The 2014 World Series of Poker Championship Event is edging its way towards the creation of this year’s “November Nine” with one of the players who made it to that rarefied air last year in the lead and the 2007 “Last Woman Standing” still in contention herself.
291 players came out of the gates on Saturday afternoon as Matt Haugen ruled the roost. With his 2.808 million in chips, Haugen was looking to fend off the attacks of a variety of pros and amateurs who had reached this day with their own impressive chip stacks. Zach Jiganti (2nd, 2.364 million chips), Michael Finstein (4th, 2.316 million) and Bruno Politano (5th, 2.289 million) held up the “amateur” end while Griffin Benger (3rd, 2.329 million), Dan Smith (6th, 2.229 million) and Brian Hastings (11th, 2.079 million) held up the professional side of the game. With the players all racked up together closely, it was going to be an interesting battle to see who would emerge by the end of the day.
Both Hastings and Benger would start the day off well in chipping up over their start of day stacks. Benger was particularly aggressive, pushing his monster stack to the center of the felt against Michael Moed on a 4-2-5-10-K board that Moed couldn’t find a way to call. Haugen, meanwhile, would be sitting back as Kyle Keranen leapt over him to take over the chip lead barely an hour into the day’s action.
Benger and Keranen would spend much of Saturday afternoon trading off the chip lead between each other while another contender began to emerge. 2013 “November Niner” Mark Newhouse, who was the ninth place finisher at last year’s Championship Event, made a move that would put his name among the contenders. With a board showing 2♠ 9♥ 7♠, Munir Shahin moved all in against Newhouse and Newhouse made the call. With his A♠ Q♠, Newhouse was drawing to the nut flush against Shahin’s pocket Kings and, although the turn 3♥ was of no help, the river 10♠ delivered the goods for Newhouse and eliminated Shahin. With the victory, Newhouse moved up to 2.35 million in chips and marched up the leaderboard.
As the sun set and the 146 surviving players went to dinner, Benger and Keranen had been bested by Politano, while Leif Force and Andoni Larrabe rounded out the Top Five. Newhouse was lurking in the ninth position and Smith was still in the mix in tenth. Following the break for sustenance, Newhouse then would go on a run that would eventually land him in the top slot for the Day Five events.
After Newhouse would take some chips from Chris Johnson to nearly reach the five million chip level, the two would clash again with a similar outcome. Newhouse, on a K-3-7-9 flop and turn, put Johnson to the test for his remaining stack by betting two million chips. Johnson, much like their first encounter, couldn’t find a reason to make the call as Newhouse jumped up to six million in chips.
Even though he would double up Vladimir Bozinovic, Newhouse didn’t stop the attack on his table. He ruthlessly continued to used his monster stack to push players out of hands on his way to accumulating 7.4 million chips as the action closed early on Sunday morning. That stack is good for a 730K chip lead over Keranen when the action resumes on Sunday afternoon.
1. Mark Newhouse, 7.4 million
2. Kyle Keranen, 6.67 million
3. Scott Palmer, 6.595 million
4. Bruno Politano, 5.475 million
5. Andoni Larrabe, 5.47 million
6. Dan Smith, 5.36 million
7. Dan Sindelar, 5.24 million
8. Tony Ruberto, 5.235 million
9. Iaron Lightbourne, 4.975 million
10. Leif Force, 4.745 million
Other notable names in the Top 25 include Craig McCorkell (11th place, 4.335 million chips), Martin Jacobson (14th, 3.925 million), Bryan Devonshire (16th, 3.83 million), Luis Velador (18th, 3.78 million) and Andrey Zaichenko (19th, 3.565 million).
Of the 79 players left at this year’s Championship Event, only one of them will be a woman. Once Mikiyo Aoki (who was the runner-up in this year’s Ladies’ Tournament) was eliminated just after 2AM, 2007 “Last Woman Standing” Maria Ho had once again demonstrated her abilities in huge field events. Ho at one point had worked her way up to nearly 2.5 million around the midpoint of the day. When Day Six begins, though, Ho will have her work cut out for her as one of the short stacks at 435,000.
Day 6 has some ambitious goals to meet for its five levels of play (each level is two hours in length). The 79 players remaining, all guaranteed $85,812 for coming back on Sunday, will be looking to work their way to potentially the final three tables by the end of the night. This would be a best case scenario, as Monday will be the final rush to set up the “November Nine” for the 2014 World Series of Poker Championship Event.
