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11.07.2023

WSOP: Main Event is moving into the ITM, we are down to 441 players

The long-awaited WSOP Main Event bubble burst again this year produced some thrilling moments that sent three players to the cash desk at once. Yesterday, the game sent over a thousand players home, so who's still left in the hunt for the most valuable bracelet?

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The poker tournament of the year has already entered its second half, with the opening sets of over ten thousand entrants whittled down to the last 1,517 players. As we reported in our Day 3 results article, we were only 10 players away from bursting the bubble in the ME, but the opening of Day 4 was a nerve-wracking affair.

WSOP: durrrr blows his 78bb stack, bubble bursts in the beginning of Day 4WSOP: durrrr blows his 78bb stack, bubble bursts in the beginning of Day 4

Several players managed to bust out on the bubble this year, namely three unlucky players. They were then faced with a split of two mincash evenly ($30,000 divided by three) and then an all-in spin, the winner of which would become the official bubble-boy and take home a ticket to next year's Main Event.

The three "unlucky" ones in this situation were Yue Qi Wang, Peter Nigh and Jeppe Bisgaard, with the Bisgaard becoming the official bubble-boy. He was unlucky to run into AA on the straight bubble with KK, but in the end, thanks to winning a blind all-in hand, he did not have to be so sad - as bubble-boy, he took home $10,000 and the aforementioned entry into next year's Main Event. "Ending up on the bubble is never pleasant, but I got myself into a spot that was unmissable. On the other hand, I didn't even make it to Day 3 last year, but having an entry into next year's event now is a pretty nice reward."

The Main Event is full of different micro stories every day, and yesterday was no exception. The bursting of the bubble brought tears to the face of Amanda Botfeld and her father, David Botfeld, who both battled their way into the ITM side by side. The poker duo has had plenty of success, for example, finishing third together in the 2021 Tag Team Event. This year, David finished 1,166th for $17,500, and his daughter, who is also the author of A Girl's Guide to Poker, packed her 700,000 stack into Day 5.

By the end of yesterday, the number of contenders for the title had been reduced to 441, which still includes a number of well-known names. Currently on the chiplead with a stack of 5,100,000 is home player Mitchell Halverson, who already has one deeprun in an all-tournament event - he finished 15th for $380,000 in 2021.

John Racener (3,710,000), Chance Kornuth (3,200,000), Maurice Hawkins (1,755,000), Niall Farrell (1,530,000), Tony Dunst (1,515,000), Joe Hachem (1,485,000), Dario Sammartino (1,305,000), Davidi Kitai (1,200,000), and Chris Moneymaker (435,000) have all successfully carried their stacks into Day 5. The tournament will resume again tonight, with players starting with the blinds at 10,000/25,000 and once again five two-hour levels await them.

Source: WSOP, PokerNews, YouTube, Twitter, PokerFirma

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