For the past 13 years, Greg Merson has gotten to experience something nearly every poker player can only dream of. Whenever he enters the Horseshoe Event Center, he sees his banner hanging on the wall among the other legends and great champions of this game.
It’s this prestige that brings thousands out every year to play the World Series of Poker Main Event, trying to join Merson in the pantheon of poker’s immortals. Merson already knows what it feels like to lift the bracelet over his head. Now, all these years later, he’s back trying to do it all over again.
Merson is one of 522 players out of a starting field of 9,735 who survived the money bubble on Day 4 and will return tomorrow at noon local time to chase the world championship. Merson sat beside Will Kassouf on the main feature table to end the night, and while the ever-loquacious Brit got the better of him in a few pots, he still ended up with 1,495,000 as he tries to do the unthinkable and win the Main Event for a second time.
RankPlayerCountryChip CountBig Blinds 1Harold LamUnited States4,195,000210 2Jeremy KottlerUnited States3,725,000186 3Julien MarianiFrance3,600,000180 4Kohei AraiJapan3,585,000179 5Benjamin WilliamsUnited States3,550,000178 6Arsenii KarmatckiiRussian Federation3,445,000172 7Ramon PessoaBrazil3,400,000170 8Michael HawkerUnited States3,400,000170 9Mounir TajiouSweden3,250,000163 10Luke ChungUnited States3,180,000159
“It’s been nice, smooth sailing. I’ve been running super hot. I didn’t do well on this feature table, but I started the day with 560,000 and I ended it with 1.5, so it was a good day,” the 2012 Main Event champion said.
Among the lessons Merson took from his win in 2012 and another deep run the following year is the value of patience and not getting too caught up in where you are on the leaderboard. Merson, after all, came back from one big blind at one point to win it all back then. He knows, just as well as any player left in the field, that it’s still anyone’s bracelet for the taking.
“I think just the ability to switch gears based on what your table draw is and what your chip stack is, and understanding the true marathon of the tournament,” he said. “Like, I literally just lost a million chips in the last hour, but it doesn’t matter. Not getting too attached to where you were. Taking it one hand at a time is a bit of a cliche thing to say, but it’s very true.”
Kassouf took a big chunk off Merson during the last level when Merson called him down with ace-high, but Kassouf had two sevens to win the sizeable pot as he bagged up 2,450,000. Kassouf, with his non-stop table banter, has been the subject of controversy in the poker world ever since he was first shown on Main Event broadcasts in 2016. Merson, though, was among the few who actually enjoyed the experience of tangling with him.
Will Kassouf
“It’s great. I told him that. I know he’s very polarizing in poker, but any type of entertainment is good. Hellmuth is polarizing as well, and he’s like the most famous poker player in the world. But it was fine. We didn’t get to play that long. He didn’t slow the game down, and he was entertaining, so it was fun,” he said.
Merson and Kassouf still have to get through more than 500 opponents over the next few days to secure a spot at the final table. Harold Lam is the man to catch, making a late charge to take the chip lead with 4,195,000. Jeremy Kottler (3,725,000), Julien Mariani (3,600,000), Kohei Arai (3,585,000), and Benjamin Williams (3,550,000) round out the top five.
Wagner Wysotchanski used a late set-over-set cooler to double up in a nearly 3,000,000-chip pot and finish among the top stacks with 3,070,000. Other big stacks include Arsenii Karmatckii (3,445,000), Nick Pupillo (3,150,000), Chad Power (3,010,000), 2016 November Niner Kenny Hallaert (2,805,000), three-time WPT champion Eric Afriat (2,710,000), and Adam Hendrix (2,550,000). Among the notables still in the field, though, the most famous name belongs to René-Charles Angelil. The son of music legend Celine Dion and her late husband and manager Rene Angelil, Rene-Charles bagged up 2,550,000.
Further down the leaderboard are PPC champion Michael Mizrachi (2,270,000), 2018 finalist Alex Lynskey (2,050,000), Stephen Chidwick (1,940,000), Isaac Haxton (1,915,000), Viktor Blom (1,455,000), Matt Affleck (900,000), Joseph Cheong (850,000), Nate Silver (805,000), and Francis Anderson (800,000). Merson isn’t the only past champion remaining in the field, as 2020 champ Damian Salas ended up with 450,000. Inaugural WSOP Paradise champion Stanislav Zegal also survived the day with 630,000.
Garry Gurevich and Robert Buckenmayer were on opposite sides of the poker spectrum today. Gurevich, who turned 21 just in April, is the youngest player remaining in the field and takes 480,000 into Day 5. Buckenmayer, meanwhile, is the oldest at 80 and is among the shortest stacks remaining with 120,000.
Garry Gurevich
A total of 1,476 players returned for Day 4, just 15 spots away from the money. Play went hand-for-hand five players away from the bubble, and among those to fall short was five-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon. Jacob Kim ran his kings into Gonzalo Jose’s aces to bust, while Kosaku Akashi made a flush on the river to bust Adam Rude and bring the field two away from the money. After nearly two hours of hand-for-hand, Marco Dickner, Mathew Frankland, and Sachin Joshi were all eliminated and split a min-cash for $10,000. Frankland additionally won the flip for a $30,000 package into the WSOP Paradise Super Main Event in December.
Mathew Frankland, Marco Dickner, Sachin Joshi
The barrage of bustouts soon followed the bursting of the bubble. Yuri Dzivielevski (1,402nd), Phil Laak (1,385th), Day 1 chip leader Riva Arthur (1,330th), Vanessa Kade (1,162nd), Landon Tice (1,131st), $50,000 Omaha High Roller champion Dylan Linde (1,068th), Loni Hui (1,054th), Darren Elias (1,046th), James Obst (935th), Japanese vlogging superstar Masato Yokosawa (884th), Mike Matusow (770th), Jason Mercier (707th), and Liv Boeree (645th) were among those whose Main Event dream died today. Jason Sagle and Andres Gonzalez were the only members of last year’s final table to make the money, but both fell during the day, Sagle in 957th and Gonzalez in 555th, ensuring that nine new players will make up the final table this year.
Due to the lengthy hand-for-hand process, an early end was called to the day halfway through Level 20. The remaining players return tomorrow to play the last 60 minutes of the level with blinds of 10,000/20,000 and a 20,000 big blind ante. Anyone eliminated at the start of the day will take home $32,500.
All 522 share the same dream, and it’s the one that Merson and Salas have already experienced: to see their banner hanging up forever. For Merson, it’s a feeling that never goes away.
“It’s awesome. It doesn’t get old, for sure. For my family to come see it and stuff. It’s something no one can ever take away from me. But that being said, I try to do my best every year in this, and this is the farthest I’ve gone in 12 years. So I’m not taking it likely, for sure,” he said.
Four days are done, but there is still a long way to go until a new world champion is crowned. Follow along as PokerNews returns tomorrow to provide updates from Day 5 of the Main Event.