Aldemir Leads, Chidwick and Kornuth in Contention After Day 5 of the 2021 WSOP Main Event
Germany's Koray Aldemir leads 96 players heading into Day 6 of Event #67: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event Championship at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino as part of the 2021 World Series of Poker. Day 5 began with 292 players looking for Main Event glory and wrapped up after ten hours of play, with Aldemir bagging the chip lead with a stack of 14,325,000.
The German high roller, who has over $3 million in WSOP lifetime earning and is after his first bracelet, leads other big stacks Ramon Colillas (12,000,000), Jonathan Dwek (10,125,000) and Zachary Mcdiarmid (9,700,000). All of them are also on the hunt for a first bracelet.
2021 WSOP Main Event Top 10 Counts Day 5
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Koray Aldemir | Germany | 14,325,000 | 179 |
| 2 | Ramon Colillas | Spain | 12,000,000 | 150 |
| 3 | Jonathan Dwek | Canada | 10,125,000 | 127 |
| 4 | Zachary Mcdiarmid | United States | 9,700,000 | 121 |
| 5 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 8,995,000 | 112 |
| 6 | Roongsak Griffeth | United States | 8,925,000 | 112 |
| 7 | Andreas Kniep | Germany | 8,515,000 | 106 |
| 8 | Tonio Röder | Germany | 8,000,000 | 100 |
| 9 | Alejandro Lococo | Argentina | 7,805,000 | 98 |
| 10 | Stephen Gerber | United States | 7,700,000 | 96 |
Argentina's Alejandro Lococo will return ninth in chips on Day 6 with 7,805,000 and finds himself in prime contention to make a splash in this event. Better known under his alias "Papo MC", Lococo is a famous rapper in Argentina with over 800,000 followers on Twitter alone.
The eyes of the LATAM world will be firmly squared on the PokerStars Ambassador, who could follow up in Damian Salas' footsteps for an Argentinian back-to-back victory in this event.
Pasamos al día 6 de el evento principal de la serie mundial de Poker ##. Sus vibras llegan ♥️
— Papo MC (@PapoMcArg)
GGPoker and ClubGG Online Qualifiers
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | 6,320,000 | 79 |
| 22 | Abhinav Iyer | India | 5,850,000 | 73 |
| 44 | Vasu Amarapu | United States | 3,960,000 | 50 |
| 50 | Sean Ragozzini | Australia | 3,310,000 | 41 |
| 59 | Raul Manzanares | Spain | 2,945,000 | 37 |
| 60 | Shai Arbel | Israel | 2,880,000 | 36 |
| 96 | Niko Koop | Germany | 250,000 | 3 |
Day 5 Action
A few of poker’s biggest stars survived the day, including one-time bracelet winner Stephen Chidwick, who ended the day with 3,710,000 in chips after doubling late in the evening with ace-jack against the ace-king of George Holmes. Other big names still in contention include Chance Kornuth (5,920,000), Stephen Song (2,765,000) and Yuri Dzivielevski (2,030,000).
Pennsylvania grinder Nicholas Rigby made quite a stir on social media from the main feature table with his unorthodox playing style, best demonstrated in two separate hands where he got involved in big pots against all-in opponents while holding deuce-three.
If anyone knows this Rigby guy… all drinks are on me for life. Get him in touch with me.
— Ben Lamb (@BenbaLamb)
"Rigby is like Happy Gilmore! Everyone loves Happy Gilmore. Everyone loves Rigby. Rigby! Rigby!" a member of Rigby's rail shouted toward the end of the night. "Give him a sponsorship!"
Rigby's play worked in his favor, and he ended the day with a stack of 5,212,000.
Also of note, two women are among the 96 players remaining in the World Championship: Dragana Lim, who bagged 5,555,000 chips, and Fatima Nanji, who bagged 935,000.
Last, but certainly not least, businessman John Morgan (2,600,000) will have its fair share of people rooting for him tomorrow. Morgan, the former CEO of Winmark, is a passionate poker enthusiast and has dabbled in some of the highest-stakes action on the planet. He competed in two Big One for One Drops with a buy-in of $1M, in which he played one of the craziest hands ever live reported where he made his opponent lay down quads.
A New World Champion Will Emerge
Chris Moneymaker and Qui Nguyen were both looking to defend their Main Event titles but came up short on Day 5. Nguyen, the 2016 Main Event champion, outlasted the 2003 champ but was eliminated when he moved in with ace-queen and couldn't pull ahead of the pocket eights of Jesse Lonis, who ended the day with 8,995,000 chips.
Other notable players who made it to the fifth day of play but weren’t fortunate enough to survive to see Day 6 included Jason Koon, Matt Berkey, Marle Spragg, Conrad Simpson, Ken Aldridge and Joey Weissman.
Day 6 of the WSOP flagship event begins on Sunday, Nov. 14 at noon Pacific Time, kicking off with Level 26 with blinds at 40,000/80,000/80,000.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back tomorrow with continued coverage leading up to the crowning of the eventual 2021 Main Event champion.