The long trek towards the next champion of the 2013 World Series of Poker Championship Event inched closer to a finish on Saturday as the field was decreased from 239 runners to only 68 survivors.
The 239 players who came back on Saturday were all guaranteed a payday of $37,019, but anyone who plays the game of poker knows that they all were aiming higher. Jon Lane came to the felt on Saturday as the chip leader with 2.839 million in chips, but the field was closely bunched behind him; there was only a million chip gap between Lane and the tenth place player, Ami Alibay, meaning that no one had really seized control of the tournament to this point.
One of the odder occurrences of the Championship Event – and perhaps the entirety of the 2013 WSOP – happened between Matt Kursar and Zachary Weiss. Kursar, nursing his short stack back to health, was the beneficiary of an all-in from Weiss that pitted Kursar’s Big Slick against Weiss’ menial Q-4. The table, a bit stunned by the offering, seemed to accept Weiss’ explanation of prior travel arrangements, but they couldn’t have been pleased after Kursar hit an Ace to trump Weiss’ flopped four. After the hand, Kursar was up to 440K and would use those chips to push himself to a 128th place finish.
The defending champion of the tournament, Greg Merson, was still in the mix at the start of the day and would move up to 707K after just the first level of play. That would be as far as Merson would get in this year’s tournament as his chips slowly slipped away from him. On his final hand, Merson would move all in pre-flop after a Brett Richey bet and, when the action returned to him, Richey made the call and tabled his A-K for action. Merson could only muster an A-2 to go to battle and it looked good on the flop; a deuce in the window put him ahead for a flash. As the dealer fanned the flop, a King was revealed to end Merson’s lead. Once the turn and river failed to bring another deuce, Merson’s run at a repeat championship ended in 167th place.
Lane was also a player who had trouble as he moved through Day Five. His chip stack never grew over his starting point on Saturday and, after doubling up Roger Hendren, he was sitting with “only” 2.5 million in chips. Those chips would slowly dwindle away until Lane was eliminated without much fanfare in 94th place.
There were players who had a positive day on the tables at the Rio, most notably Sami Rustom. Hovering in the upper reaches of the leaderboard all day, he finally captured that lead as the play concluded for the night. He will start Day Six this afternoon as the chip leader, but there’s still a long way to go before anyone can start thinking about the WSOP Championship Event bracelet:
1. Sami Rustom, 7.005 million
2. Marc McLaughlin, 6.695 million
3. Jason Mann, 6.58 million
4. Maxx Coleman, 6.26 million
5. George Wong, 5.74 million
6. Sylvain Loosli, 5.69 million
7. Ryan Riess, 5.57 million
8. Keanu Tabali, 5.435 million
9. Matthew Reed, 5.255 million
10. Chris Lindh, 4.07 million
Hovering just under the Top Ten is a player who is looking to repeat the performance of Gaelle Baumann and Elisabeth Hille from last year…or, better yet, take it one step further than those two ladies did. Australia’s Jackie Glazier is in 12th place with her 4.045 million chip stack and she is the final female player left in the Championship Event after the elimination of Annette Obrestad in 84th place. Other notables joining Glazier in the race for the bracelet include Yevgeniy Timoshenko (11th, 4.065 million), David Benefield (18th, 3.675 million), J. C. Tran (28th, 3.28 million) and former World Champion Carlos Mortensen (35th, 2.665 million).
There will be no rest on Sunday for the 68 players who are vying for the WSOP Championship Event win. Another five two-hour levels are awaiting them this afternoon, but that may be adjusted as to how rapid the busts come from the group. By the end of today, look for the final 27 to have been determined, with Monday’s Day Seven deciding who our next group of members for the “November Nine” club will be.
