Fewer than 400 Remain After Action-Packed Day 4 of the Main Event
The day began with 1,299 players guaranteed at least $15,000 and after ten hours of fast-paced play, just 380 remain to continue to Day 5 of the 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Taylor von Kriegenbergh is the player to catch on Monday as he finished the day with 5,305,000 chips. Not far behind him is Dan Colpoys with 4,835,000 and Day 3 chip leader Aaron Mermelstein with 4,285,000.
Event #70: $10,000 Main Event Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taylor von Kriegenbergh | United States | 5,305,000 | 212 |
| 2 | Dan Colpoys | United States | 4,835,000 | 193 |
| 3 | Johan Schumacher | Belgium | 4,600,000 | 184 |
| 4 | Aaron Mermelstein | United States | 4,285,000 | 171 |
| 5 | Victor Li | Canada | 4,200,000 | 168 |
| 6 | Rafael Mota | Brazil | 4,050,000 | 162 |
| 7 | Carlos Leiva | Australia | 3,860,000 | 154 |
| 8 | Shelby Wells | United States | 3,840,000 | 154 |
| 9 | Jorge Hou | Paraguay | 3,800,000 | 152 |
| 10 | Dingxiang Ong | Singapore | 3,630,000 | 145 |
While six former Main Event champions started the day, only 2020 champ Damian Salas (2,355,000) and defending champion Koray Aldemir (1,285,000) survived, as Ryan Riess, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Merson, and John Cynn fell at various points of the day.
Main Event Champions Moving on to Day 5
| Rank | Player | Country | Year Won | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 | Damian Salas | Argentina | 2020 | 2,355,000 | 94 |
| 168 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | 2021 | 1,285,000 | 51 |
Plenty of other big names navigated their way through the day to bag healthy stacks for Day 5 including two-time bracelet winner Yuliyan Kolev (3,500,000), Alex Keating (3,000,000), and PokerStars Ambassador and 2021 seventh place Main Event finisher Alejandro Lococo.
Asked about how he felt at the end of an impressive day, the man known as "Papo MC" said, “I feel amazing. Last year, I made Day 5 with 100,000. I just bagged 3,200,000 so I am really happy, really excited about that, still dreaming.”
Table of the Day
While plenty of tables provided an abundance of high-quality play and entertainment, one stood out the entire day and was moved to the mothership by day’s end. That table featured Ali Imsirovic and the chatty Zilong Zhang, who provided several big pots with his wild and aggressive play. Zhang held the chip lead for much of the day and finished with 2,970,000 after using his big stack mostly to his advantage.
“With over 400 big blinds, I think that means I need to see flops as much as I can. Even if I miss the board, I’ll give as much pressure as I can to the other players.”
Along with Imsirovic, Zhang had Dan Smith to his immediate left for the last few hours of the day, but Zhang said that didn’t really impact how he played.
“I was just enjoying my Day 4. I didn’t really care who I played with. I just wanted to make Day 5 with a deep stack. Right now I’m near three million, still a good stack.”
Smith initially made the most of his time at Zhang’s table, growing his stack significantly to more than 2,500,000, thanks to a triple up versus Zhang and Imsirovic, but a hand late in the day where he ran his queens into aces preflop nullified his progress and left him with just 390,000 to end the day.
Stars Hui, Baumann Among Remaining Women in the Field
Several notable women are also advancing to Day 5 with healthy to large stacks including Loni Hui (1,900,000) and Gaelle Baumann (665,000), who was pleased with how her day turned out despite a dip from her high point in chips.
"I'm feeling pretty good, obviously. I had an amazing day. I started with 370,000 and went up to 1,700,000. I got moved to a new table and went all the way down. I have less than I would have liked, but it's good. Tomorrow, I'll have around 30 big blinds. I'll try to fight, play well. Eat some good breakfast tomorrow, and have a good night's sleep tonight."
Several qualifiers from GGPoker also finished the day with strong stacks, including Espen Jorstad, who finished the day with 1,335,000 after a steady day at the table.
“My day wasn't super eventful, to be honest, I started with 800,000, and then I went up a million and been hovering around that all day. I think the biggest pot I played was worth around 20 big blinds. A lot of small pots, I am bagging around 1,300,000.”
With so many players eliminated throughout the day there were plenty of big names that weren’t immune to an early exit, including multi-time bracelet winners Adrian Mateos, David Peters, Upeshka De Silva, Benny Glaser, Phillip Hui, Robert Mizrachi, and Mike Matusow who went home after an old-school “Mike Matusow blowup".
Day 5 Monday
The Main Event is getting to the meat of the tournament and each elimination will mean that much more on Day 5 as the field is thinned to roughly 100 players. The final 380 will return at noon local time Monday to try to earn their way to that final group, who will have the final table, the champions bracelet, and the $10,000,000 top prize in their sights.
PokerNews will be there for all the action as the march toward history continues from the 53rd World Series of Poker in its new home at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas.