the cutoff.

The two saw the flop of Kc-2c-8h heads-up and Ramdin led out for 1,050. westmenloAA raised to 3,300 and Ramdin pushed all-in.

The hands were

Ramdin: Ac-4c

westmenloAA Ks-Qd

The turn teased Ramdin with the Ad and he looked in great shape until westmenloAA double paired on the Qs river.

Ramdin finished in 629th place while westmenloAA was up to 62,691 after the hand.

5:03pm -- Boosted J gets the best of Akkari again

Team PokerStars Pro Andre "aakkari" Akkari is down to around 11K following this hand:

4:52 – Deposits now being accepted

Chad Brown and fateileoni are at it again, but the results are swinging a different way this time.

On a recent hand, pokie75 started things with a raise from under the gun to 450, getting a call from fateileoni which Brown then popped back to 1,500. All folded except for his good pal fateileoni.

On the 7h-4c-8c flop fateileoni checked to Brown, who bet 1,950 to him. Fateileoni called and they saw the Js on the turn where both slowed down and checked. Another Jc on the river again prompted a check from both.

At showdown fateileoni flipped his baby pocket pair – 3s – for two pair, Jacks and Threes. Brown mucked his hand and deposited the 7,575 pot with fateileoni.

4:44pm - Chip counts at the second break

Level 5
Blinds 75/150
Average Chip Count: 18,979
Players Remaining: 670
First Prize: $211,133

1. brainwash 79,310
2. FU_15 75,110
3. skat tilt 58,665
4. devinr12 58,520
5. pespepusa 56,580
6. JBlaze20 53,969
7. westmenloAA 53,624
8. gipsy74 53,164
9. GavinGriffin (Team PS Pro) 52,703
10. Iftarii 50,580

Other Team PokerStars Pros in Top 100:

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier 44,534 (19th)
Dario Minieri 28,360 (93rd)

4:34pm - Ray Rahme goes bust

The Team PokerStars pro never had much of a stack and he finally pushed his 1,625 all-in under the gun with 7s-6s. All_in_at420 called from the button with 9h-9c. The flop was merely a tease when it came 7h-4h-6c because the 4c came on the turn to counterfeit Rahme's two pair. The river 2c put him out in 684th place.

4:26pm – Griffin on the rise

Gavin Griffin is quickly moving up the leaderboard thanks to a well-timed case of Aces versus Kings.
With ADZ124, ACESEDAI, and jarbot both raising pre-flop, Griffin likely couldn’t believe his luck yet no doubt was a little leery of what might lay ahead for his big hand. When the dust finally settled, it was ACESEDAI who had put in the final raise – to 600 – and Griffin, ADZ124, and jarbot all called.

On the 9s-7d-Js flop Griffin checked the action to ADZ124 who bet his stack of 7,675. Jarbot decided things had gotten out of hand and folded. ACESDAI raised for his stack to 23,620. Griffin called for what remained of his stack; 18,339.

With the three all-in it was revealed that Griffin had the current winner – pocket Aces versus ACESEDAI’s pocket Kings and ADZ124’s Td-9d for a pair of 9s off the flop. All that was left for Griffin was to dodge those outs…

And dodge them he did, with a 2d on the turn and a 7s on the river, with Griffin collecting a total 46,803 pot.
Griffin is currently sitting at #6 on the leaderboard with over 50,000 in chips.

4:25pm - The 700 club

We have 700 players remaining. Among those eliminated were Team PokerStars Pro Tom McEvoy in 817th, micon in 768th, sheets in 742nd and ch0ppy in 701st.

4:18pm - More WCOOP action around the corner

Event #30 $1,050 Pot-Limit Omaha begins at 4:30 EST. The tournament has a $500,000 guarantee prize pool, but you can be sure it will well exceed that as we already have 600 entrants. Don't miss out!

4:15pm - Help from The Mouth?

Boosted J, who is currently in London for WSOP Europe, just had this exchange with a fellow player at the table:

Bwd26: i wish you gl, you don't respond? allright

Boosted J: i said ty

Boosted J: sorry im in the room with matusow hes yelling

4:11pm – There’s also these really cool patches

ElkY just hit quads on his table, taking in a 10,063 pot when his opponent DoggyDoo check-called him all the way down on a 9d-9s-5h-3d-7d board.

After the hand the railbirds perked up, marveling at how he does it and complementing his poker skills. One observer wondered if perhaps the cards weren’t a perk of being a member of Team PokerStars pro…

black666 [observer]: quads? that's all you get as a team ps pro?

ElkY currently sits with just over 46,000 in his stack and in 11th place.

4:05pm - Coren takes a hit

Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren is sitting just above 10K after this hand:

After it was over, she typed to AaronBeen, "trips again huh...u r my nemesis"

3:55pm - A Boosted J update

He managed to win a couple of all-ins just before the break, and having added-on, has a healthy stack of 31,024.

