Ludovic Geilich raised to 120,000 from early position before Yu Tang jammed all in for 1,410,000. The action then folded to Amit Makhija in the big blind, who tanked for a while before reshoving with the covering stack.
Geilich folded and the other two showed down.
Yu Tang: A?Q?
Amit Makhija: 10?10?
It was a classic flip, and when the board remained free of aces and queens on 9?9?K?4?2?, Makhija was declared the winner.
Yu awaited his payout and left the tournament area shortly after.
Anirban Das opened to 125,000 from the hijack and received a call from Patrick Tardif in the cutoff. Gabi Livshitz three-bet to 550,000 from the small blind and Das made the call while Tardif got out of the way.
Livshitz opted to check on the 6?4?5? flop and Das bet 450,000. Livshitz made the call.
The turn was the 4? and Livshitz check-called another bet from Das, this time for 675,000.
Both players checked the 7? river. Das tabled 8?8? for a rivered straight to win the pot and take a big chunk out of Livshitz's stack.
Alexander Villa raised to 130,000 from the cutoff before Matt Salsberg moved all in for 695,000 on the button. Tim Van Loo in the small blind gave it some thought before mucking, but big blind Quan Zhou snap-shoved for his last 800,000. Villa folded to leave Salsberg and Zhou heads-up.
Matt Salsberg: A?J?
Quan Zhou: A?Q?
Salsberg was dominated and fell far behind on the Q?8?5? flop as Zhou made top pair. The Q? turn gave Zhou trips and left Salsberg drawing dead heading to the 5?, ending the Hollywood screenwriter's Main Event run.
With more than two million in the pot to the 8?7?6?Q?4? river, Tyler Stafman checked from under the gun. Osman Ihlamur announced all-in on the button and that sent Stafman deep into the tank.
He ultimately announced call and one of the players instantly remarked "it's a good call", perhaps thinking that Ihlamur was still steaming from his ill-timed bluff in the previous hand.
However, as soon as Ihlamur exposed his 10?9? for the flopped nut straight, they changed their mind to "oh, it's not a good call". Stafman mucked his cards but the K?K? for an overpair were exposed.
Charlie Chiu three-bet to 410,000 from the cutoff and Ryan Tosoc called in the hijack.
The flop came 4?4?2? and Chiu continued for 250,000. Tosoc called to the K? turn and checked over to Chiu again, who this time fired out 900,000.
Tosoc called once more and the J? fell on the river. Tosoc checked and Chiu then announced he was all in.
"You got me," Tosoc said as he tanked for a few minutes. He eventually put his last 2,430,000 in and Chiu showed A?Q? for a bluff.
"I just won the tournament," Tosoc yelled out as he turned over 6?6? for just a pair of sixes to earn the double up. He ran away from the table with his arms raised in the air while the dealer counted out Chiu's chips.
"You realize you just had a pair of sixes, right," a tablemate said to Tosoc.
Pier Papadia opened to 140,000 from under the gun and Tony Dam called on his direct left. Action folded to Quang Vu in the cutoff, who made it 520,000. Papadia jammed for around 1,560,000 and Vu snap-called.
Pier Papadia: J?J?
Quang Vu: Q?Q?
Any hope Papadia had quickly vanished as Vu made quads on the Q?Q?5? flop.
The 4?8? completed the board, and Vu scooped in the chips.
Day 5 of the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event has come to a close at Horseshoe, Las Vegas, with the field whittled down to its last 149 players.
Holding the top spot heading into Day 6 is Zachary Hall, who ended the session with a stack of 16,310,000. Interestingly, Hall was once the poker coach of Ethan "Rampage" Yau, who is rooting for his former mentor from various Las Vegas card rooms.
Yau explained on Twitter that it was Hall who showed him the ropes when he was grinding $1/$3 cash games.
Hot on Hall's heels is Bryan Obregon and Liran Betito, who bagged and tagged an impressive 12,295,000 and 11,140,000 respectively.
Notable names still in contention for the poker’s most sought-after accolade are Nate Silver (2,130,000), Masato Yokosawa (6,740,000) and British grinder Andrew Hulme (11,065,000).
WSOP Main Event Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Name
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Zachary Hall
United States
16,310,000
204
2
Bryan Obregon
United States
12,295,000
154
3
Liran Betito
Israel
11,140,000
139
4
Andrew Hulme
United Kingdom
11,065,000
138
5
Joshua Payne
United States
9,850,000
123
6
Anirban Das
India
9,230,000
115
7
Tony Dunst
United States
8,285,000
104
8
Glenn Fishbein
United States
8,265,000
103
9
Jonathan Therme
France
7,900,000
99
10
Jack O'Neill
United Kingdom
7,735,000
97
Action From Day 5
Day 5 of the Main Event began with 441 players, and the eliminations came thick and fast, with some of poker’s biggest stars finding themselves on the wrong side of the rail.
Jason Koon
High stakes crushers Jason Koon and Chris Brewer were ousted in the opening level with the former suffering a particularly bad beat. Koon was all in and at risk with pocket kings and was the favorite against his opponent’s pocket tens. Koon flopped a set but was removed from the table after his adversary rivered Broadway.
Brewer, who has finally experienced a dose of run good this summer with two bracelet wins under his belt, lost a flip with jacks to a tablemate's ace-king.
It was also confirmed that there would be no repeat Main Event winner as the last remaining champions exited in the first half of the day. Chris Moneymaker jammed into kings while Joe Hachem was stacked by a rivered flush.
Nicholas Rigby, who has made the headlines again following another Main Event deep run, won one of the largest pots of the day against Chance Kornuth.
There were plenty of hands on Day 5 that would be fitting in any tournament highlight reel. At the top of the list today was a three-way all in between Stuart Taylor, Ryan Brown and the beloved Bill Klein.
Taylor got it in with ace-queen, only to run into Klein’s kings and Brown’s aces.
Will Kassouf’s nine-high like a boss hand may have been eclipsed by Daniel Vampan. The American got Toby Lewis to fold the nut flush on a paired board with just eight-high!
Another corker was when Tony Dunst and Joey Spanne played a ten million chip pot. The action was tense during the hand, but it ended up in a chop as both players had aces.
Dunst is also among those returning for Day 6, as he bagged 8,250,000.
Plan for Day 6
Main Event, Feature Table, Production, Main Stage, Thunderdome
The next step of the Main Event begins on Wednesday, July 12, at 12 p.m. local time, where the 149 players will play another five two-hour levels.
Play resumes on Level 26, where the blinds will be 40,000/80,000/80,000.
The players will have a 20-minute break after each of the first two levels. They will then go on a 75-minute dinner break after Level 23 (approx. 6:45 p.m.). There will be another short break after Level 24, and anyone with chips in front of them by the end of Level 25 will book their seat for Day 7.
Those still in the Main Event have locked up $67,700, but of course, all eyes will be on the $12,100,000 that awaits the winner in a few days' time.
As always, stick with PokerNews to keep up with all the action from the record-breaking 2023 WSOP Main Event.
