Two of last year’s November Nine – Vitaly Lunkin and Mark Newhouse – are among the 79 players going through to Day 6 at the World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas after a long session Saturday night.
Newhouse also has the chip lead on 7.4 million, well ahead of closest opponent Kyle Keranen on 6.67 million, but there are still some very talented players, including Maria Ho as the last woman to survive following the departure of Mercia Kunst and Mikiyo Aoki deep in the game.
Newhouse an experienced internet and live tourney pro, played savvy and aggressive poker the whole day, taking the lead early on after starting Day 5 among the big stacks behind Matt Haugen, who survived, although his most persistent pursuer, Zach Jiganti, ran into trouble and busted out.
291 players started the day but the attrition rate was high as the hours passed, and saw the departure of skilled players like Mike Sowers, John Monnette, Jeff Madsen, Brian Townsend, Mukul Pahuja, Griffin Benger, Ali Eslami, Vladimir Shchemelev and Jonathan Aguiar.
Among those going through to another five levels of action Sunday on Day 6 are David Tuthill, Martin Jacobson, Matt Waxman, Maria Ho, Isaac Baron and Brian Hastings.
The top 10 chip counts at the end of Day 5 were:
Mark Newhouse 7,400,000
Kyle Keranen 6,670,000
Scott Palmer 6,530,000
Dan Sindelar 5,450,000
Andoni Larrabe 5,330,000
Bruno Politano 5,290,000
Tony Ruberto 5,180,000
Dan Smith 5,150,000
Leif Force 4,930,000
Iaron Lightbourne 4,500,000
Average stack at the close of play was 2,475,186.