Lane Leads Final 239 to Start Day 5
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Welcome to Day 5 of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event, a day which promises to bring even more intensity and excitement as the marathon march toward this year's final table continues.
It was a drama-filled Day 4 yesterday that began with the cash bubble bursting during the first level and Farzad Bonyadi becoming the unfortunate 649th-place finisher, with hundreds of players then following him to the rail as the field whittled down to just 239 by night's end. The elimination of Doyle Brunson in 409th earned the most notice, with players applauding the two-time Main Event champion and 10-time WSOP bracelet winner as he cashed in the ME for the fifth straight decade.
Jon Lane returns as the start-of-day chip leader with 2,839,000, one of a small group bagging more than 2 million last night that included Sami Rustom, Grayson Ramage, Victor Cianelli, Seaver Kyaw, Yann Dion, and Kevin Williams. Meanwhile Brett Richey, David Benefield, Mark Newhouse, Jackie Glazier, Ashley Mason, Yevgiviy Timoshenko, and Rep Porter are among the many strong players who did well on Day 4 to end with healthy stacks around twice the current average of just under 800,000.
Two former WSOP Main Event winners remain in the hunt, with last year's champion Greg Merson returning to a stack of 635,000 and 2001 WSOP ME winner Carlos Mortensen coming back to about half that. 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event winner Annette Obrestad will be returning as well to a big stack of 1,186,000 as she furthers her effort to become the only player besides Phil Hellmuth to win both the WSOP and WSOPE Main Events.
In addition to Merson, other "Octo-Niners" from the 2012 WSOP ME final table made runs into the money this time around, with both Russell Thomas (306th) and Robert Salaburu (355th) cashing yesterday, and last year's ninth-place finisher Steve Gee coming back today to a stack of 466,000. Meanwhile two players found their way into the money for a record-tying fourth straight year, with Christian Harder going out in 608th and Ronnie Bardah returning today to above average chips.
Last year Day 5 saw the field shrink to less than 100 players as the end-of-day chip leader (Kyle Keranen) neared the 7 million-chip mark. Today should follow a similar path as the field gets smaller, the stacks get bigger, and players' dreams of making it to the final table edge closer to reality.
Play resumes at 12 p.m. Pacific time, and we'll be here once again at PokerNews to bring you start-to-finish coverage from the WSOP Main Event. While waiting for cards to go back in the air, take a look as Kristy Arnett brings a recap of yesterday's action and a preview of what's to come:
and the option fell on Sears. He threw out a continuation bet of 56,000 and was called by both opponents. The 
brought checks all round, before the 
completed the board.
for quad sevens, much to the surprise of Bright and the rest of the table.
, and Sichelstiel check-called 29,000. The turn paired the board with the 
, and Sichelstiel again check-called, this time for 52,000. A 
river double-paired the board, and Sichelstiel checked a final time. Schwartz came out with 129,000 this time, and Sichelstiel quickly called.
for nines full of eights. "I should have known."
to swing the advantage Gee's way, and after the 
turn and 
river, his pair of aces earned him the pot. The stacks were counted to make sure, and indeed Gee had Sheikhan covered and the latter quickly departed.
, and after a series of bets, Cohen was all in for 634,000. Al-Darwich called.
gave him an unbeatable straight flush. Stunned, Al-Darwich threw his hands on his head and walked away from the table as the meaningless 
completed the board. Cohen doubled to 1.46 million chips, while Al-Darwich fell to 1.278 million.
. Rajkumar checked to Schwarmann, who moved all in after 30 seconds of thought. Rajkumar snap called, and we had a huge pot on our hands as the cards were being tabled.
hit the river.
hit the river.
