It seems like the 2023 World Series of Poker Championship Event has been going on forever – and there are still four more days to go – but, in reality, it has only been in action for the past ten days. Day Six is now in the books, with 49 players left on the battlegrounds, and leading the way is Joshua Payne of the USA. These 49 men (the last women standing, India’s Nikita Luther and France’s Estelle Cohuet, were dismissed on Day Six) will fight it out for the lion’s share of the $93.4 million prize pool, including the $12.1 million first place prize that will be awarded to the 2023 WSOP Championship Event winner next week.
Rigby Joins All the Lonely People
149 runners came to the line for action in the 2023 WSOP Championship Event on Wednesday, looking to drive deeper into the money at this year’s tournament. Each of the folks that returned for Day Six was guaranteed a nice increase over their $10,000 investment – $67,700 – but nobody was thinking about that block of cash at the moment. Leading the way at the start of the day was another player from the U. S., Zachary Hall, with his 16.31 million in chips. However, he had a host of notables in pursuit, including Andrew Hulme of the United Kingdom (11.065 million) and World Poker Tour commentator Tony Dunst (8.285 million) in the Top Ten.
Arguably one of the most “colorful” players at the tables was Nicholas Rigby, though. Making his second consecutive deep run in the WSOP Championship Event, Rigby had been to the top of the mountain with his wildly unconventional style (basically “play any two cards”), but it also led him to the bottom of the stacks. Rigby would start the day with 1.65 million and, on the very first hand, would show the travails of his style of play.
Rigby kicked up the action on Day Six’s Hand #1, raising to 235,000, and was met with a call from Jan-Peter Jachtman and an all-in push from Luis Yepez. Rigby’s “hell bent for leather” style saw him move all in OVER Yepez’s wager, which was enough for Jachtman to walk away. Rigby turned up an A♦ 10♦ to go against Yepez’s A-J, and it wasn’t good enough to win as the board ran out with only a pair of Queens.
Just like that, Rigby shipped a third of his stack to Yepez.
It wouldn’t get any better for Rigby, either. He slowly bled chips through the day and found himself all in with a halfway decent hand, pocket Jacks. Rigby would find himself in a race against Diego D’Aquilio’s Big Slick and would flop well in catching a set of knaves. Unfortunately, there was also a ten on the flop, leaving D’Aquilio looking for the gutter ball Queen and a Broadway straight. The turn would be blank, but the river brought the lady that D’Aquilio wanted to eliminate Rigby in 131st place.
Payne Rides Knockout of Hall to Take Chip Lead
The news also wasn’t good for some of the other notables in the field. Dunst and Hulme would clash in a pot that saw Hulme river a straight flush. Dunst, who had caught just a “normal” flush, would commit his final chips to the pot and see the bad news. For his efforts, Dunst would finish in 66th place, earning a six-figure payday ($130,300) as a consolation prize.
The final women in the field also would not fare well. Luther was the first to depart, also at the hands of Hulme. Luther got it in good with an A-K, but Hulme got there with his A-Q when the board rolled out 5-5-2-Q-9 to end her run in 96th place. Cohuet would fare better, driving to 68th place. Cohuet was caught trying to push a K-10 past Raj Vohra’s A♣ Q♣, which caught an unnecessary flush on the turn.
Payne, meanwhile, was on the ascent and he would use the knockout of the start-of-day chip leader to add to an already monstrous stack. After Day Five chip leader Hall pushed out a bet from under the gun, Payne upped the action off the hijack to 2.5 million. To call would take the remainder of Hall’s chips, and he committed them to the pot. Once the cards were up, he saw that he was in a race situation:
Hall: K-Q off suit
Payne: pocket tens
The 8-4-3 flop didn’t change anything in the hand, nor did the five on the turn or the deuce on the river. Hall would shake hands as one of the final eliminations on Day Six, pocketing his 51st place finish ($188,400) as Payne stacked up the chip lead heading to Day Seven:
1. Joshua Payne (USA), 47.95 million
2. Juan Maceiras Lapido (Spain), 40.5 million
3. Daniel Weinman (USA), 24.375 million
4. Richard Ryder (USA), 22.65 million
5. Tim Van Loo (Austria), 21.7 million
6. Alec Torelli (USA), 21.075 million
7. Daniel Scroggins (USA), 20.8 million
8. Pierpaola Lamanna (Italy), 18.875 million
9. Nicholas Gerrity (USA), 18.075
10. Ryan Tamanini (USA), 17.325 million
While Payne and Lapido have certainly separated themselves from the pack of 49 players behind them, there are threats all over the Horseshoe. Jachtman (14.975 million), Hulme (11.725 million), Mark Teltscher (9.3 million), Andrey Pateychuk (8.05 million), and WSOP-Circuit terror Maurice Hawkins (4.475 million) are lurking down the leaderboard. The plan for Thursday is to play another five, two-hour levels, which should bring the 2023 WSOP Championship down to the final three tables (27 players) ahead of “Championship Weekend” when the final table will play out.
