From a couple of years ago.
Recent Main Event eliminations include Greg Raymer, Francis Rusnak, Dmitry Chop, Melanie Weisner and Don Zewin. 116 remain.
Fernando Pons is the current Main Event chip leader as 46 remain.
39 Players Remain.
Cliff Josephy Headlines Final 27 In 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event.
James Obst, Kenny Hallaert and Tom Marchese Among Remaining Players With A Shot At The Bracelet and $8 Million Top Prize.
Cliff Josephy is a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner with over $2.6 million in lifetime live tournament earnings and untold more in online winnings were he was one of the top players with the well known handle of “JohnnyBax”. Although he is an incredibly accomplished poker pro, his best prior finish in the World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event was when he finished 386th for $28,950. Now he is one of the top three stacks in the 2016 WSOP world championship with only 27 players remaining.
“It feels unbelievable. Nothing could feel better except making the final nine and what comes after that,” said Josephy. “This is the goal. I’ve reached the goal and everything has just gone perfectly so far.”
Josephy has had a healthy stack the last few days but was not one of the chip leaders until the end of day 6. He finished day 4 in 84th place out of 251 remaining players. Out of the 80 that ended day 5 he was in 22nd place. When the final 27 were set at the conclusion of day 6 he was in third place with 23,860,000.
“Things just all went my way today,” said Josephy. “I didn’t play any big pots that went against me. The biggest pot I could have lost was my pocket kings vs. pocket aces for four million.”
Early on Josephy did run his K
K
into Dietrich Fast’s A
A
preflop and was in bad shape for a large chunk of stack. The board ran out K
6
5
7
3
to give Josephy a set and send Fast to the rail.
While Josephy did bag one of the largest stacks, the outright chip leader is Czech poker pro Vojtech Ruzicka with 26,415,000. Second in chips is New Jersey native Michael Ruane with 24,565,000.
Joining Josephy, Ruzicka and Ruane in the battle to make the November Nine tomorrow will be several seasoned poker pros including James Obst (19,560,000), eight-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Valentin Vornicu (17,450,000), Kenny Hallaert (15,465,000), 2010 Card Player Player of the Year Thomas Marchese (15,420,000), Jared Bleznick (8,300,000), Griffen Benger (6,530,000) and 2009 WSOP main event third-place finisher Antoine Saout (5,525,000).
Plenty of notables hit the rail on day 6 including bracelet winner Michael Banducci (69th – $96,787), 2016 WPT L.A. Poker Classic winner Dietrich Fast (55th – $116,963), 2013 WSOP $111,111 One Drop High Roller winner Tony Gregg (50th – $142,447), nine-time WSOP final tablist Chris Klodnicki (45th – $174,826), Jason Les (40th – $174,826), Max Silver (33rd – $216,211) and two-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe (29th – $216,211).
Another big name to bust today was 2014 Card Player Player of the Year award winner Daniel Colman who was among the chip leaders on day 4 and five, but faltered a bit on day 6.
In the end Colman got all-in on a J
7
2
3
turn, check-raising Fernando Pons’ bet of 350,000 to 3,600,000. Pons called with the A
J
for top pair with the ace kicker. Colman also had a pair of jacks with J
9
but his inferior kicker put him in bad shape heading into the river. The Q
sealed the deal, sending Colman to the rail in 31st place for $216,211. The 26-year-old poker pro now has more than $25.5 million in lifetime live tournament earnings, good for fourth-place spot on the all-time money list.
With the elimination of Elliott Peterman (28th – $216,211) play was halted for the night, as the final 27 bagged up their chips knowing that they are guaranteed at least $269,430 and are in with a chance for much more.
There was a complete redraw at the end of the day, mixing up the tables for the day that will decide this year’s WSOP main event final table. Play resumes at noon local time tomorrow and continues until the 2016 November Nine is decided.
