If there is one phrase that could sum up the sheer brutality of the World Series of Poker on day 4, it would have to be war of attrition. It was one of the craziest and quickest days in the history of the main event with people getting down to the money within just three short rounds as a result of some killer knockout instinct on the part of a number of larger stacks in the room.

At the end of the day when all the chips had fallen, Matt Affleck was in first place with 1.8 million in chips. Ludovic Lacay from France was the runner up on the evening, finishing with 1.6 million and even holding the chip lead for awhile before losing it in a large pot that saw him send nearly 300,000 chips over to one of the other stacks in the room.

Unfortunately for Kia Hamandani, there needs to be a bubble boy in every single tournament. And that is exactly where Kia ended up in the World Series of Poker 2009 Main Event. He stayed as long as possible, but in the end ended up just out of the money by one spot. Some of the other shorter stacks in the room breathed a sigh of relief at his departure and everyone let out a collective sigh of relief at seeing themselves being planted firmly in the money after the departure of Kia.

We lost a number of professionals on day 4 as well, such as Erik Seidel and Mike Sexton. Phil Hellmuth was also knocked out of the tournament today, finishing in 436th place and pocketing a cool $25,027 at what was yet another in a long line of cashes at the WSOP for The Poker Brat.

Phil Ivey is still in the tournament however. At the end of the day, he had 1.25 million in chips and was in the top 20 on the leader board. He seems to be getting healthier with each passing minute and that is something that should scare the living daylights out of everyone that is left in the tournament.