Zachary Hall Leads After Day 5 of 2023 WSOP Main Event

Only 149 players remain in the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event of the 2023 World Series of Poker, out of a record-breaking 10,043 entries. The ultimate goal is to win the championship bracelet and the top prize of $12,100,000, which will be awarded in less than a week.

Leading the pack going into day 6 is Zachary Hall from Wilbraham, Massachusetts, with a chip count of 16,310,000. Zachary Hall played a significant role in the early career of vlogger Ethan ‘Rampage Poker’ Yau, who has since become a successful poker player, winning a WSOP bracelet, a World Poker Tour high roller event, and a Mid-States Poker Tour championship.

Three other players also ended day 5 with more than ten million chips: Bryan Obregon (12,295,000), Liran Betito (11,140,000), and Andrew Hulme (11,065,000).

Among the remaining players, several well-known figures have a shot at the title. This includes Tony Dunst, a bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion (8,285,000), John Racener, a bracelet winner and the 2010 WSOP main event runner-up (7,670,000), Raj Vohra, a bracelet winner (7,650,000), Ryan Tosoc, a WPT champion and bracelet winner (7,625,000), Masato Yokosawa, a popular Japanese poker vlogger (6,740,000), Jan-Peter Jachtmann, a bracelet winner (6,375,000), Maurice Hawkins, a 15-time WSOP Circuit ring winner (6,145,000), Amit Makhija (6,045,000), and Daniel Weinman, a two-time WPT champion and bracelet winner (5,340,000).

Even Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight and a former professional poker player, remains in the competition with a chip count of 2,130,000. In 2021, he came close to winning a bracelet, finishing as the runner-up in the $10,000 limit hold’em championship and earning $151,842.

It is worth noting that both the winners of the previous events who made it to day 5 were eliminated. Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 main event winner, finished in 403rd place, while Joe Hachem, the 2005 winner, finished in 402nd place.

At the start of day 5, there were 441 players remaining, but by the end of the day, only 149 players remained, meaning that 292 players were eliminated. Among those eliminated were notable players like Jason Koon, Jason Somerville, and Andrew Neeme, as well as football player Richard Seymour.

One of the significant hands of the day resulted in the elimination of Chance Kornuth, a WPT champion and three-time bracelet winner. Despite his previous success this summer, Kornuth couldn’t survive the hand against Nichola Rigby and finished in 301st place ($44,700).

The remaining players will return for day 6 with blinds of 40,000-80,000 and an 80,000 big blind ante. The average stack is 4,044,161 chips, representing 50.5 big blinds. All players still in the competition are guaranteed a minimum payout of $67,700, and the first six-figure paydays will start at 80th place.

WSOP Main Event Top Ten Chip Counts