It took months to get to Day 8 of the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event, but it’s finally in the books.
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy started the day with the lead but Qui Nguyen took it away in the first hand with a preflop four-bet.
Nguyen and Josephy took turns in the lead and Vojtech Ruzicka even had a stint as chip leader. But Nguyen took the lead back towards the end of the day and then dealt the final elimination of the day to finish with a whopping 128.7 million.
The last hand of the day was also Kenny Hallaert’s last hand of the tournament.
Hallaert raised to 2.3 million from under the gun and Nguyen re-raised to 5.7 million from the cutoff. Action folded back to Hallaert and he moved all-in for 35.6 million.
Nguyen snap called and showed A♠ A♦. Hallaert turned over A♣ Q♣ and managed to pair his queen on the Q♠ 5♥ 4♠ flop, but the turn and river bricked for Hallaert.
Hallaert bowed out in 6th and the final five players called it a night.
Josephy in 2nd, Ruzicka a Close 3rd
Nguyen was the only player to finish the day with a nine-figure chip count.
Josephy is in a distant second with 63.9 million and Vojtech Ruzicka is right on his heels with 62.3 million.
Gordon Vayo isn’t too far behind with 58.2 million while Michael Ruane is the tournament short stack with 23.7 million.
The final five are guaranteed $1,935,288 and they’re coming back at 4:30pm to play down to three players.
Cliff Josephy
By that point, they’ll make the payjump to $3.5 million.
While they rest up for another day of poker, four of the players that sat down today are done.
Hallaert was the last elimination of the day but the first to go was our November Nine short stack, Fernando Pons.
Pons started the day with just 6.2 million and moved all-in with A♦ 6♣ early on.
Josephy called with K♥ J♣ and hit a king on the flop.
Pons fell in 9th and then Jerry Wong followed him out in 8th.
Wong managed to score the first double up at the final table but couldn’t ride that double up to a comeback.
Wong dipped back down and tried to get another double up with pocket jacks, but Vojtech Ruzicka woke up with pocket queens.
Ruzicka hit another queen and took Wong out with a set of queens.
Griffin Benger had been battling Wong for short stack status, but it was all Benger’s after Wong hit the rail.
Benger made his final move with A♠ 9♠ and Gordon Vayo called with pocket tens. There was no help for Benger and his 2016 Main Event run ended with a 7th place finish.
After that it was the Hallaert elimination and Nguyen boost to cap off the day.
Day 9 to Play Down to Final 3
Play will resume at 4:30pm PST and we’ll be providing live coverage of it right here. Players will come back to Level 38, which features 500,000/1,000,000 blinds and a 150,000 ante.
- Qui Nguyen - 128,625,000
- Cliff Josephy - 63,850,000
- Vojtech Ruzicka - 62,250,000
- Gordon Vayo - 58,200,000
- Michael Ruane - 23,700,000
6. Kenny Hallaert - $1,464,258
7. Griffin Benger - $1,250,190
8. Jerry Wong - $1,100,076
9. Fernando Pons $1,000,000
I think it was better when the final table had to keep playing untill there was a winner. Stopping it and letting them rest once it gets to 5 is stupid. Isn’t enough that they give them a 5 month break after the final table is set. Let these guys play a marathon session to see who wins. Stamina and mental alertness is a big part of playing. I know why they give all these breaks because of TV and trying to drag it out as long as possible but the final 9 should have to play for as long as it takes until a winner is declared . I also think they stop it again after its down to 3 which is just down right retarded.