Two familiar names took the Rio by storm on Day 6 of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event as Phil Ivey and Antonio Esfandiari climbed into the top six chip counts as play concluded Monday evening. Sixty-four players will return for Day 7, with Ivey third overall with 6,345,000 and Esfandiari close behind with 5,610,000.
Ivey was followed by a large crowd all day as he almost quadrupled his 1,380,000 starting stack. It didn’t come without a little luck on his side. In one of his biggest pots of the day, Ivey moved all-in with a jack-high flush draw on the flop against Kent Goulding’s top pair of queens and Ivey made his flush on the river to add more than one million chips to his stack. He used those chips to help propel him to the top of the leaderboard at the end of the night.
Esfandiari’s biggest pot of the night came when he picked off an opponent’s bluff with A-K on a 7-5-5-K board. Wesley Ismay moved all-in for two million over the top of an Esfandiari bet with just queen-high and was sent home when Antonio made the call and had Ismay drawing dead.
Others advancing to Day 7 included Joe Sebok, Prahlad Friedman, Tom Schneider, Fabrice Soulier, James Akenhead, and 2008 November Nine member Dennis Phillips.
Ivey and company will be catching chip leader Darvin Moon of Oakland, Maryland. Moon has made the most of his first trip to the WSOP by building his stack to 9,745,000 by the end of Day 6. Many of those came from David Benyamine, who had his aces cracked by Moon’s flopped set of threes after all of the chips went in on the turn. Moon cracked aces again later in the day when he flopped quad queens.
“It’s easy to play when you get hands like I was getting”, Moon said of his amazing rush on Day 6. “It’s just unbelievable. It’s like a dream. I got pocket aces and flopped trips, and someone was betting into me. But I had pocket kings one time and the other guy pushed all in over the top of me. I just mucked my hand pre-flop. I mean, he has to have aces. What else can he have? That’s just my style. I play tight. When I get them I bet and when I don’t, I fold.”
Two former Main Event winners made it deep in 2009 but both were sent home on Day 6. Defending champion Peter Eastgate was eliminated late in the day, ending up as the 78th-place finisher. He got his remaining chips in preflop with A-J against two players, including Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp. The two players checked it down and while Eastgate made two pair, Kopp made a flush on the river with his pocket eights to send champ home. Joe Hachem, the 2005 World Champion, was eliminated in 104th place – also by Kopp.
Other notables making their exits on Monday were Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, JC Tran, Kenny Tran, Theo Tran, and Noah Boeken.
Two women took their seat as Day 6 began but Leo Margets is now the only female player left standing in the field of 64. Margets, from Barcelona, finished the day with 3,860,000 and got a congratulatory handshake from Nichoel Peppe when Peppe busted out of the tournament. Margets is attempting to become the first female ever to win the Main Event and the first since Barbara Enright to reach the final table. Enright took fifth place in 1995.
Here’s a look at the top 10 chip counts heading into Day 7 of the WSOP Main Event:
1. Darvin Moon – 9,745,000
2. Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp – 8,245,000
3. Phil Ivey – 6,345,000
4. Steven Begleiter – 6,315,000
5. Ludovic Lacay – 5,965,000
6. Antonio Esfandiari – 5,610,000
7. Tommy Vedes – 5,430,000
8. Antoine Saout – 5,195,000
9. Ben Lamb – 4,975,000
10. Nick “fu_15” Maimone – 4,900,000
