The Muck · WSOP Daily Brief
Day 45
The bubble is seven bustouts away and the chip leader plays PLO cash for a living. Sasha Liu, who bought in at the start of Day 2 and had six starting stacks within a level, bagged 2,364,000 to lead the 1,389 Main Event survivors into hand-for-hand play this morning. Behind her: a Day 3 that ate Phil Hellmuth, Will Kassouf, Benny Glaser, Joe McKeehen, and Benjamin Pollak, the last of whom flopped aces full and lost to quad sixes. Michael Mizrachi ran his stack to 1.2 million on the feature table before quad queens knocked him back to a still-healthy 615,000, and Hossein Ensan bagged 1,280,000 while insisting he is not a professional poker player. Elsewhere, the $600 Ultra Stack is down to 16 with Texas Mike Moncek third in chips, and two bracelets get handed out today. Nobody won one on Wednesday. The money starts flowing at 11 a.m.
Story 01 of 5
Sasha Liu, a Pot-Limit Omaha cash game player, bagged 2,364,000 to lead the Main Event after Day 3, per PokerNews. She entered at the start of Day 2, ran up more than six starting stacks in her first level, had a seven-figure stack by the Day 3 dinner break, and then more than doubled it to pass Martin Zamani (1,963,000) for the overall lead. Levon Khachatryan, fresh off a $1.44 million runner-up score in the $25K High Roller PLO earlier this summer, is third with 1,745,000. The field fell from 3,294 to 1,389, and with 1,382 spots paid, the floor announced the bubble would not burst Wednesday night. Hand-for-hand play kicks in right away when Day 4 starts at 11 a.m. at blinds 4,000/8,000. The min-cash is $15,000 from the $85,634,400 prize pool.
Why it mattersThe bubble bursting on the first hands of Day 4 is the exact rerun of last year, and it means the tensest 30 minutes of the summer happen before lunch. Liu's run is the stat of the tournament so far: roughly 39 starting stacks accumulated in two playing days by a cash game specialist in her side discipline. The history nerds will note the curse, though. Per PokerNews, no Day 3 chip leader has made the final table since Kenny Hallaert in 2016, and last year's Day 3 leader finished 631st. Liu has 295 big blinds and a lot of history to outrun.
Story 02 of 5
Day 3 cut the field by nearly 2,000 players, and the notable exits piled up, per the PokerNews recap. Phil Hellmuth busted before the dinner break when his flopped flush draw bricked, and his son Phil Hellmuth III went out the same day, leaving Nicholas Hellmuth (53,000) as the family's last hope. Will Kassouf lost a flip with pocket sixes to Kevin Killeen's king-queen, silenced by a rivered flush. Nine-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser ran into aces in the penultimate level. Former champ Joe McKeehen departed early. The cruelest exit belonged to former Main Event finalist Benjamin Pollak, who flopped a full house with pocket aces and was shown quad sixes. GGPoker ambassador Kevin Martin was gone within the first level after Loren Weiss picked off his ace-jack-high bluff on a paired board.
Why it mattersThat is four of the most recognizable faces in poker plus a former finalist gone in one day, all for nothing, seven spots shy of $15,000. Hellmuth's Main Event ends without cash number 18 chatter even getting started, and Glaser, who won the Poker Players Championship three weeks ago, gets the full cruelty of the deep structure: two-hour levels give you every chance to play great and still run your kings into aces. The Pollak hand is the second aces-full-into-quads atrocity of the week, which feels statistically illegal.
Story 03 of 5
Defending champion Michael Mizrachi turned his 202,500 Day 2 bag into a peak of 1.2 million on the main feature table, per PokerNews, via a rivered-flush check-raise bluff-catch, an ace-seven versus king-queen knockout of Haoxin Tong, a rivered wheel to bust Kyle Arora, and ace-jack cracking kings with a paid-off river overbet. The heater ended when he got ace-king in preflop for 647,000 against Marshall Daigle's pocket queens and Daigle flopped quads. Mizrachi still bagged an above-average 615,000. For context, PokerNews notes that at this point last year the defending champ was 1,056th in chips; Mizrachi is top 50. A repeat would be his 10th bracelet and second of the series after the $10K PLO Championship.
Why it mattersThe 'there's no way he could do it again, could he?' story is officially live for a second straight summer, and PokerNews is openly asking the question. Mizrachi surviving a 647,000-chip cooler against flopped quads and still finishing above average is the kind of detail that makes the poker gods storyline write itself. He, Glaser, and Deeb all reached nine bracelets this summer; Mizrachi is the only one who can get to ten with the world championship attached.
