It’s coming down to crunch time at the Wynn Las Vegas. Only 128 players are remaining in the World Poker Tour World Championship event, with the final table set for Sunday. Of those 128 players, the United Kingdom’s Benny Glaser is in an excellent position to make a run for that title as the chip leader with just over 7.5 million in chips.
Big Order of Business to Start Day
With 399 players returning for action on Day Three, there was a big order of business to take care of. Only 370 of those in the room would be taking cash and a new line for their Hendon Mob resume, meaning that 29 people would leave on Friday with nothing but a story. At the start of the action, Adrian Sorel State was in a prime position to be one of those 370 players as he was the chip leader with 2.4 million in chips.
The early action was cruel for some big names in the game. Brian Rast would fall to LoriAnn Persinger after his Big Slick was run down by a runner-runner Broadway straight for Persinger’s Big Chick (A-Q). The defending World Series of Poker World Champion, Espen Jorstad, went in the opposite direction. Jorstad would find an opportune moment to have pocket Aces as his opponent had pocket Kings; an unnecessary Ace on the flop put a virtual lock on his double and, after no King appeared on the turn, it became a done deal.
Two hours of play would elapse before the money bubble would pop and two people would bust on the same hand. First, WPT announcer Tony Dunst was on the wrong end of a battle against Dan Sepiol. At the same time, however, Kat Klassen’s tournament would end at the hands of Freddy Deeb. With both players exiting on the same hand, Klassen and Dunst split 370th place for $8700 each and the celebration could begin.
Let the Payouts Begin!
With the money bubble popped, players could start collecting their earnings from the over $29 million prize pool. Players like James Mackey, Kenny Hallaert, Noah Schwartz, and Blair Hinkle picked up the min-cash. Adam Weintraub, Ema Zajmovic, and Chris Brewer lasted a bit longer to earn a little more cash as the tournament moved into the evening.
For his part, Glaser was on the grind through most of the day. Glaser would pick up a sizeable stack of chips from Mike Jozoff, getting Jozoff to fold his hand on a seemingly innocent Q-J-8-6 flop and turn. With a 250K bet on the turn, Glaser got Jozoff to fold his hand and cracked the two million chip mark.
The real driver for Glaser was a clash against David Coleman. With over a million chips on the table and a flop and turn of J-8-A-Q, Glaser fired out another 600K bet, which Coleman reluctantly called off. What seemed like a meaningless card in the 4♠ brought an all-in out of Glaser and Coleman’s agony increased. He made the call and showed a decent A-J for two pair, but Glaser had him topped with an A-Q for a better two pair, taking the massive pot and sending Coleman to the rail.
That moved Glaser up to 4.4 million in chips and he would ride that to the end of the day chip lead:
1. Benny Glaser, 7.565 million
2. Soheb Porbandarwala, 6.3 million
3. Lucas Foster, 6.2 million
4. Corey Paggeot, 5.865 million
5. Alberto Meran, 5.535 million
6. Krasim Yankov, 5.275 million
7. Juan Orellana, 5.255 million
8. Nate Kogel, 5.135 million
9. David ‘ODB’ Baker, 4.665 million
10. Wojtek Barzantny, 4.55 million
The defending WPT World Champion (from 2015, the last year the event was contested) Asher Conniff is still in the mix with 4.2 million in chips. The ladies have also been doing very well in this event, with Persinger (3.055 million), Arden Cho (2.17 million), Kyna England (2.03 million), and WPT host Lynn Gilmartin (800K) among the ladies still alive in the tournament.
Action has resumed in Las Vegas for Day Four, which could be a long one. With 128 players left, they are set to play through six levels on Saturday. That may not be enough to get down to the six-handed WPT final table, which might entail more work for the survivors late into the evening. Sunday is planned to be Championship Day for the WPT World Championship, but whether it will start with some bonus poker to get down to that final table remains to be seen.