What To Watch For, WSOP Main Event Day 4: Oldest Entrant, Last Year's Bubble, and More
The 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event is hands down the most exciting event of the year in the industry. After starting with a field of 6,420 players days ago, there are just 661 remaining. The field is well into the money after the top 1,000 spots were paid out, and Saturday is Day 4 of the prestigious event.
Plenty of headlining stories are still alive, including nearly all of those we talked about before Day 3 yesterday. The only story that fizzled out was Adrian Mateos failing to advance. Even so, Ryan Riess, Fedor Holz, Mark Kroon, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, and Shane Warne are all still ticking, and lots of eyes are watching them closely.
94-Year-Old WWII Veteran William Wachter Goes Deep
Speaking of a story, how about William Wachter? At 94 years of age, Wachter is the oldest entrant to this year's WSOP Main Event. What's more is that he's still in with 123,000 in chips.
Wachter learned to play poker in the Merchant Marines over seven decades ago. He's a World War II veteran and engineer turned entrepreneur who owned one of the original Carvel Ice Cream shops and built a number of Hallmark retail stores. Now, he's looking to make the ultimate poker dream come true.
On Wednesday, PokerNews' Marty Derbyshire caught up with Wachter to talk poker and life, and you can read more on this amazing story by clicking here.
1993 Champ Jim Bechtel Back At It
Over two decades ago, Jim Bechtel won $1,000,000 for winning the 1993 WSOP Main Event. Now in 2015, the Coolidge, Arizona, resident has advanced to Day 4 with a sizable stack of 575,000 in chips.
"It feels great to have a big stack," Bechtel told Remko Rinkema in an interview yesterday. "You can move some people around when trying to win a big pot. When you're on the short stack, you have to be careful and build it back up. The bigger the stack you've got, the easier it is to build."
This year, Bechtel won't have to win the event to become a millionaire, as all he has to do is fight his way to the final nine. That's still a long ways away, but this run from the former champion is a great story to follow along.
Zhen Cai Freerolling After Bubbling Last Year
In the 2014 WSOP Main Event, Zhen Cai , Kori Hunter, and John Dwyer were all eliminated on the bubble. Because there was an award of a $10,000 seat into this year's Main Event to be given to the "bubble boy," the three players all drew a high card to see who would win.
First, the three players split the first $18,406 prize, earning $6,135.33 each, then pulled high cards for the seat. Cai pulled the K♦ to win the drawing and earn a free seat to this year's event. With that, he's done quite well for himself.
Cai is still alive on Day 4, and he's got a healthy stack of 508,000 in chips. Much like Farzad Bonyadi did the year before by turning his bubble freeroll into a cash, Cai is doing the same.
Duhamel Short, But Fighting
Jonathan Duhamel isn't one to hold back on nursing a short stack, which is why it will be important to follow him at the start of Day 4. The 2010 WSOP Main Event champion is still alive in the quest for another title, but he's only bringing 53,000 in chips to the battlefield. That said, one or two double ups will give the French Canadian a bit of life, but let's not get our hopes up as he sits 638th out of the returning 661 players.
Brazilian Stars Looking To Follow Politano
Remember all of those crazy final tables we've witnessed with Brazilians at them? Remember the time Bruno Politano became the first from his country to reach the November Nine? Well, don't look now but a couple of notable Brazilian stars are making a run to follow in Politano's footsteps.
Felipe Ramos andAndre Akkari have nearly $2,225,000 in live tournament earnings between them and are highly regarded as two of the best players to come out of Brazil. Both are heading into Day 4 of the WSOP Main Event with solid chips — Ramos on 464,000, and Akkari on 422,000.
25K Fantasy Coming Down To the Wire
On final thing we'd like to point out is that the 25K Fantasy League still have 12 players remaining in the field that were drafted, and the race is certainly coming down to the wire. Without boring you about all of the specifics here, you can click here to read more about the race as it heats up on Day 4 on PokerNews.
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