Story 04 of 5
2019 champion Hossein Ensan ground a slow start into 1,280,000 chips, at one point eliminating three players in as many minutes to cross seven figures, per PokerNews. The man with more than $15 million in recorded live cashes told reporters, 'I am not a professional player, but always try to play my A-game and give my best at the tables. But I am certainly not a professional.' He leads seven former Main Event champions still alive: John Cynn (927,000), Ryan Riess (573,000), Joe Hachem (353,000), Greg Raymer (326,000), Chris Moneymaker (221,000), and Mizrachi (615,000), plus 2020 online champ Stoyan Madanzhiev (499,000). Ensan credited the structure: 'There is never really any pressure on you with this structure.' Also thriving: Arnaud Mattern bagged 1,280,000 after his aces held against Matthew Radcliffe's kings in a hand where Delmiro Toledo correctly five-bet folded the other two kings, per PokerNews.
Why it mattersSeven former champions in the money positions of the same Main Event is a broadcast producer's dream, and the amateur with a seven-figure stack delivering deadpan quotes is the best of them. The Mattern hand deserves its own plaque: aces against kings against kings for hundreds of big blinds, and the only player who lost the minimum was the one who folded kings preflop and then had to live with being right. Toledo bagged 872,000, so honesty paid.
Story 05 of 5
The $600 Ultra Stack (Event #86) drew 8,007 total entries and is down to its final 16, per PokerNews. Henry Benamram of France leads with 72,000,000 after a late surge, the only player above 70 million, ahead of Finland's Mikko Torkki (66,500,000). Michael 'Texas Mike' Moncek, fresh off a third-place finish in the $800 Summer Celebration, sits third with 44,500,000. Play resumes at 1 p.m. in the Paris Ballroom and a winner will be crowned today no matter what. It shares the day with Event #87, the $1,000 Mystery Bounty PLO, which combined 426 Day 1b survivors led by China's Yuhong Liu (1,167,000) with the full field merging today; mystery bounties only come into play from Day 2, and three-time bracelet winner Jason Daly is among those through.
Why it mattersNo bracelets were awarded Wednesday, so the count sits at 85 of 100 with two guaranteed today. Moncek turning a Summer Celebration podium directly into an Ultra Stack final-two-tables run is the high-volume redemption arc of the week, and a Texas Mike bracelet would be one of the louder celebrations of the summer. Meanwhile the undercard keeps stacking: Gladiators of Poker (Event #88) drew 1,810 on Day 1a alone with Jose Cayetano leading, and John Juanda, with eight cashes already this series, advanced from the $3,000 Mid-Stakes Championship Day 1a, per PokerNews.
Official Day 3 bags per the PokerNews recap. Day 4 resumes at 11 a.m. at 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante; the average stack is roughly 50 big blinds. Yesterday's Day 2d leader Michael Rossitto did not appear in the Day 3 recap either way.
Nearly 2,000 players busted Day 3, all of them seven spots or more shy of the $15,000 min-cash. These are the notable exits PokerNews confirmed.
Flopped flush draw missed before the dinner break, per PokerNews. Son Nicholas (53,000) is the last Hellmuth standing after Phil III also busted.
Lost a flip with sixes to Kevin Killeen's king-queen and a rivered flush, per PokerNews. Nine high never even had a chance.
The reigning Poker Players Championship winner ran into aces in the penultimate level, per PokerNews. No rabbit, no hat.
The 2015 champion departed early in the day, per PokerNews, thinning the champions' club to seven.
Flopped a full house with pocket aces and was shown quad sixes, per PokerNews. The 2017 third-place finisher deserves a support group.
The GGPoker streamer's ace-jack-high bluff got picked off by Loren Weiss inside the first level, per PokerNews.
Two pair, called for his tournament life, and watched Mizrachi river a wheel, per PokerNews.
One of the night's last casualties, knocked out by Francisco Mateo's pocket kings after the floor announced the bubble would hold overnight, per PokerNews.
Fell in the same Mateo pocket kings hand as Wilson, per PokerNews. A two-for-one nobody wanted.
Won a big flip before dinner and bagged 938,000, per PokerNews. The defending POY is one bubble away from adding Main Event points to the lead.
Bagged 839,000 on the live stream table. He and Deeb remain within shouting distance of each other in chips and in points, and both should cash today barring a disaster.
No mention in our sources for Day 2 of the Ultra Stack, where he had bagged 590,000 from Day 1a. He is not in the final 16 top ten counts; status unverified.
Bagged 615,000 and is top 50 in the Main Event, per PokerNews. Bracelet #9 already banked this summer; POY points from a deep title defense would blow the race open.