As the fifth day of action plays out at the World Poker Tour World Championship, the United Kingdom’s Benny Glaser returned as chip leader for the second day in a row.
Plenty of other big names also are back including two-time WPT champion Daniel Negreanu. Fellow Champions Club member Soheb Porbandarwala also brought a nice stack back to the Wynn. A few others still in contention also included Bryce Yockey, Frank Funaro, and Corey Paggeot.
The tournament was to play down to the final six players with the winner scoring $4.1 million from the 2,960-entry field. All six players at the final table also bag payouts of at least $1 million.
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A look at the chip leader
Glaser is no stranger to running deep in massive tournaments. He has $3.7 million in live tournament winnings including four World Series of Poker bracelets. He’s yet to record a WPT win, but seems on his way to giving it a nice shot.
“It’s been really fun,” he says. “It’s been kind of a roller coaster for a couple of days. Days one and four ended having a pretty rough last of the day and then having great ends to all the (other) days pretty much.”
On Friday’s Day 3, Glaser bagged 7.6 million and then moved that to almost 29 million to close out Saturday with the chip lead again. Beyond his success at the live felt, Glaser is also a regular in the online poker theater. In 2022, he scored four PokerStars WCOOP titles and one SCOOP win as well.
“I mostly play for the COOPS,” says Glaser, who enjoys music and playing guitar when not at the tables. “And then I’ve been traveling a lot this year. So I pretty much prioritize the COOPS partly for those reasons that I enjoy going for those titles.”
I'm chip leading again going into Day 5 of the @WPT Main event! 😁🚀
Very exciting times!
$100k locked up now, but it's >$4.1million for 1st.
Today will be HYUUUGE, and we play down to the final 6.
LFG! 💪🏼😀🔥 pic.twitter.com/42VqvmSmcn— Benny Glaser (@BennyGlaser) December 18, 2022
Massive cooler sends two players packing
One hand stood out during Saturday’s action. The massive development saw New Jersey grinder and Champions Club Asher Conniff pick up pocket Kings. Rania Nasreddine, of Oklahoma, also landed pocket Queens.
If that wasn’t enough, Bulgaria’s Krasimir Yankov grabbed pocket Aces. Conniff and Nasreddine both hit the rail on the cooler and Krasimir secured about 3.8 million chips.
Nasreddine finished 72nd for $53,200 while Conniff took 73rd for $46,650. After the second break, Yankov moved among the chip leaders with more than 13 million chips.
🤯🤯AA vs KK vs QQ🤮🤮
Watch this insane 3-way all in on our feature table with less than 70 remaining in the $10,400 #WPTWorldChampionship @WynnPoker @WynnLasVegas!
📺 – Tune in NOW: https://t.co/cmPhU7rBJ3 pic.twitter.com/02PHFQPsEj
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) December 18, 2022
Ladies Championship reaches final table
Along with the championship event, the first televised final table was in the works for Sunday. The $1,100 Ladies Championship drew 578 entries for a $560,660 prize pool, demolishing the $200,000 guarantee.
When the dust settled, six players remained with Lina Niu in the lead with 5.6 million chips.
The chip leader hails from Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, and has only $16,857 in live tournament winnings. Ukraine’s Olga Iermolcheva follows her with 5.1 million chips and has $372,359 in live tournament winnings.
Poker pro and commentator Jamie Kerstetter also sits among the final six and enters the final table with $764,958 in live winnings.
Longtime pro Kathy Liebert also remains among those looking to lock up this title. In a poker record dating to 1994, she has $6.8 million in tournament winnings. Here’s a complete look at the final table.
WPT Ladies Championship final table
- Lina Niu – 5,565,000
- Olga Iermolcheva – 5,065,000
- Kathy Liebert – 2,340,000
- Cindy Spier – 2,230,000
- Jamie Kerstetter – 1,405,000
- Dusti Smith – 680,000