James Obst, Kenny Hallaert and Tom Marchese Among Remaining Players With A Shot At The Bracelet and $8 Million Top Prize.
Cliff Josephy is a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner with over $2.6 million in lifetime live tournament earnings and untold more in online winnings were he was one of the top players with the well known handle of “JohnnyBax”. Although he is an incredibly accomplished poker pro, his best prior finish in the World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event was when he finished 386th for $28,950. Now he is one of the top three stacks in the 2016 WSOP world championship with only 27 players remaining.
“It feels unbelievable. Nothing could feel better except making the final nine and what comes after that,” said Josephy. “This is the goal. I’ve reached the goal and everything has just gone perfectly so far.”
Josephy has had a healthy stack the last few days but was not one of the chip leaders until the end of day 6. He finished day 4 in 84th place out of 251 remaining players. Out of the 80 that ended day 5 he was in 22nd place. When the final 27 were set at the conclusion of day 6 he was in third place with 23,860,000.
“Things just all went my way today,” said Josephy. “I didn’t play any big pots that went against me. The biggest pot I could have lost was my pocket kings vs. pocket aces for four million.”
Early on Josephy did run his K
While Josephy did bag one of the largest stacks, the outright chip leader is Czech poker pro Vojtech Ruzicka with 26,415,000. Second in chips is New Jersey native Michael Ruane with 24,565,000.
Joining Josephy, Ruzicka and Ruane in the battle to make the November Nine tomorrow will be several seasoned poker pros including James Obst (19,560,000), eight-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Valentin Vornicu (17,450,000), Kenny Hallaert (15,465,000), 2010 Card Player Player of the Year Thomas Marchese (15,420,000), Jared Bleznick (8,300,000), Griffen Benger (6,530,000) and 2009 WSOP main event third-place finisher Antoine Saout (5,525,000).
Plenty of notables hit the rail on day 6 including bracelet winner Michael Banducci (69th – $96,787), 2016 WPT L.A. Poker Classic winner Dietrich Fast (55th – $116,963), 2013 WSOP $111,111 One Drop High Roller winner Tony Gregg (50th – $142,447), nine-time WSOP final tablist Chris Klodnicki (45th – $174,826), Jason Les (40th – $174,826), Max Silver (33rd – $216,211) and two-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe (29th – $216,211).
Another big name to bust today was 2014 Card Player Player of the Year award winner Daniel Colman who was among the chip leaders on day 4 and five, but faltered a bit on day 6.
In the end Colman got all-in on a J
With the elimination of Elliott Peterman (28th – $216,211) play was halted for the night, as the final 27 bagged up their chips knowing that they are guaranteed at least $269,430 and are in with a chance for much more.
There was a complete redraw at the end of the day, mixing up the tables for the day that will decide this year’s WSOP main event final table. Play resumes at noon local time tomorrow and continues until the 2016 November Nine is decided.
Here is a look at the chip counts of the 27 remaining players:
<tbody>
</tbody>
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
| 1 | Vojtech Ruzicka | 26,415,000 |
| 2 | Michael Ruane | 24,565,000 |
| 3 | Cliff Josephy | 23,860,000 |
| 4 | James Obst | 19,560,000 |
| 5 | Myung Mike Shin | 19,345,000 |
| 6 | Valentin Vornicu | 17,450,000 |
| 7 | Fernando Pons | 17,270,000 |
| 8 | Thomas Miller | 17,185,000 |
| 9 | Kenny Hallaert | 15,465,000 |
| 10 | Tom Marchese | 15,420,000 |
| 11 | Matthew Moss | 15,250,000 |
| 12 | Kakwan Lau | 15,110,000 |
| 13 | Jerry Wong | 12,975,000 |
| 14 | Joshua Weiss | 11,580,000 |
| 15 | Michael Niwinski | 10,660,000 |
| 16 | Andrew Christoforou | 9,450,000 |
| 17 | Gordon Vayo | 8,795,000 |
| 18 | Jared Bleznick | 8,300,000 |
| 19 | Adam Krach | 7,540,000 |
| 20 | Griffen Benger | 6,530,000 |
| 21 | Christopher Kusha | 6,530,000 |
| 22 | William Kassouf | 6,095,000 |
| 23 | John Cynn | 5,760,000 |
| 24 | Antoine Saout | 5,525,000 |
| 25 | Qui Nguyen | 4,790,000 |
| 26 | Jeff Hakim | 4,375,000 |
| 27 | Phillip Postma | 2,225,000 |
<tbody>
</tbody>
Day 7 of the Main Event starts at 12pm.
