WSOP: Jerry Wong leads after Day 5 of Main Event with 80 points remaining | poker news

The 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event has reached a crucial crossroads. Approximately 6,656 players have fallen to this point, some with cash and some without, but for the 80 players still fighting to make the November Nine and win the $8 million first place prize, there are two clear results.

They’ve either struggled through five grueling days of play only to miss a few tables, or they’re two days away from realizing the dream so many poker players have had – hitting the bright lights of the Penn & Teller Theater in the fall, to play for the world title of poker.

Jerry Wong tops the list with 11,555,000; He is one of three players to win over 10 million on Day 6. Jan Suchanek (10,305,000) and Kenny Hallaert (10,050,000) round out this top three. For Hallaert in particular, it was a three-day rollercoaster ride; He took the chip lead after Day 3, exiting Day 4 with fewer chips than he came in and falling to a dangerous low of 300,000 at the start of Day 5 before bouncing back to the top of the counts.

Part of that run saw him eliminate 2004 WSOP Main Event Champion Greg Raymer, the last previous Main Event winner in the field.

After the bust back up to an above average stack @FossilMan. Thank you for the keepsake. pic.twitter.com/Z9KQzFkzIV

— Kenny Hallaert (@SpaceyFCB) July 17, 2016

Griffin Benger (9,860,000) and Joshua Weiss (8,330,000) round out the top five. While Benger, a former world No. 1 online player, has recently spent his time taking on a role as commentator for the Global Poker League, this phase of the Main Event is a familiar one; He finished 90th in the 2014 WSOP Main Event.

Just behind Weiss is William Kassouf, a UK lawyer who drew a lot of attention from ESPN cameras and WSOP ground crew alike on Day 5.

“It was a sick day,” said Kassouf shortly after the end of the game. “I talk a lot at the table – it’s a big part of my game, I’ve been doing it for 10 years and I’ve been quite successful at it. I don’t just do it for the cameras or showboating – I’ve spent most of the day at the outside tables – and getting into my opponent’s mind is a big part of my game. I like the whole psychological aspect of it.”

The most notable incident to emerge from Kassouf’s constant barrage of gossip involved a pair of hands with Stacy Matuson. Cameras rolled as the couple engaged in a pair of hands, each stretching for more than 10 minutes. Each time Kassouf Matuson put all-in – once on the turn and once on the river – and the second hand in which Kassouf submitted a bluff after Matuson opened pocket queens, Kassouf earned a taunt penalty, which came out this was where a whole series of comments and hand gestures he made came from.

Regardless of how one might feel about the process, for better or for worse, Kassouf’s results speak for themselves when you look at his chip count.

“At the end of the day, it’s an information-seeking game, and when I talk to them and converse with my opponents, I seem to get more information from them,” Kassouf said. “It’s about learning from their body language and their looks, rather than just throwing chips in the pot and not saying anything.”

Jared Bleznick ended the night in ninth place with 7,955,000, seeing an unlikely pair of hands on his way to that stack in a short amount of time. He briefly took the chip lead after flopping his pocket deuces quads, paid off in full by the top full house on the board, but slipped back slightly shortly after when his aces were beaten by a player with pocket sevens on the flop quads against him.

10 percent of players still fighting for the 2016 WSOP Main Event title already have a WSOP bracelet in their name. Colman, Cliff Josephy (twice), Paul Volpe (twice), Paul Hoefer, Michael Banducci, Dietrich Fast, Brian Yoon and Anthony Gregg have all had a win at the WSOP and hope to do so again.

There are a few other personalities to watch out for as the final two days of the November Nine playdown play out. Tom Marchese has consistently had strong results in high-roller fields against the best the game has to offer, and has made final tables at the WSOP, World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour; James Obst has an outstanding online record, and he had his best live cash of his career earlier this summer when he finished runner-up in the $10,000 HORSE Championship; Max Silver has numerous WSOP and EPT final tables on his resume; Jason Les is a high-stakes heads-up specialist with a string of live results including a 2nd and 3rd place finish in two events at the 2015 WSOP; and Chris Klodnicki is the all-time runner-up with second-place finishes in both the $111,111 One Drop High Roller (2013) and $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship (2012), along with a 12th-place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

Top 10 chip counts

1) Jerry Wong (Brooklyn, NY, USA) – 11,555,000

2) Jan Suchanek (Nelson, New Zealand) – 10,305,000

3) Kenny Hallaert (Hansbeke, Belgium) – 10,050,000

4) Griffin Benger (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) – 9,860,000

