Under 200 Players Remain after Main Event Day 5

Poker News - July 13, 2009 - Written by Bruce

The WSOP Main Event is well under way now with less than 200 players remaining after Sunday's Day 5. When the day started there were 407 players left in the field and after a relatively short three levels of play, Day 5 was complete with 185 players still alive. The current chip leader is Warren Zackey who has 4,872,000 chips. He is leading Kasper Cordes who has the second largest stack with 4,352,000 chips. There are plenty of other players close on their heels with some big name pros still alive as well. Arguably the most dangerous player left is Phil Ivey who is sitting with a healthy stack of 1,380,000 chips. He has made it deep in the Main Event three times previously going out on bad beats each of those times. Can this be the year that Ivey makes the Main Event final table? Last year's Main Event champion Peter Eastgate is making quite an impressive showing with another deep run in this event. He currently is sitting with a stack of 927,000 chips which is slightly less than the 973,000 that former chip leader Bertand "Elky" Grospellier has. David Benyamine, JC Tran, and Kenny Tran are also all still in the hunt with over 700,000 chips each. The 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem is also still alive going into today's Day 6 with 540,000 chips. All of these top players are hoping for a big Day 6 today putting them even closer to the 2009 Main Event final table.

For some other players Day 5 play marked an end to their 2009 Main Event's as they failed to make it through the day. Bobby Baldwin, Kara Scott, Thor Hansen, Dan Harrington, and Sorel Mizzi all were eliminated in Day 5. Harrington has made quite a name for himself at the WSOP Main Event over the years. He won the event back in 1995 and then remarkably finished 3rd in 2003 and 4th in 2004. He bested fields of 839 players and 2,576 players in those finished which is a remarkable achievement. This year's hope of him making yet another final table has come to an end. Well known actor Lou Diamond Phillips had a good showing at this year's tournament but was eliminated in the last hand of Day 5. He was all in with KK against two players who both held AA, and no K came for Phillip who was eliminated in 186th place. Another big hand occurring at the end of the night's play involved the previously mention Phil Ivey. Ivey called an all in of an opponent holding 88 and won the race to eliminate his opponent who was holding AQ. This was the last hand played at his table and set the poker pro up in good shape for today's Day 6.

The 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event is getting more exciting by the day as the final table is nearing closer. Day 6 play will be filled with plenty of intrigue as there are some big heavyweights in the poker world still remaining in the field. With only 185 players remaining every hand at this stage of the tournament is crucial and one mistake can end a player's chance of winning it all. This very well may be the year that a top pro not only makes the final table but takes the whole thing down. Following today's Day 6 it will be much clearer as to who may be the 2009 Main Event champion.