18 players left in the Main Event.....Play underway,blinds are now 200/400/50k.
Main Table: Andrew Christoforou Eliminated by Gordon Vayo in 18th Place ($338,288)
Hand 6:
Gordon Vayo raises to 900,000 from early position and William Kassouf calls from middle position. Andrew Christoforou moves all in for 7,150,000 and Vayo moves all in for 13,550,000 behind him.
Kassouf folds and the cards are tabled. Christoforou shows Ace/Heart...9/Heart and is in terrible shape against Vayo's Ace/Club...Ace/Diamond.
The flop is...Queen/Heart...6/Spade...4/Spade and Christoforou is drawing to runners. The turn is the King/Club, leaving Christoforou drawing dead before the 7/Club river card. Vayo is now one of the bigger stacks remaining and Christoforou is eliminated in 18th place. He takes home $338,288 for his efforts in the 2016 Main Event.
Hand 6:
Gordon Vayo raises to 900,000 from early position and William Kassouf calls from middle position. Andrew Christoforou moves all in for 7,150,000 and Vayo moves all in for 13,550,000 behind him.
Kassouf folds and the cards are tabled. Christoforou shows Ace/Heart...9/Heart and is in terrible shape against Vayo's Ace/Club...Ace/Diamond.
The flop is...Queen/Heart...6/Spade...4/Spade and Christoforou is drawing to runners. The turn is the King/Club, leaving Christoforou drawing dead before the 7/Club river card. Vayo is now one of the bigger stacks remaining and Christoforou is eliminated in 18th place. He takes home $338,288 for his efforts in the 2016 Main Event.
Andrew Christoforou.
Main Table: William Kassouf Eliminated by Griffin Benger in 17th Place ($338,288)
Hand 13:
Griffin Benger raises to 875,000 under the gun and William Kassouf three-bets to 2,300,000 from the hijack. Action folds back to Benger, who four-bets to 5,600,000. Kassouf tanks for several minutes before moving all in for 13,450,000. Benger quickly calls.
Benger shows...Ace/Club...Ace/Spade and has Kassouf's...King/Spade...King/Club in terrible shape. It's one of the bigger pots of the tournament with just shy of 27,800,000 the middle.
The flop is...10/Heart...8/Heart...3 Diamond and Benger keeps the lead. The turn is the 6/Club and Kassouf has two outs with one pull of the deck. The river is the 10/Diamond and Kassouf is eliminated, while Benger becomes one of the biggest stacks remaining.
Kara is always looking good.
[h=1]Final Nine Set For 2016 World Series Of Poker Main Event.[/h] [h=2]Remaining Players Will Reconvene This Fall In Las Vegas.[/h]
The finalists are chip leader and two-time bracelet winner Cliff Josephy ( 74,6000,000 ) Qui Nguyen (67,925,000), Gordon Vayo (49,375,000), Kenny Hallaert (43,325,000), Michael Ruane (31,600,000), Vojtech Ruzicka (27,300,000), Griffin Benger (26,175,000), Jerry Wong (10,175,000) and Fernando Pons (6,150,000). They are each guaranteed a seven-figure payday. Below is a detailed look at the card players.
The final table bubble was Josh Weiss, who entered 10-handed play with just a handful of blinds. It didn’t take long before Weiss was gone and the finalists started celebrating. The main event this year had a prize pool of $63,327,800, of which roughly $25.5 million will be awarded to the final nine players.
