After Day 7 concluded, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event was down to just three tables. What was once a sea of poker tables amid dreams of hitting the third largest prize ever awarded is now down to just a select few. At the beginning of the day, there were 78 players hoping to chip up and make a run at the 2010 WSOP November Nine.
On a day where players came in with massive stacks and looked to chip up, many felt the violent swings of poker variance. People in the chip lead found themselves crippled and ultimately busted out, while others went on runs of a lifetime. Play lasted five levels for nearly 12 hours of poker and concluded last night at 11:00pm PT, well sooner than most of the people in the room expected.
Our chip leader heading into the final 27 players is California poker pro Joseph Cheong, who lives in La Mirada, California and goes by the online moniker “subiime.” He has a psychology degree from the University of California at San Diego and at 24, is looking to leverage his 24.49 million chip stack all the way to the final nine players. The word on the rail is that he took all of his own action in this one, meaning if he takes first place, he won’t have to share the $8.94 million prize with anybody.
Another Californian sits behind Cheong in second place, Cuong “Soi” Nguyen from Santa Ana, California. Poker buddies and work friends are sweating Nguyen on the rails. His stack is at an astonishing 23.1 million and looks very healthy as a true amateur left in the field.
Another player making waves on Day 7 was online poker pro Jason Senti, better known as “PBJaxxx” online. He’s one of the lead instructors at BlueFire Poker and has a ton of mid and high-stakes heads-up experience. Sound familiar? It should, as last year, another heads-up cash game regular, Joe Cada, took the event down. Senti has his family and friends railing him and created an impromptu drinking game every time he took down a big pot. Needless to say, they were one of the most fun groups to hang out with during the night. Senti joined us for a quick interview and came off as very even-keeled and confident heading into the final day of play here at the Rio thanks to his 13.55 million stack.
Big names left in the tournament underwent brutal beats and sick coolers that forced them to hit the rail. Popular pro Theo Jorgensen, who has a bracelet to his name already, was the chip leader at the beginning of the day, but left after he lost his stack in just under an hour. His flopped set of sixes on a 6-7-T board were out-flopped by 9-8 for the nuts, which held up.
Day 5 chip leader Evan Lamprea also hit the rail in 46th place and Jacobo Fernandez (who has 14 cashes in the last three years at the WSOP) left in 49th place. David Benyamine, popular from his many televised cash game appearances, left the tournament in 58th place. Many, including ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, joked that they never saw Benyamine play a single hand on any day of the tournament.
Also leaving the tournament was UB.com sponsored tournament pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, who was coming off a second place finish at the World Poker Tour Championship just a few months ago. Baldwin was up and down for the better part of the last three days and was eliminated in 59th place. Finally, “Survivor” cast member Jean-Robert Bellande booked his best ever effort in the Main Event by finishing in 78th place.
Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi remains in the field with 6.3 million (16th place) and can still capture the prestigious WSOP Player of the Year award. Other familiar names left in the field include UB.com pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy and PokerStars’ Johnny Lodden, who find themselves in the bottom half of the remaining field.
Here is how the final 27 stacks up entering the play down day:
1. Joseph Cheong – 24,490,000
2. Cuong Nguyen – 23,100,000
3. Pascal LeFrancois – 15,780,000
4. Jason Senti – 13,550,000
5. Matthew Jarvis – 13,300,000
6. Matt Affleck – 12,515,000
7. Jonathan Duhamel – 10,520,000
8. John Racener – 10,470,000
9. Filippo Candio – 10,020,000
10. Benjamin Statz – 9,885,000
11. Robert Pisano – 8,060,000
12. Michiel Sijpkens – 7,765,000
13. Duy Le – 7,255,000
14. Scott Clements – 7,250,000
15. David Baker – 6,825,000
16. Michael Mizrachi – 6,300,000
17. Brandon Steven – 6,045,000
18. Adam Levy – 4,745,000
19. William Thorson – 3,680,000
20. Redmond Lee – 3,315,000
21. Mads Wissing – 3,070,000
22. Ronnie Bardah – 2,525,000
23. Matthew Bucaric – 2,270,000
24. John Dolan – 2,175,000
25. Patrick Eskandar – 1,655,000
26. Johnny Lodden – 1,560,000
27. Hasan Habib -1,510,000
