Friday at the main event of the World Series of Poker

Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006 | 3:25 a.m.

DAY: 7 (Officially known as Day 3)

BIG NEWS: Costa Rican pro Humberto Brenes took advantage of tight play as the cash bubble approached Friday, amassing 440,000 in chips after starting the day with just 148,300. He said he enjoyed swooping down on short-stacked foes, stealing their blind bets and forcing them into big pots. "I try to intimidate other people. I like it," Brenes said. "I like to drive the table." Daniel Negreanu, who started the day at 331,000, was down to 158,000.

ONE CHIP: Jeff Kanow, a 36-year-old former poker tournament staffer from Alhambra, Calif., held onto a single $100 chip to backslide into the money and a $10,616 payday. He finished in the first group to get paid off - among 11 players that placed between 866th and 876th. "I'm going to pay off some credit cards," Kanow said. "Then afterwards go hunt for a job."

BUSTED OUT: Phil Ivey, Juan Carlos Mortensen, Layne Flack, Freddy Deeb and Josh Arieh.

POKER TALK: Blinds: The forced bets that each player has to make twice for every round of hands. The player left of the dealer, represented by a button, puts in a small blind such as 100 in chips, and the player left of that puts in a big blind, or double the small blind. The blinds increase in stages, forcing players to play hands before their stacks get eaten up by the blinds. Can be used as a verb. E.g. "I'm just going to take a T-shirt and they're going to blind me off tomorrow," said Canadian Philippe Boucher, 24, saying he would not show up for a tournament for the last 11 eliminated players not to be paid.

UP NEXT: On Saturday, an expected field of about 600 players is to play down to about 300. The first ones eliminated are still expected to receive more than $20,000. The winner will take home a top prize of $12 million.