Politano Stretches Lead in Level 23; Newhouse Barrels into Contention
Another two hours, but more of the same story after Level 23 of the Main Event. Bruno Politano continued his dominion over the top spot in the chip counts, increasing his stack to more than 6 million.
Nobody else is within a stone’s throw of that mark, but there is a Mark surging up the counts: Mark Newhouse, who was the first to fall during last year’s November Nine for just over $733,000, rocketed up the leaderboard with an extremely productive two hours. He entered the dinner break with just over 3 million and now finds himself hovering around 5 million. His aggression got Chris Johnson off a hand where Johnson made hefty bets on the turn and river before folding to a huge river shove.
As for Politano, his hot run continued with a big win in a race against Adam Coats.
Maria Ho and Mikiyo Aoki are providing the tournament with some feminine flair. Aoki has grinded her stack to north of 2.5 million, while Ho reached a peak of about 2.7 million before faltering a bit to 2.1 million. In a recent pot, she snapped off a three-bet shove with kings to bust Michael Palo.
Vincent Maglio (138th), Alex Outhred (140th), and Huy Nguyen (142nd) were among the fallen this past level.