The 6,737-player starting field was the most the main event has had in five years. A total of 1,011 players made the money, the most in the history of the event. The WSOP gave each player a starting stack of 50,000, up from 30,000 in previous years. There are more than 336 million chips in play.
Eighty countries were represented in the main event, and the average player age was just above 40. The final table’s average age is just over 35 years.
Notable eliminations on day 7 included 2009 November Niner Antoine Saout (25th for $269,430), eight-time WSOP Circuit champion Valentin Vornicu (23rd for $269,430), high-stakes cash game player Jared Bleznick (16th for $338,288), 2010 Card Player POY winner Tom Marchese (14th for $427,930) and Australian poker pro James Obst (13th for $427,930).
Marchese, who has more than $13 million in lifetime tournament earnings, was the best player entering day 7 and was looking for his first WSOP bracelet. After exiting the feature table stage, Marchese was met by Phil Hellmuth, who told him that he’d “be back here again.”
“All you can do is try to pay attention to the action, and get some reads on your opponents,” Marchese said of playing against so many unfamiliar faces in the no-limit hold’em championship. “Obviously you can generalize with a bunch of players based on where they are from or what they look like. All I could do was make the best decisions based on the information I had.”
Even though there was $8 million up top, Marchese said the main event was basically just another day in the office. He has five seven-figure scores to his name. “I’ve played for a lot of money in a bunch of [tournaments] and this wasn’t really any different. I was fortunate enough to go as far as I did, but at the end unfortunate to not go further. It is what it is.”
The final table bubble was Josh Weiss, who entered 10-handed play with just a handful of blinds. It didn’t take long before Weiss was gone and the finalists started celebrating. The main event this year had a prize pool of $63,327,800, of which roughly $25.5 million will be awarded to the final nine players.
The 6,737-player starting field was the most the main event has had in five years. A total of 1,011 players made the money, the most in the history of the event. The WSOP gave each player a starting stack of 50,000, up from 30,000 in previous years. There are more than 336 million chips in play.
Eighty countries were represented in the main event, and the average player age was just above 40. The final table’s average age is just over 35 years.
Notable eliminations on day 7 included 2009 November Niner Antoine Saout (25th for $269,430), eight-time WSOP Circuit champion Valentin Vornicu (23rd for $269,430), high-stakes cash game player Jared Bleznick (16th for $338,288), 2010 Card Player POY winner Tom Marchese (14th for $427,930) and Australian poker pro James Obst (13th for $427,930).
Marchese, who has more than $13 million in lifetime tournament earnings, was the best player entering day 7 and was looking for his first WSOP bracelet. After exiting the feature table stage, Marchese was met by Phil Hellmuth, who told him that he’d “be back here again.”
“All you can do is try to pay attention to the action, and get some reads on your opponents,” Marchese said of playing against so many unfamiliar faces in the no-limit hold’em championship. “Obviously you can generalize with a bunch of players based on where they are from or what they look like. All I could do was make the best decisions based on the information I had.”
Even though there was $8 million up top, Marchese said the main event was basically just another day in the office. He has five seven-figure scores to his name. “I’ve played for a lot of money in a bunch of [tournaments] and this wasn’t really any different. I was fortunate enough to go as far as I did, but at the end unfortunate to not go further. It is what it is.”
Seat 1.....Griffin Benger.
Chip Count: 26,175,000
Location: Toronto, ON
Age: 31
Profession: Poker Player
Lifetime Earnings: $1,386,295
Biggest Poker Score: 2013 EPT Berlin High Roller — 1st Place.....$562,345
Chip Count: 26,175,000
Location: Toronto, ON
Age: 31
Profession: Poker Player
Lifetime Earnings: $1,386,295
Biggest Poker Score: 2013 EPT Berlin High Roller — 1st Place.....$562,345
