Bryan Piccioli leads the final 251 players in the WSOP Main Event
16 Jul 2016
Jason Somerville was one of the notable players to bust out of the WSOP Main Event on Friday.
Piccioli is no stranger to success on the WSOP felt, winning the 2013 WSOP-APAC in the $1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Accumulator event for his first gold bracelet. Piccioli began rapidly climbing the ranks late in Day 4 to seize the chip lead. He was seen bullying his opponents during the last level to climb over the three-million chip mark. Piccioli eventually crossed the four-million chip mark and was the only player to do so by day's end.
Other top stacks at the end of Day 4 belong to Thomas Miller (3,684,000), Farhad Jamasi (3,380,000), Daniel Zack (3,085,000) and Tom Middleton (3,025,000).
Daniel Colman, who famously won $15,306,668 in the 2014 Big One for One Drop, surged toward the top of the chip counts late in the night after doubling through Brandon Adams. Colman is searching for his first WSOP cash of 2016 and looks to add to his more than $17 million in WSOP earnings. He finished the night with 3,711,000 in chips.
Johnny Chan inches closer to an 11th WSOP bracelet
Two-time WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan remains in the hunt and looks to add a third title to his resume. Chan, who won his titles in 1987 and 1988, is looking for his first cash at the WSOP since the 2012 Main Event. Chan was one of the shorter stacks for a majority of the day, but he was able to grind it out and put chips in the bag. During one key hand, Chan was all-in with pocket sevens against an opponent's pocket eights. Chan made a miracle flush in order to stay alive. He will be bringing 968,000 in chips into Day 5.
Greg Raymer and Ryan Riess seated next to one another
The only other surviving Main Event champion is 2004 winner Greg Raymer. Raymer will return to the felt with a stack of 992,000. Raymer spent a majority of the day seated next to 2013 Main Event champion Ryan Riess. Unfortunately for Riess, his 2016 run came to an end during the last hour of the night. A crippled Riess was all-in before the flop with king-ten against Day 2A/B chip leader Valentin Vornicu's pocket fives. Vornicu drilled a five on the flop to see "Riess the Beast" to the rail in 271st place for $36,708.
Melanie Weisner will sport a top-10 stack on Day 5
Female players seemed to rise to the top of the field over the course of Day 4. Noted tournament professional Maria Ho became the first player to cross two million in chips and held the chip lead heading into the first break of the day. Ho will return for Day 5 with 671,000 in chips. Following in Ho's footsteps was Melanie Weisner, who managed to build the largest stack going into the day's second break. Weisner took down a massive pot by eliminating Jeffrey Loaicono from play to gain that lead. After returning to the middle of the pack for roughly two levels, Weisner finished with a bang by scoring an elimination on one of the final hands of the night. She will return for Day 5 with a top-10 stack of 3,780,000.
Other familiar faces returning for Day 5 include Jared Bleznick (2,568,000), Griffin Benger (2,400,000), Antoine Saout (2,283,000), Tom Marchese (2,108,000), Tony Gregg (2,013,000), Max Silver (1,810,000), Gaelle Baumann (1,724,000), Mike Gorodinsky (1,612,000) Jon Turner (1,536,000), Marc-Andre Ladouceur (1,245,000), and Jennifer Shahade (976,000).
Day 4 began with 800 players returning to the felt to play 5.25 levels of play. By the time the field bagged up for the night, that number was reduced by over 70%. Familiar faces such as Paul Newey (726th), Matt Matros (712th), Andoni Larrabe (684th), David Tuchman (668th) and Tom McEvoy (644th) all fell relatively early in the day.
Cord Garcia, winner of the first Colossus tournament back in 2015, was eliminated from play in 376th place. Shortly after the dinner break, Garcia moved all in holding pocket nines from the small blind. He was dejected to find that Bobby Corcione woke up with pocket tens in the big blind.
Jason Somerville was among those eliminated on Day 4
Shortly thereafter, online poker whiz Jason Somerville was also sent to the rail. Somerville had been grinding a short stack for most of the day and was unable to improve after moving in with ace-five against Fadi Hamad's pocket nines. Somerville was eliminated in 320th place for $32,130.
Other notable names sent to the rail on Day 4 include former November Niner Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (420th), 2013 $50,000 Poker Players Championship winner Matthew Ashton (413th), Ray Dehkharghani (339th), Jamie Kerstetter (325th), Jimmy Fricke (303rd), former November Niner Eoghan O'Dea (276th) and Steve O'Dwyer (261st).
Players will return at 12 p.m. on Saturday where they will play five more two-hour levels. As always, be sure to check back with WSOP.com as the most prestigious tournament of the year winds down.
(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)