After seeing 362,000 of his hard earned chips get shipped across the table to Alexandre Lavigne, Patrick Braga found a key double-up through Dustin Melanson to keep him in the tournament.

In the hand versus Alexandre he opened to 52,000 and called his opponents 3bet shove from the big blind. He tabled but was bested by on a board to lose more than half of his stack.

A few hands later he open-shoved from early position for 282,000 and found isolation from Dustin. Patrick showed down and secured his double-up versus on a board to bring him back to average stack.

Players are now on a short break, and we will publish chip counts in a few minutes.

When action folded around to Dustin Melanson in the small blind, he put shorter-stacked George Caragiorgas to the test by moving all-in versus his big blind. With just under 10 big blinds to his name, George took his chances with and made the call. He was up against and needed to connect to remain in the game, but the board spelled his elimination in 7th place.

7th place: George Caragiorgas – $3,050.00

In the last hand of level 23, Bradley Copestake defended his big blind following an early position open from Clayton Grunberg, and they went to see a flop heads-up. Bradley checked first to act, and Clayton fired 25,000 into the pot. Bradley replied with an all-in of almost 400,000 and Clayton made the call.

Bradley tabled and needed a club or some runner-runner to overcome Clayton’s , but the board completed with a and a , bringing Clayton’s new total up to 955,000.

8th place: Bradley Copestake – $2,300.00