If you were watching ESPN2’s coverage of the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Saturday night, then you heard a bombshell. Phil Hellmuth (pictured), who had three runner-up finishes during this year’s World Series and was celebrating his birthday, predicted that if online poker were legalized and regulated in the United States this year, there would be 15,000 registrants for the 2012 WSOP Main Event. 15,000! When you consider this year’s turnout was nearly 7,000, perhaps Hellmuth’s field size is easily within reach.

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Hellmuth’s comments, which came after saying that legalization in the French and Italian markets has led to poker booms there, brought a swarm of responses to TwoPlusTwo. One poster observed, “People take his words too seriously. Sure he said it, but I doubt he gave this that much thought. But he might know something, and that is really good news if regulation will happen soon for USA players.”

Another member of TwoPlusTwo wagered that we could see the Main Event eventually hit 15,000 players, but not in 2012: “For Phil to say next year it’s going to happen is insane. I just don’t think it’s possible unless literally every wet dream of ours falls in our favor over the next year. However, 5-6 years from now, I think 15,000 is an achievable number of entrants should we pass legislation in the next 18 months.”

Other poker players on TwoPlusTwo weren’t as optimistic. One spoke out by saying, “It will be 3 years at a minimum before any U.S. player will play a hand of legalized online poker.” Only time will tell.

Okay, enough reaction to Hellmuth’s comments.

Saturday marked Day 5 of the 2011 WSOP Main Event and, when play ended, just 142 players remained. In one of the final hands of the night, David Doc SandsSands (pictured) got his money in on a flop of A-8-7 with pocket sevens for bottom set and Giuseppe Pastura looked him up with A-K for top pair, top kicker. The board filled out 8-10 and Sands survived to see Day 6 on Sunday; he holds the 55th largest stack in the Amazon Room at 1.62 million.

Moments before, Sorel Imper1umMizzi open-shoved all-in on the short stack from the small blind with 9-2. The Canuck received a caller in Chamath Palihapitiya, who was seated in the big blind. Palihapitiya tabled K-9 and had Mizzi crushed until a deuce hit on the flop. The board ran out 10-2-7-6-6 and the Toronto native ended the day in 127th place with a stack of 500,000.

Although he’s not a member of the online poker community, it’s worthwhile to talk about the demise of Max Heinzelmann. The one-man wrecking crew who cracked Shaun shaundeebDeeb’s aces with A-6 and sent home Justin win0rgohomeZaki (pictured) with aces against queens finally went busto on Saturday. Heinzelmann 4bet all-in before the flop with aces and was met with a call from Day 5 chip leader David Bach, who showed kings.

Bach made a flush by the time the five community cards peeled off, prompting WSOP officials to reminisce, “He’s one of the more exciting players to watch in this game, but the WSOP Main Event run of EPT stud Max Heinzelmann has come to an end with about 150 players left. Somewhere, wherever he is, Shaun Deeb just cracked open a beer.” Heinzelmann made two EPT final tables in April for nearly $1.6 million combined.

Heinzelmann’s bustout served as retribution of sorts for Bach, who saw the German double through him with sevens against queens just a few hands earlier.

Bach won the $50,000 WSOP HORSE Championship in 2009 for $1.2 million and holds the chip lead entering Day 6 on Sunday. Here’s how the top 10 stacks look:

1. David Bach – 4,706,000
2. Pius Heinz – 4,699,000
3. Kyle kaj_kyle Johnson – 4,654,000
4. Phil USCphildo Collins – 4,109,000
5. Ben Benba Lamb – 4,032,000
6. Aleksandr Mozhnyakov – 3,462,000
7. Sebastian Ruthenberg – 3,354,000
8. Lars Bonding – 3,352,000
9. Bryan badbeatninja Devonshire – 3,292,000
10. Thomas Grey – 3,262,000

The WSOP Main Event will play down to its final nine on Tuesday. In the meantime, keep it tuned to PocketFives.com for the latest 2011 WSOP coverageof the online poker community, made possible by 24hPoker.