And so it comes down to this. Three tables of nine players. Just a few days ago, it was difficult to see across the poker room at the Rio, to distinguish one table from another. But now, now the tournament can fit into a good sized living room. In some ways, today is the most exciting day of the 2013 World Series of Poker. Sure, those couple days in November when a champion is crowned are fantastic, but part of the glory of it all is making it to the final table, to the November Nine. The 27 players who remain WSOP Main Event can see it clearly. They can envision their opponents dropping by the wayside. The final table is dead ahead and will be reached by the end of Monday night.
Day 6 of the Main Event began with 68 players and by the time the chips were bagged, German (now living in London with a dual German-American citizenship) Anton Morgenstern had emerged as the chip leader. With 21.955 million chips, he has a sizeable lead over second place player Sylvain Loosli, who has 14,125,000. After him, it’s another 2 million chip drop to third place, so everyone has some work to do to catch the leader.
Morgenstern is looking to follow in the footsteps of fellow German Pius Heinz, who won the 2011 WSOP Main Event. Our chip leader does not have much a live tournament history, having only started playing live tourneys about a year ago, but he did already have three WSOP cashes going into the Main Event, including one this year.
There are several notable players remaining in the field, but a few of note include 2001 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Carlos Mortensen, who is currently in fifth place with 10.790 million chips. He is still the only Spaniard to ever make the Main Event final table and ranks as the top earning Spanish poker player of all-time. He also ranks 16th on the all-time worldwide money list and is the leading money winner in the history of the World Poker Tour.
Steven Gee doesn’t have the depth of history that Mortensen does, but he is gunning for what could arguably be the most impressive back-to-back Main Event runs ever. A November Niner (actually Octo-Niner) last year (he finished 9th in the Main Event), he could become the first player to make consecutive Main Event final tables since Dan Harrington did it in 2003 and 2004 (he placed 3rd and 4th). Greg Raymer, the 2004 Main Event winner, almost did it, finishing 25th in 2005. What would put Gee’s two year run over the top is the size of the fields. Last year’s Main Event sat 6,598 players, while this year’s field was 6,352 players strong. Even if Gee busts out early on Monday, his feat will be right up there with the best of them. He’ll need to find some hands quickly, as he is in 22nd place with 3.160 million chips.
Also of note, Jackie Glazer, the last woman standing in the Main Event, bowed out in 31st place on Sunday night.
Day 7 is about to begin at the Rio. The tournament is up to Level 30, meaning blinds will be 60,000/120,000 with 15,000 chip antes. After 18 eliminations, the November Nine will be set!
2013 World Series of Poker Main Event – Day 6 Chip Counts
1. Anton Morgenstern – 21,955,000
2. Sylvain Loosli – 14,125,000
3. Chris Lindh – 12,030,000
4. Fabian Ortiz – 10,810,000
5. Carlos Mortensen – 10,790,000
6. James Alexander – 9,445,000
7. Jay Farber – 8,975,000
8. Matthew Reed – 7,705,000
9. Jason Mann – 7,500,000
10. Amir Lehavot – 7,385,000
11. Clement Tripodi – 7,135,000
12. Sergio Castelluccio – 6,560,000
13. Alexander Livingston – 5,800,000
14. Mark Newhouse – 5,785,000
15. Marc McLaughlin – 5,415,000
16. Jan Nakladal – 5,360,000
17. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 5,310,000
18. Ryan Riess – 3,830,000
19. Maxx Coleman – 3,830,000
20. Bruno Kawauti – 3,580,000
21. Benjamin Pollak – 3,230,000
22. Steve Gee – 3,160,000
23. Rep Porter – 2,675,000
24. Michiel Brummelhuis – 2,245,000
25. JC Tran – 1,970,000
26. Jorn Walthaus – 1,900,000
27. David Benefield – 1,840,000
