WSOP Main Event: Bryan Piccioli leads, Colman & Weisner in top-10 | poker news

Day 4 of the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event saw a close race for the overall chip lead, with a number of players finishing on top throughout the day. Maria Ho made an early push, Melanie Weisner followed as the top two places were both occupied by women at a crucial moment, and then the race fell into a sort of free-for-all.

When the dust settled, two WSOP bracelet winners retained the slightest advantage and earned the top two spots overnight en route to Day 5. Bryan Piccioli, who won the 2013 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific inaugural event and former is The world’s No. 1 online player was the only one to bag over 4 million, 4,026,000 tying the 251 who made it to the end of Day 4 on Friday.

“Today was so much fun,” said Piccioli. “To be honest, I’m just going step by step. I see a lot of great players moving up the leaderboard so I know it might be tricky later on and who knows what the draw at the table might bring.”

Piccioli drew a pretty good table for his stack, with only one other player over 2M, despite having Max Altergott and David Pham sitting with him early in the day. When asked if there was a player on the field that particularly worried him, Piccioli had one person he could single out.

“James Obst,” said Piccioli. “I don’t want him near me. [If we get to that point] If he’s near me at the final table, that’s totally fine with me.”

Right behind Piccioli is Dan Colman, the 2014 $1 million Big One for One Drop champion, who is hoping to add a November 9th appearance to his resume of already having won one of the biggest prizes in tournament poker history. He started the day with 389,000, and after holding a relatively consistent stack for most of the day, Colman drove a massive rush late to finish with 3,711,000.

It’s a pretty close race from there as the top 11 stacks are all at least 3M. Weisner’s stack started taking a few hits after it peaked, and it looked like it was closer to 50th than the top 10 until Weisner woke up with pocket aces and settled on a five-bet. All-in showdown against Ace -King of Hearts and held.

That pot earned her just over 3 million – her highest point of the tournament.

“It was actually really funny,” Weisner said. “I had aces earlier in the day and won a big pot with them, and then I spent the rest of the day playing chips. I didn’t really have a lot of spots throughout the day. I thought before the last hand, ‘man, I really haven’t had any aces since the beginning of the day, why can’t I just have them again?’ Then I was dealt it.”

Despite the swings of being the chip leader, going cold in the middle of the day, and then ending up with the monster win, Weisner was calm and collected throughout the day.

“It’s great that I can do so well in this type of tournament,” said Weisner. “It’s so cool, a one-time thing. I try to do my best, leave nothing behind and have no regrets. There are still a lot of non-professionals in this field, but things will depend on the table draw, which by an order of magnitude will be the most important thing going forward.”

Only two previous Main Event champions are hoping to add another title to the trophy case. Two-time winner Johnny Chan sits in the middle of the field with 968,000 – just two spots behind 2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer (992,000) in chip counts.

Scott Montgomery (1,175,000) and Antoine Saout (2,283,000) are the last two players with November Nine experience, making Main Event final tables in 2008 and 2009, respectively.

Top 10 chip counts

1. Bryan Piccioli (Allegany, NY) – 4,026,000

2. Dan Colman (Holden, Massachusetts) – 3,711,000

3. Thomas Miller (East Hampton, NY) – 3,684,000

4. Pierre Merlin (Chalon Sur Saone, France) – 3,396,000

5. Farhad Jamasi (Ocoee, Florida) – 3,380,000

6. Goran Mandic (Zagreb, Croatia) – 3,216,000

7. Adi Abugazal (Los Angeles) – 3,180,000

8. Daniel Zack (Princeton, NJ) – 3,085,000

9. Melanie Weisner (Houston) – 3,078,000

10. Tom Middleton (Silsden, England) – 3,025,000

Review of notable failures

800-766 ($16,007)

Leo Wolpert (797.)

Will Failla (791.)

Kenny Tran (766.)

Among the day’s earliest casualties were two WSOP bracelet winners in Wolpert and Tran.

765-667 ($17,232)

Anton Wigg (764.)

Richard Lee (749.)

Jason Senti (734.)

Paul Newey (726.)

Matt Matros (712.)

David Benefield (699th)

Perry Friedman (681st)

David Tuchman (668th)

The first pay jump of the day earned those who dropped out at that level an additional $1,000. Lee, Senti and Benefield all have Main Event final tables to their credit, while Tuchman made a successful switch from live stream commentary for the WSOP to a Day 4 Main Event run all summer long.

666-604 ($18,714)

Tom McEvoy (644.)

Aditya Agarwal (621.)

McEvoy was one of four WSOP Main Event champions to make Day 4.

603.-541. ($20,499)

Daniel Kelly (577.)

Bruce Peery (559.)

Kelly is a two-time bracelet winner, most recently at the 2014 WSOP.

540-478 ($22,648)

Liv Boeree (528.)

Gavin Griffin (505.)

Andreas Lichtenberger (499.)

Griffin was the first player to win the Triple Crown (WSOP, WPT and EPT titles) in poker.

477-415 ($25,235)

Federico Butteroni (472.)

Barry Shulman (469th)

Antonio Esfandiari (449.)

William Tonking (421.)

Butteroni and Tonking were the last two members of the November Nine 2015 WSOP to remain in that tournament.

414-352 ($28,356)

Matthew Ashton (406.)

Cord García (376.)

Garcia won the first Colossus event in 2015.

351-289 ($32,130)

Lee Markholt (350th)

Ray Dehkharghani (339th)

Jamie Kerstetter (325.)

Jason Somerville (320th)

Jean Gaspard (304.)

Dehkharghani and Gaspard each had previous bracelets at the 2016 WSOP.

288-252 ($36,708)

Eoghan O’Dea (276th)

Ryan Riess (271st)

Steve O’Dwyer (261st)

Riess, the 2013 WSOP Main Event champion and last winner from the November Nine era in the field, busted out on Day 4 just before the end of the night.

Small blinds: A long day 3 lies ahead for the $1,111 Little One for One Drop, with 104 players remaining in the running for the final bracelet, to be awarded this summer. Guillaume Diaz is the chip leader going into Saturday with 1,282,000, with Mike Sowers (987,000), Ryan D’Angelo (850,000), Chris Ferguson (561,000) and Jeff Madsen (530,000) among the notable big stacks. The action resumes at 2:00 p.m. PT. …the Brasilia Room is now being vacated along with the Pavilion Room as the final hands of the 2016 WSOP have been dealt at each venue. All remaining tournament action, including the Main Event, Little One for One Drop finals and Daily Deepstacks, will all take place in the Amazon Room.

What’s next: Day 5 of the 2016 WSOP Main Event begins at 12pm PT with blinds of 12,000/24,000 and a 4,000 ante. Five two-hour levels are planned for the action on Saturday.