Koppel Takes Huge Chip Lead into the Final Day of Event #26: $2,620 NLHE Marathon

Shirley Ang

Level 30 : 60,000/120,000, 120,000 ante

Six players are left in Event #26: $2,620 No-Limit Hold��Em Marathon after almost five and a half levels of 100 minutes each on Day 5 here at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Taking the overnight chip lead is Jared Koppel with 11,700,000 in chips. Koppel is followed by China��s Dong Sheng Peng with less than half of what Koppel bagged, 5,800,000. Closing the podium is Francis Anderson with 3,695,000 in chips here at the 50th Annual World Series of Poker.

Day 5 started with 16 players in their seats, spread out over the two feature tables in the Amazon room. It would take almost 40 minutes before the first elimination if the day was a fact when bracelet winner Preston Lee��s ace-king couldn��t beat the pocket nines of Peter Hong. Shortly after it was time for the other bracelet winner, Daniel Park, to say his goodbyes to the table when he shoved with ace-eight and saw he was behind against the ace-jack of Anderson.

Timothy Miles was next to go when he held ace-jack but he was up against the pocket eights of Joe Curcio who held throughout the runout of the board. Soon after Frances��s Johan Guilbert was sent to the payout desk to collect $21,208 when he ran his pocket treys into the rockets of Sergio Fernandez. Vladimir Revniaga got coolered by Peng and then ran his last chips into the ace-queen of Koppel while holding pocket jacks. The ace on the flop sealed the deal for him as he was eliminated in 12th place.

Yichen Xu got stuck in a three-way all-in situation with ace-nine. He was up against the pocket fours of Gustavo Darosamuniz and the ace-king of Roman Korenev. With a four on the flop, Xu was sent to the rail while Darosamuniz more than doubled. Half an hour later, it was finally time for the final table to be set up as Fernandez was eliminated by Koppel.

Marathon Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize (USD)
1			$477,401
2			$295,008
3			$208,726
4			$149,605
5			$108,646
6			$79,957
7	Matt Russell	United States	$59,645
8	Gustavo Darosamuniz	Brazil	$45,100
9	Peter Hong	United States	$34,580

It would take 45 hands before the first player was sent away from the official final table, Hong ran almost ten big blinds into the ace-jack of Curcio while holding ace-seven himself. Thirty minutes later, the rail got a bit quieter as the Brazilians saw their hopes being dwarfed by Anderson. Darosamuniz got it in good preflop with pocket aces. Anderson held ace-king and flopped a Broadway. The queen on the turn gave the Brazilian some hope but he bricked the river.

The marathon honored its name as it took almost four hours before the Day 3 chip leader, Matt Russell would be eliminated to end the day. After 104 hands of seven-handed play, Russell jammed his last eight big blinds in with ace-deuce and was called by Peng who held pocket sixes. He held on to the lead throughout the board for Russell to fall at the final hurdle today with the finish line in sight.

When the six remaining players return at noon local time on Saturday, June 16, they will continue with Level 30 which features a small blind of 60,000, big blind of 120,000, and a big blind ante of 120,000. There are 53 minutes left in the level and then they will move on to playing full levels of 100 minutes each again with a 15-minute break between each level. Play will continue until a winner has been crowned in the Thunderdome and you can follow all the action right here as the PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing them to you without delay.

The action will also be streamed on CBS All Access with hole-cards and at least 30 minutes delay due to game security reasons.

Marathon Final Table Seat Draw

Seat	Player	Country	Chip Counts	Big Blinds
1	Joseph Liberta	United States	2,540,000	21
2	Roman Korenev	Russia	3,310,000	28
3	Francis Anderson	United States	3,695,000	31
4	Jared Koppel	United States	11,700,000	98
5	Joe Curcio	United States	1,540,000	13
6	Dong Sheng Peng	China	5,800,000	48