Kenne Leads the Final 9 Players Into Day 5 of R$25,000 Millions Championship
There were 24 players who returned to the felt for Day 4 of the R$25,000 BSOP Millions Championship from a field of 503 located at the WTC Sheraton in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Over four levels later, the final table of nine players was formed who will return to battle for the title on the final day of the competition.
It was a day all about Marcos Kenne who completely distanced himself from the field after an impressive performance. Kenne bagged up a stack of 17,165,000 chips, more than 10 million ahead of the rest of the competition. It was a combination of getting hit with the deck of cards along with some strong play on the heels of the largest pot of the tournament. Kenne picked off a game-changing bluff from the most accomplished player in the field, Joao Vieira, to vault himself into the chip lead he would never relinquish.
Kenne will be looking for his first live tournament win when the action resumes tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. local time which would coincide with the largest cash of his poker career as well. The Brazilian native plays mostly in the South American region when it comes to live tournaments, but has one notable cash at EPT Barcelona in the summer of 2023.
Day 5 Chip Counts and Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blas Torres | Argentina | 2,930,000 | 29 |
| 2 | Marcos Kenne | Brazil | 17,165,000 | 172 |
| 3 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | 4,230,000 | 42 |
| 4 | Diego Ventura | Peru | 6,690,000 | 67 |
| 5 | Paulo Goncalves | Brazil | 5,105,000 | 51 |
| 6 | Murilo Milhomem | Brazil | 5,740,000 | 57 |
| 7 | Dennys Ramos | Brazil | 4,885,000 | 49 |
| 8 | Breno Drumond | Brazil | 2,270,000 | 23 |
| 9 | Rafael Mota | Brazil | 1,255,000 | 13 |
Day 4 Action
The cards went in the air shortly after 2:00 p.m. local time with 24 players remaining and each guaranteed at least R$73,130 thus far. It didn't take long for the final three tables to diminish and Matheus Nehme led the way to the payout desk with his elimination in the first couple of hands of the day. Luan Coelho took the early lead on Day 4 but that didn't last long when Rafael Mota hit a rivered straight to crack the pocket kings of Coelho. Carlos Serrano and Alexandre Mantovani were also eliminated prior to hitting the final two tables.
Once Kenne got to the feature table, he started to work his magic with the eliminations of Gerardo Rodriguez and Joao Valli. With a growing chip stack, Kenne then got the best of Vieira, leaving the latter with just one big blind. Just when everyone thought the 3x WSOP bracelet winner was headed to the rail, he turned things around and remained patient. A couple of fortunate runouts later and Vieira found himself sitting among the final nine with a stack of 4,230,000, more than the one big blind he was left with earlier.
There was a stall to the rapid eliminations with just 12 players remaining as they headed on their dinner break. However, the chip stacks got slightly more shallow, and soon enough it was Santiago Plante who failed to win a coin flip and was sent to the payout desk. He was quickly followed by Claudio Pitta and Gustavo Neves which brought the field down to the final nine.
Besides Kenne and Vieira, Diego Ventura will be one to keep an eye on who currently sits in second place with a stack of 6,690,000. Ventura has been at or near the top of the leaderboard at the end of the previous couple of days and has a prolific poker resume to go along with it. Murilo Milhomem (5,740,000) and Paulo Goncalves (5,105,000) will be the only other players returning with a stack above 50 big blinds when the action resumes.
The cards will be slated to go in the air at 2:00 p.m. local time tomorrow. There is 17:19 remaining in level 23 with the blinds at 50,000/100,000 and a big blind ante of 100,000. The levels will continue to be 90 minutes in length with a 15-minute break at the end of each level. The final nine players have each locked up R$193,900 thus far but the first-place prize of R$2,140,000 looms large at the top of the table.
The PokerNews team will be here to provide you with all of the updates on a 30-minute delay to coincide with the BSOP live stream on Twitch and YouTube.