5) Joshua Weiss (Los Angeles, CA, USA) – 8,330,000

6) William Kassouf (Rickmansworth, UK) – 8,300,000

7) David L’Honore (Newport Paghnell, England) – 8,265,000

8) Chang Luo (Seattle, WA, USA) – 8,090,000

9) Jared Bleznick (New York, NY, USA) – 7,995,000

10) Fernando Pons (Caldwell, NJ, USA) – 7,930,000

Full chip counts

Gaelle Baumann is named “Last Woman Standing” for the second time

When play began on Saturday, there were still six women in the Main Event field, but for the second year in a row there was no woman in the field when the bags came out at the end of the night on Day 5.

Some of this could be attributed to bad luck and some was the natural play of the cards and the action, but some women went out in a particularly ugly way on Day 5. High flush draw when its other card, a four, paired the river. Jennifer Shahade lost when her pocket aces were cracked by a pair of queens running out a four-flush. Matuson was bluffed against Kassouf on two consecutive hands and then had her pocket aces cracked by King-Jack in a preflop all-in when her opponent flopped Trip-Kings.

Louise Francouer and Dee Friedman were soon to follow, leaving only Melanie Weisner and Gaelle Baumann with 127 players remaining. Weisner got into a big pot in which her opponent called with five-three suited against her ace-king, flopped an open-ended straight draw, and paired on the river to oust the former chip leader.

What remained was Baumann, who couldn’t find a hand for a long time. After folding to three or four big blinds, she moved all in with pocket deuces and the big blind was all but forced to call with ten-three suited. A ten came on the flop and all was looking lost until a miracle two gave new life to the tournament, albeit briefly.

She would drop out at No. 102 shortly thereafter, but not before earning the right to call herself the last woman standing for the second time in her career. Baumann did the same in 2012 when she bubbled the November Nine with a 10th place finish. She joins Ho as the only woman to have accomplished the feat twice.

Notable Eliminations on Day 3

251-226 ($36,708)

Maria Ho (242nd)

Simeon Naydenov (230th)

Ho is two-time Last Woman Standing in the WSOP Main Event

225-163 ($42,285)

Tyler Bonkowski (224th)

Shaun Deeb (221.)

Jennifer Shahade (204

Max Altergott (193.)

Johnny Chan (180th)

Adam Friedman (177th)

This was Chan’s eighth career cash in the WSOP Main Event. He is a two-time champion of this event, having won in 1987 and 1988 (and finishing second to Phil Hellmuth in 1989).

162-100 ($49,108)

Jason Strasser (158th)

Sorel Mizzi (157.)

Todd Brunson (154th)

David Pham (152nd)

Scott Montgomery (140th)

Marc-Andre Ladouceur (139th)

Mukul Pahuja (138th)

Dan Heimiller (137th)

Melanie Weisner (127th)

Greg Raymer (122nd)

Brandon Adams (117th)

Michael Gathy (107th)

Gaelle Bauman (102nd)

Jon Turner (100th)

Montgomery’s exit at No. 140 left Antoine Saout as the only November niner in the 2016 field. This was Raymer’s first WSOP Main Event cash since 2005 when he finished 25th the year after his title run.

99-91 ($57,494)

N / A

90th-82nd ($67,855)

Mike Gorodinsky (87th)

Shankar Pillai (86th)

Bryan Piccioli (84′)

Gorodinsky was 2015 WSOP Player of the Year. Piccioli was the chip leader at the end of Day 4, but lost a massive pot late on Day 5 with ace-queen versus ace-king to give Wong the chip lead.

Small blinds: 12 players made it to the end of Day 3 of the $1,111 Little One for One Drop, requiring a fourth day of play due to time constraints. Thai Tran has the chip lead, with bracelet winners Calvin Anderson and Ryan D’Angelo still in the hunt… With Main Event cashes and Little One for One Drop, Roland Israelashvili now holds the record for most WSOP cashes in one single year at 13

What’s next: The final 80 players return for Day 6 on Sunday, the penultimate day of action of the summer. The field has to go down to the last three tables, but the exact schedule and stopping point are not concrete figures yet. Play in the WSOP Main Event resumes at 12:00pm PT at level 27 with blinds of 40,000/80,000 and a 10,000 ante. The average stack is 4,210,625.