WSOP 2013 Main Event: Day 5 Winners And Losers

On Day 5 of the 2013 WSOP Main Event, 239 hopefuls returned to the Rio in Las Vegas, but by the end of 10 hours of action just 68 players remained. Everyone is now guaranteed at least $102,103 for their hard fought efforts, but all eyes will, instead, be firmly focussed on reaching the final table where an $8,359,531 payday awaits the eventual winner.
Losers
Amongst the big names eliminated on Day 5 was last year’s Main Event champion Greg Merson, who was reduced to a short-stack before re-raising all-in pre-flop holding Ad-2d only to be called by Brett Richey with A-K. The board subsequently rolled out K-3-2-9-4 to dispatch Merson to the rail in 167th ($42,990), which was the best recent defence of a ME title since Peter Eastgate finished 78th in 2009.
Other notable players seeing their Main Event hopes come to an end on Day 5 was Amit Makhija in 228th ($37,019), Greg Mueller in 226th ($37,019),  Shawn Sheikhan in 224th ($42,990), Bruno Lopes in 201st ($42,990), Max Steinberg in 131st ($50,752), Ronnie Bardah in 124th ($50,752), Ashton Griffin in 118th ($50,752), Marvin Rettenmaier in 99th ($59,708), and Annette Obrestad in 89th ($71,053).
Winners
On the other side of the coin, progressing through to Day 6 as the chip leader was 46-year-old Los Angeles businessman Sami Rustom, who originally won his way through to the $10k buy-in event through a satellite. Rustom is currently on a 7 million chip stack, and commenting on his performance so far, said:
“I’m catching the right cards at the right time and I’ve been able to read the other players well.”
Rustom is followed by Marc McLaughlin (6.695m), Jason Mann (6.58m), Maxx Coleman    (6.26m), and George Wong (5.74m), to complete the top five.
Amongst the notable players surviving the day with their Main Event hopes still intact is the last woman standing Australia’s Jackie Glazier (4.045m), the 2001 Main Event champion Carlos Mortensen (2.665m), last year’s 9th place finisher Steve Gee (1.36m), and two-time WSOP bracelet winner and WPT champ JC Tran (3.28m).
There are also quite a number of other accomplished players still in contention, including Yevgeniy Timoshenko (4.065m), David “Raptor” Benefield (3.675m), Noah Schwartz (3.595m), Amir Lehavot (2.655m), Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy (1.97m), Vladimir Geshkenbein (1.4m), Rep Porter (950k), and Vitaly Lunkin (1m).
Day 6 Main Event action will get underway today at 12pm Las Vegas time when the remaining players will try and and get as close to the final table as possible.