All nine World Series of Poker Main Event final table players convened at the Rio in Las Vegas on Thursday, otherwise known as Day 8 of the tournament. The goal was to play down to six, and they did it rather quickly.
Nicolas Manion lost his chip lead in the first few hands, putting Michael Dyer in the driver’s seat, as Joe Cada chipped up. Short-stacked Antoine Labat found his spot to push on the 16th hand of the night with pocket kings. Artem Metalidi called with pocket queens, and a queen on the flop ousted Labat in ninth place for a cool $1-million consolation prize.
Aram Zobian doubled through Dyer to stay alive. When Metalidi moved all-in soon after with pocket fives, Zobian called with K-Q suited. A five came on the flop, but Zobian made his flush on the river, sending Metalidi out in eighth place with $1.25 million.
Alex Lynskey was the short stack then, having won no pots at the final table through the first 46 hands. On the 47th, he made his move with pocket sixes, and John Cynn turned over K-Q. Cynn flopped a Sportsbookhot straight draw and hit it on the river, and Lynskey exited in seventh place with $1.5 million.
They played to finish the level and ended with six players – all from the United States – still in contention for the $8.8-million top prize and World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
| Player | Chips |
|---|---|
| Michael Dyer | 156,500,000 |
| Nicolas Manion | 72,250,000 |
| John Cynn | 61,550,000 |
| Tony Miles | 57,500,000 |
| Joe Cada | 29,275,000 |
| Aram Zobian | 16,700,000 |
Bracelets for Al-Keliddar, Polk and Timofeev
Event 70 was the $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6-Handed tournament. The final table boasted names like Juha Helppi and Barry Greenstein, but Helppi shared the chip lead with Yaser Al-Keliddar at the start of the final table. And those two made it to heads-up with Al-Keliddar emerging victorious for a $154,338 payday to go with a WSOP bracelet.
The $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha tournament was the 72nd of the series, featuring 706 players, and its final table was an exciting one. The most excited was Jordan Polk, however, as it was his first WSOP final table and he went on to outlast everyone to capture the title and $197,461.
The 73rd event was the $1,000 Double Stack Turbo, a new event for the series and one that found names like Thiago Nishijima, Ben Yu and Jordan Young at the final table. But the final battle took place between Spanish professional player Leo Margets and Denis Timofeev of Russia, with the latter finishing up as the Sportsbook for $199,586.
