DAY: 9 (Officially known as Day 5).

BIG NEWS: Play slowed considerably at the World Series of Poker on Saturday, as the top tier of the field held powerful chip stacks and enough rounders had been eliminated to let players be more picky about their hands.

Some players used the breathing room to tighten their play and only play pots with good starting hands. Others used the extra chips to play more hands, driving up action and leading to big pots for players holding less-than-stellar hands.

After more than four and a half hours of play Saturday, 70 players had been eliminated, leaving 119 players competing and allowing the average stack to creep over 1 million chips.

STUD OF THE DAY: Barry Leventhal, 44, of New York, who got 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth to fold an open-ended straight and flush draw on the flop by moving all-in for 399,000 chips. Hellmuth took several minutes to make his decision, because with both draws, there was a good chance he would have at least made the straight. Hellmuth folded his hand face-up, drawing groans and second guesses from other players at the table and nearby spectators. Leventhal was later eliminated.

BUSTED OUT: Tournament professional Gus Hansen, two-time gold bracelet winner Hoyt Corkins

UP NEXT: On Sunday, about 80 to 100 players will play down to 27 players, the final three tables, in preparation for the last day of play Monday before the final table in November.

POKER TALK: Stealing blinds: Raising a pot in hopes that all opponents will fold, giving the raiser a small pot consisting of the blinds and antes.

As play started Saturday, Cristian Dragomir of Bucharest, Romania, was in third place and raised a pot from the dealer spot to 50,000 chips. At that point, each player had a required ante of 1,000 chips, the small blind was 5,000 and the big blind was 10,000 chips. This meant there was already 24,000 in the pot, which Dragomir stole by raising and forcing everyone else to fold.

HE SAID WHAT?: "In life, cards have brains. I didn't know this until about four months ago. ... If you've got the positive energy, it may take a little while, but the cards will come." — Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, after doubling his chip stack to about 740,000 chips on a pair of queens.