With just 50 players remaining from an initial field of 8773, Richard Gryko (left) reraises all-in from the button for 920,000. Initial raiser and overall chip-leader, Jamie Gold, confidently flips over Big Slick, whilst Gryko is forced to show his inferior J-3 off.
With a King on the flop, Gryko is virtually dead. A Jack on the turn gives him some hope, but the outdraw fails to arrive and the Gutshot regular is left to accept defeat and an ultimately impressive 50th place.
Although the seven figure sum was almost in touching distance, the $164,932 Gryko takes home will surely be of huge consolation, especially when considering the 8773 strong field and the fortune and skill required to reach these latter stages.
With the Essex player's biggest win of note being a $14,516 scoop in a £200 Omaha Event in Vienna, he is sure to be delighted with his performance over the last several days. Taking a commanding position right from the off and amassing a formidable Day 1 stack, Gryko was always going to be a threat in this year's Main Event. His 50th placing is therefore of no surprise and will be much celebrated on his return to England.
Other Brits who deserve praise for making it into the top 100 are Scott O'Reily, Matthew Morgan, and Paul Coles who came 54th, 83rd and 99th respectively.
Unfortunately, with Gryko biting the dust at the end of Day 5, Britain is left with no remaining participants whatsoever, a fact that perhaps reflects upon a somewhat dispirting World Series.
Although Julian Gardner (left), Stuart Fox, Paul Foltyn, Nick Gibson and John Gale should be congratulated for their final table appearances, they are but a few, with most of our hopes falling by the wayside in record-breaking time. Whether this is simply a case of Britain being behind America in terms of poker skills, or just a matter of numbers, the lack of British success in the 2006 WSOP will remain a huge disappointment.
The final 45 is also lacking in 'star quality' in terms of the 'name' players. Humberto Brenes and Allen Cunningham (right) are the only recognisable faces left in the field, but they are finding life pretty tough, especially the former who is struggling with just 565,000. Taking this into consideration, another final table of unknowns appears to be the inevitable conclusion.
With such strong starts from Negreanu, Ivey, Juanda and co, it looked as though this year would see a few household names make the latter stages, but as they fell one by one, that prospect became more and more unlikely.
There were a few notable performances though - Annie Duke (left), who is often regarded as poker's best female player managed to take $51,129 for her 88th placing, whilst the highly respected David Chiu came in 147th for just over 47 thousand dollars.
But, with the American unkown dominating the final days, three questions remain on everyone's lips:
(1) Is the gap between the pro and the amateur actually that big?
(2) With the field so big, is luck an overriding factor?
and...
(3) Why have the Brits faired so miserably?
As ever, these question will probably be left in limbo for yet another year...
The top 20 are as follows:
Jamie Gold -- 7,330,000
Erik Friberg -- 5,905,000
William Thorson -- 3,545,000
Rhett Butler -- 3,210,000
Kevin Aaronson -- 3,190,000
Ricki Nielsen -- 3,120,000
Siddharth Jain -- 3,090,000
Michael Binger -- 3,045,000
Jeffrey Lisandro -- 2,995,000
David Einhorn -- 2,840,000
Jim Routos -- 2,775,000
Richard Lee -- 2,350,000
Robert Betts -- 2,235,000
Andrew Schreibman -- 2,200,000
Dan Schmiech -- 2,155,000
Paul Wasicka -- 2,055,000
Lee Kort -- 2,005,000
John Magill -- 1,955,000
Eric Lynch -- 1,940,000
Rob Roseman -- 1,845,000