2018 WSOP Main Event: Day 6 Winners and Losers

The 2018 WSOP Main Event kicked-off nine days ago, and attracted 7,874 entries, making it the second most popular tournament in the competition’s 48 year history. On Day 6, 109 players subsequently returned to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, but following a grueling day of play 83 of them fell by the wayside, leaving just 26 hopefuls with their Main Event aspirations still intact.

All the remaining players are now guaranteed a payout of at least $282,630 on their initial $10,000 buy-ins, although the chance to win a coveted gold bracelet, and the Main Event’s top prize of $8.8 million will be utmost on their minds.

Top Three

Leading the way overnight is Aram Zobian (photo), a Rhode Island resident who has already tripled his lifetime tournament earnings of $110,903 by progressing this far. Zobian accumulated 41,585,000 chips throughout the day, during which time he managed to shrug off a couple of big setbacks early on before hitting a purple patch. As he commented later:

“I can’t even comprehend how good I’m running right now. Definitely blessed. Never ran this good in a tournament, not even close. Hopefully that’ll be true for tomorrow as well.”

Clear daylight now exists between Zobian and his nearest competitor Ukraine’s Artem Metalidi (30,845,000), a player with $2,131,437 in winnings to his name, including a runner-up finish at the 2016 Deep Stack Extravaganza III for $329,860, and a 4th place finish at the 2017 WSOP $10k No Limit Hold’em – 6 Handed Championship for $204,128.

Rounding off the top three stacks is France’s Antoine Labat (28,445,000), a player who had just $194,789 in tournament earnings before starting his deep run at this year’s Main Event.

Winners

Amongst the remaining competitors are a number of WSOP bracelet holders, including Yueqi Zhu (19,245,000), Eric Froehlich (15,285,000), Ivan Luca (8,820,000), and Barry Hutter (2,250,000). Furthermore, Joe Cada, who took down the 2009 WSOP Main Event champion for $8,546,435, is hoping to make yet another final table, and bagged 8,850,000 at the day’s end.

He’s not the only former Main Event final tablist to make it thus far, though, as Frenchman Sylvain Loosli, who recorded a 4th place finish at the 2013 Main Event for $2,792,533, currently has a solid sized stack of 11,635,000 still in play. Commenting upon his experience on Day 6, Loosli said:

“It feels pretty amazing to be bagging up again ahead of Day 7. It’s been a swingy day. I had a very good start, moving up to 15m from 3.6m at the start of the day. But coming bak from dinner break, I lost every pot. I managed to just keep my composure and be patient, and then I got moved to another table. I lost a few more chips there, but won some of them back. Overall I’m very happy with how I played and my strategy.”

Losers

On Day 6, a total of 83 players saw their Main Event hopes dashed for another year, including WSOP bracelet holders Shaun Deeb in 105th ($57,010), Jack Duong in 86th ($77,695), Mike Cordell in 63rd ($129,930), James Obst in 46th ($156,265), and Brian Yoon in 41st ($189,165).

Other notables also hitting the rail on the day included Benjamin Pollak in 42nd ($189,165), Shannon Shorr in 39th ($189,165), Henrik Hecklen in 38th ($189,165), and Daniel Tang in 31st ($230,475).

Last Woman Standing Eliminated

At the 2015 WSOP Main Event, Kelly Minkin recorded a 29th place finish worth $211,821, and in the process became the last woman to exit the competition. The 28-year old former attorney was looking like she might improve on her previous impressive performance at this year’s tournament, but unfortunately she ended her run in an A-Q vs A-K showdown, and as she later explained:

“I busted in a situation where I’m never getting away from.”

Nevertheless, Minkin said that she was proud of winning the last woman standing title for a second time, and collected $156,265 for her 50th place finish. As a result, she now boasts $1,131,377 in career earnings.

Day 7

All 26 surviving players will return to the Rio at noon local time, where they will play down to the Main Event’s official nine-handed final table. Any player making it that far will receive at least $1 million for their deep run, with $8.8 million awaiting the eventual champion.