The third day of Event #52: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed played out today at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas with some fascinating twists and turns which left just four players still in contention for the $656,747 first prize and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet.
It's Mostafa Haidary who leads the way with a stack of 15,375,000 chips in pursuit of his first bracelet. The Australian player flew under the radar for the first part of the day but turned it up a gear as the tournament approached the business end by eliminating Sonny Franco with pocket tens against the Frenchman's ace-queen. Haidary was then at risk of finishing just shy of the podium places but won a crucial flip against Krasimir Yankov during the last level to take the chip lead.
Yankov sits second in the counts with 12,825,000 chips and started building a stack in Level 24 where he tripled barreled his way to a double-up courtesy of Lucas Blanco. The Bugarian player never looked back from there as he eliminated both Max Kruse (7th - $79,436) and Matthew McEwan (6th - $107,770) on the final table. Despite losing that previously mentioned flip to Haidary late on, Yankov still has a great chance of capturing the victory come Day 4.
Final Table Results and Remaining Payouts
| Place | Name | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $656,747 | ||
| 2 | $437,821 | ||
| 3 | $300,293 | ||
| 4 | $206,606 | ||
| 5 | Pedro Madeira | Brazil | $148,939 |
| 6 | Matthew McEwan | United States | $107,770 |
| 7 | Max Kruse | Germany | $79,436 |
Brandon Schwartz bagged up 4,300,000 chips and will start Day 4 with the shortest stack but can count his lucky stars he is still in with a shot after he was staring elimination in the face during Level 24 when his pocket queens were up against the bullets of Turbo Nguyen. Luckily for Schwartz, a queen on the flop brought him back from the brink of being felted which set him on his way to the final table.
The only remaining bracelet winner in the field is Germany's Bernd Gleissner who managed to bag up 8,575,000 chips — good for third in the counts. Gleissner won his bracelet at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) at the back end of 2023 in a Turbo Freezeout event and already has three cashes in the 2024 edition of the WSOP. The German player's fourth cash is already guaranteed to be a career-best score and a win would take him into the top 50 on his country's all-time money list.
Day 4 Seat Draw and Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brandon Schwartz | United States | 4,300,000 | 17 |
| 2 | Krasimir Yankov | Bulgaria | 12,825,000 | 51 |
| 3 | Mostafa Haidary | Australia | 15,375,000 | 62 |
| 4 | Bernd Gleissner | Germany | 8,575,000 | 34 |
There were 37 players that started the day with the hope of making it to the final table but the likes of David Coleman (35th), Dong Chen (26th), Kharlin Sued (21st), Georgios Sotiropoulos (20th), Nenad Dukic (17th), and Jake Schwartz (14th) all were eliminated as the day progressed.
Perhaps one of the more interesting stories of the day was Germany's bracelet winner Kruse who was down to just a few big blinds early on in the day but managed to spin up a stack after he won multiple all-in pots and reach the final table. Unfortunately for the German player, his luck ran out in a ridiculous hand he played with the aforementioned Yankov and McEwan after all three players flopped a set. Kruse couldn't find the one-outer and was ultimately eliminated in seventh for $79,436.
The fourth and final day of the event will get underway at 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 23, with the blinds starting at Level 31 (125,000/250,000/250,000) in the Horseshoe Events Center.
Stay tuned for comprehensive coverage of this event and the remaining tournaments at the 2024 World Series of Poker, delivered by the dedicated live reporting team at PokerNews.
