With only a couple of days until the final table, the 2023 WSOP Main Event has officially fallen under 150 players, with 149 players coming back for Day 6 tomorrow. Day 5 saw the elimination of several high-stakes pros, with Jason Koon, Chris Brewer, and Chance Kornuth all hitting the rail, along with a number of other notable names.
Flopped Set No Good For Koon
Early on Day 5, we saw the elimination of one of the toughest remaining players in the field - Jason Koon. Facing a 55K open from Carlos Leiva, Jason looked down at KK on a roughly 21bb stack. He put in the 3bet to 120K, and the action folded back round to Leiva, who put Jason all-in.
Obviously, Jason snapped with his KK and was delighted to see the TT of his opponent. However, he wasn’t as happy to see a flop of AKQ, giving his opponent twice as many outs as he had previously. The turn was the 8, a total brick, but the river was the J, cruelly eliminating Jason from this year’s Main Event.
Brewer Loses A Flip
Shortly after Jason Koon left the event, we saw the demise of another super high roller regular in Chris Brewer. Sat on a similar 21bb stack to Koon, Brewer called all-in for his tournament life with JJ after an open from the CO and a 22bb shove from the SB.
Brewer’s opponent, Hang Xu, had AK, meaning that Brewer would be racing for his tournament life. The flop was a poor one for Brewer; the KT9 flop gave Xu a huge lead, but it did leave Brewer with six outs. Unfortunately for Chris, the turn and river were an inconsequential 2 and 5, eliminating another one of the strongest players left in the field.
Kornuth Coolered By Rigby
Two of the big stacks at one of the feature tables were Chance Kornuth and Nicholas Rigby. Rigby who is known for having a wild and crazy playing style woke up with AA on the button, and with Chance finding AK in the big blind, there were always going to be fireworks.
Rigby made a huge raise to 100K with a 30K big blind, and Chance made the 3bet to 385K. Both players were over 100bb deep to start the hand, with Chance sitting on 3.1 million, and Rigby having him covered. After a short tank, Rigby decided to rip in his stack with the aces and was quickly snapped off by Chance who saw the bad news.
The flop came J29, giving Chance a couple of backdoor draws that could make things interesting. Rigby called for the 4 on the turn to end it, and that’s exactly what he got! The 4 hit the turn, followed by the Th to eliminate Chance and give Rigby a monster stack.
No Repeat Winner
Day 5 also saw the end of any hopes for a repeat winner, as Chris Moneymaker and Joe Hachem were both eliminated from the event.
Chris was the first to go, having been whittled down to just 15bb, he found 55 in the HJ and shoved all in. Unfortunately for Chris, the player to his directly his left woke up with KK and made the call. The flop of 973 gave Chris a glimmer of hope, as some backdoor straights were on the cards, but the K on the turn sealed Chris’ fate and saw the 2003 champ hit the rail.
Just a few minutes later Joe Hachem followed his fellow Main Event winner out the door. After raising to 60K, Hachem was 3bet by his opponent two seats over to 180K. Hachem made the call and the pair saw a flop of AT2. Hachem checked, Mason Vieth c-bet to 200K, and Hachem called.
The turn was a brick, the 5, and Hachem checked again. Mason made another bet, this time putting Hachem all-in for his last 600K chips. After some deliberation, Hachem made the call and saw he was up against the KJ of his opponent. Unfortunately for Hachem, the 8 hit the river and sent him to the rail.
Biggest Stacks From Day 5
After a crazy day of action, let’s take a look at the players who ended with the biggest stacks.
table
| Rank | Winner | Country | Blinds | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zachary Hall | United States | 204 | 16,310,000 |
| 2 | Bryan Obregon | United States | 154 | 12,295,000 |
| 3 | Liran Betito | Israel | 139 | 11,140,000 |
| 4 | Andrew Hulme | United Kingdom | 138 | 11,065,000 |
| 5 | Joshua Payne | United States | 123 | 9,850,000 |
| 6 | Anirban Das | India | 115 | 9,230,000 |
| 7 | Tony Dunst | United States | 104 | 8,285,000 |
| 8 | Glenn Fishbein | United States | 103 | 8,265,000 |
| 9 | Jonathan Therme | France | 99 | 7,900,000 |
Among the notable names in the top 10 are Tony Dunst and Zachary Hall, two players whom many fans will be expecting to have a good shot at the final table.
Who do you think will make the final table of this year’s Main Event? Will aggressive players like Rigby make it all the way? Let us know on social media and stay tuned for all the latest WSOP news and events.
