Park Leads the Final 36 in the 2021 WSOP Main Event; Aldemir, Colillas and "Papo MC" Among the Big Stacks
The 2021 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event is down to the final 36 hopefuls out of a field of 6,650 entries. All those still in contention have locked up a decent portion of the $62,011,250 already and will pad their bankrolls with a payday of at least $198,550. However, all eyes are set on the days to come as a new World Champion will be crowned at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Day 6 concluded with three dozen contenders still in the mix and Hye Park topped the leaderboard with a stack of 29,500,000. During the late stages, Park notched up several knockouts to surpass Demosthenes Kiriopoulos (24,905,000) and Joshua Remitio (21,490,000) on the overnight leaderboard. For Remitio, the tournament has already surpassed all expectations as he admitted in table chat that his previous biggest buy-in was a mere $300.
"I'm just taking it one level at a time. I am kind of shocked I've made it this far. This is my first main event and I don't really play any tournaments to begin with. I'm just trying to wake up from this dream," Remitio said after he had bagged up the third-biggest stack on Day 6. He has been studying for the last two years and locked up the far biggest cash on the live poker circuit already.
Top 10 in Chips After Day 6 of the 2021 WSOP Main Event
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hye Park | United States | 29,500,000 | 123 |
| 2 | Demosthenes Kiriopoulos | Canada | 24,905,000 | 104 |
| 3 | Joshua Remitio | United States | 21,490,000 | 90 |
| 4 | Chase Bianchi | United States | 20,765,000 | 87 |
| 5 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | 18,905,000 | 79 |
| 6 | George Holmes | United States | 18,425,000 | 77 |
| 7 | Ramon Colillas | Spain | 18,200,000 | 76 |
| 8 | Alejandro Lococo | Argentina | 17,950,000 | 75 |
| 9 | Ozgur Secilmis | Turkey | 14,700,000 | 61 |
| 10 | David Cabrera | Spain | 14,530,000 | 61 |
Among the notables with big stacks are also Chase Bianchi, Koray Aldemir, Ramon Colillas, Alejandro Lococo, and David Cabrera. The Argentinian rapper Lococo, who is known under his stage name "Papo MC" finished Day 6 inside the top 10 after his late surge in the final level culminated in the elimination of Tyler Cornell.
Bianchi built his stack throughout the day with a smile on his face. "This is my first Main Event cash. I'm just trying to enjoy it and blast away." For many other hopefuls, the deep run is a dream come true including Matthew Jewett: "I wake up every day having to pinch myself. I've dreamt about this my entire life."
Chance Kornuth finished the day just outside of the top 10 and continues to shine in the 2021 WSOP, during which he won his third career gold bracelet in Event #29: $10,000 Short Deck No-Limit Hold'em. Other notables returning for Day 7 include Jareth East, Jesse Lonis, the WSOP bracelet winners Robert Mitchell and Mitchell Halverson, as well as Nicolas Dumont.
Two GGPoker qualifiers are also still in the hunt for the top prize of $8 million. Sean Ragozzini made it through with 13,435,000 in chips while ClubGG qualifier Vasu Amarapu follows not far behind with 10,290,000.
Big Names Fall on Day 6
Day 6 commenced with 96 contenders and several big names were among them. Stephen Chidwick started with one of the bigger stacks but his Main Event run came to an end during the first level of the day. After dropping into the middle of the pack, the Brit took a flip with ace-queen against pocket nines and flopped top pair. However, Mitchell Halverson rivered a straight to send Chidwick to the rail.
John Morgan turned a flush to eliminate Yuri Dzivielevski and Stephen Song ran into the flopped flush of Ruslan Dykshteyn. Right before the first break, Asher Conniff had his aces cracked by the ace-queen suited of Lewis Spencer.
During the second level of the day, Morgan was dominated with ace-five suited against the ace-ten of Abhinav Iyer and found no help on a jack-high board. In the hours that followed thereafter, the hopes of an even deeper run also ended for Chris Dowling, aforementioned WSOP bracelet winner Iyer, Ehsan Amiri, Nick Petrangelo, Robert Cowen, Alex Goulder, and 2021 WSOP bracelet winner Tyler Cornell.
End of the Road for Nanji and Lim
Among the 96 returning players were also two women as well. Fatima Nanji and Dragana Lim were aiming to make it through another day and keep their hopes alive of reaching the final table. Nanji had taken part in some events during the early stages of the festival and returned on short notice from Canada to participate in the Main Event. That decision certainly paid off as Nanji collected $68,900 for her 90th place finish.
Lim was among the big stacks on the previous two days and continued her path to success with a double elimination. However, she eventually had to settle for 64th place after her ace-king ended up second-best to ace-queen on the feature table. Lim intends to use her $95,700 payday to build her own Animal Foundation.
Upon completion of five two-hour levels, Day 6 concluded with 36 players remaining. They will return for Day 7 on Monday, November 15, at noon local time. The recommencing blinds will be 120,000-240,000 with a big blind ante of 240,000. Day 7 is scheduled to play down to the nine-handed final table and the PokerNews team will be back then to provide all the key hands from start to finish.