He's been sitting out since the break. (In the second hour he rested?) Meanwhile, Team PokerStars Pro Andre "aakkari" Akkari is at 22,190 one to Boosted J's left and looking to move up the leaderboard.

3:43pm - Prize pool is $1.26 million

We had 852 entrants who made 1,011 rebuys and 658 add-ons.

First place will receive $211,133.76 and 132nd will get $2,205.87

3:35pm--Chip counts at the first break

Level 3
Blinds 25/50
Average Chip Count: 16,282
Players Remaining: 780
First Prize: $211,133

1. brainwash 75,785
2. pespepusa 50,680
3. skat tilt 50,520
4. gp333 45,555
5. iftarli 44,430
6. JBlaze20 41,344
7. Markkx 38,669
8. Amrasaralond 35,969
9. Oldschool043 35,160
10. BKiCe 34,485

Team PokerStars Pros in Top 100:

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier 31,520 (20th)
Andre "aakkari" Akkari 24,790 (66th)

3:30pm -- If someone hits a set, we have a problem

How anti-climatic.

After Betrand "ElkY" Grospellier raised his small blind, iLLNuGWichee came over the top all-in for his 4,375 stack. The big blind folded and ElkY called, both players flipped over their cards and revealed... pocket Jacks.

For both of them. There would be no double-up for iLLNuGWichee this hand, instead he'd split the pot with ElkY and try again later.

3:24pm - The Maverick

Boosted J, who has a photo of Republican presidential nominee John McCain as his avatar, is certainly slinging his chips into the pot.

Here's three recent hands:

1) Boosted J shoved all-in for 8,183 with Qh-Kc and skammes called on the button with 5d-5c. The fives held and Boosted J was down to 1,523.

2) Having rebought, Boosted J shipped his 5,523 stack into the middle and markky called from the small blind with As-Th. Boosted J held Qh-2h and loved the board of 8h-2d-3h-2s-Qc that moved him up to 11,076.

3) Two hands later, markkx limped from the cutoff and called the all-in bet of Boosted J from the small blind. This time Boosted J had Kd-9d and markkx held As-Jd. The flop came jack high and markkx's hand held. Boosted J was down to 4,465.

Whoever finishes this table with the most chips at the break ought to be the chipleader.

3:10pm - Registration closed with 852 players

How much money those players sink into the tournament is still to be determined. So far, we've got about 820 rebuys and a $835,000 prize pool.

3:00pm - Akkari strikes back

Only a few hands after losing his chips to Boosted J, Andre Akkari got them back, and like Boosted J before had to come from behind to do it.

Boosted J shoved his 16,605 stack in from the cutoff and Akkari called on the button. The blinds folded and the hands were As-Kc for Boosted J and Ah-Td for Akkari.

The board came 7d-7h-Th-Qd-8s and Akkari was up to 16,010 while Boosted J fell back down to 8,615.

2:56pm – First Bank of fateileoni

A good bank, though it would appear though that only Chad Brown is able to make a withdrawal.

These two have tangled again, this time with fateileoni in the small blind and Brown in the big blind. Luca Pagano raised from UTG+2 to 60 and got a call from fateileoni. Brown then popped it back to 100 and Pagano called. Fateileoni raised it back to Brown, increasing the bet to 530. Brown responded by raising him all-in with Brown’s stack at 7,680. Pagano stepped out at this point and fateileoni called, flipping over pocket 4s. Brown had Queens which held up once again through an all-in with fateileoni and he raked in a 7,680 pot putting him up to 11,570.

Fateileoni took the rebuy for another 8,000 in chips and will no doubt try to avoid Brown in the future.

2:54pm - Boosted J shoves and gets a nice boost

With the action folded to his small blind, Boosted J shoved all-in for 8,325 against the 20 big blind of Team PokerStars Pro Andre "akkari" Akkari.

Akkari made the call with Ad-Tc and was ahead of the Qh-9s of Boosted J. However, the board ran out Kc-3s-5c-9c-Qs to give the 16,605 pot to Boosted J. Akkari then did a double rebuy, getting 8,000 chips for $1,000.

2:47pm - It's going to be a big one!

That $400,000 guarantee is well in the rear-view mirror. With 820 entries and nearly 600 rebuys the prize pool has already swelled to more than $700,000. It will only get much bigger in the next 45 minutes.

2:43pm – Brown doubles-up early

As we’ve seen in earlier re-buy events, players today will be taking chances and pushing with almost anything in order to build a big stack for later rounds.

Chad Brown has successfully employed this strategy, pushing pre-flop with Qh-9h and getting a call from fateileoni with Ad-Jd. Brown paired his Queen on the flop and dodged fateileoni’s outs, giving him a double up to 7,770.

2:34pm -- And we're off!

Today's event has begun with 797 players taking their seats as the action kicks off. Registration is still open for this $400,000 guaranteed prize pool so it's not too late for you to get in the game.

WCOOP Event #29 to begin soon

WCOOP Event #29, $540 NLHE with rebuys, begins at 2:30pm ET. Join us here for all the action when it begins.