Event #65: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship Day 8 | 2018 World Series of Poker

07-12-2018 07:43 UTC-8

The 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table Starts at 5:30 p.m.

Yori Epskamp

The 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event is ready for the final table! After seven full days of playing, only nine players from the second-largest field of 7,874 are left standing. Each of them can already call themselves a millionaire, as the 9th place is already worth $1,000,000. There will be no days off for the final nine; they'll all return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at 5:30 p.m. to continue their quest for the most coveted WSOP Gold bracelet, as well as the life-changing first place prize of $8,800,000.

The nine remaining players return to action today at 5:30 p.m. local time to commence the final table. When play gets under way, the clock will have 1 hour, 23 minutes and 57 seconds left in Level 36, with blinds at 300,000/600,000 and a running ante of 100,000. Play is scheduled to continue until six players remain, with Friday reserved for playing down from six to three. On Saturday, the three remaining players will play down to the eventual champion.

2018 WSOP Main Event Final Table Seating

Seat	Player	Country	Age	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Artem Metalidi	Ukraine	29	15,475,000	26
2	John Cynn	United States	33	37,075,000	62
3	Alex Lynskey	Australia	28	25,925,000	43
4	Tony Miles	United States	32	42,750,000	71
5	Nicolas Manion	United States	35	112,775,000	188
6	Aram Zobian	United States	23	18,875,000	31
7	Michael Dyer	United States	32	109,175,000	182
8	Joe Cada	United States	30	23,675,000	39
9	Antoine Labat	France	29	8,050,000	13

^{There is 1:23:57 remaining in Level 36 (300,000/600,000, with a 100,000-ante).}

2018 WSOP Main Event Final Table Payout

Position	Prize
1	$8,800,000
2	$5,000,000
3	$3,750,000
4	$2,825,000
5	$2,150,000
6	$1,800,000
7	$1,500,000
8	$1,250,000
9	$1,000,000

Player	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7
Artem Metalidi	102,700	119,700	66,000	1,518,000	6,525,000	30,845,000	15,475,000
John Cynn	133,000	138,900	709,000	1,931,000	5,155,000	14,750,000	37,075,000
Alex Lynskey	67,100	270,500	211,000	1,635,000	3,655,000	22,045,000	25,925,000
Tony Miles	72,800	123,800	790,000	2,358,000	5,600,000	14,945,000	42,750,000
Nicolas Manion	11,500	66,800	-	1,051,000	1,395,000	17,630,000	112,775,000
Aram Zobian	171,000	436,800	770,000	2,464,000	5,450,000	41,585,000	18,875,000
Michael Dyer	74,600	502,400	693,000	1,767,000	12,180,000	26,515,000	109,175,000
Joe Cada	16,500	93,800	211,000	559,000	2,965,000	8,850,000	23,675,000
Antoine Labat	168,500	218,000	185,000	1,359,000	2,015,000	28,445,000	8,050,000

^{* End-of-day chip counts as reported by official WSOP list}
^{** Nicolas Manion's Day 3 count was not reported on the official list}

How to follow the action

PokerNews will be your one-stop shop for hand-for-hand coverage of the final table, so stick glued to your screen to not miss any of the action. We'll bring details of all the hands, live and without delay as play unfolds.

ESPN will bring you live coverage of all three days of the final table. The live World Series of Poker broadcast will begin on Thursday, July 12 at 6 p.m. ET. Hole cards will be shown and action will be broadcasted with a 30-minute security delay.

PokerGO live streaming is available in non-ESPN or non-ESPN affiliate regions.

2018 WSOP Main Event Final Table Stats

Player	WSOP Cashes	WSOP Bracelets	Career Earnings	Biggst Cash	GPI Ranking
Joe Cada	33	3	$10,779,041	$8,546,435	849th
Alex Lynskey	14	0	$1,769,666	$426,663	525th
Artem Metalidi	25	0	$2,131,437	$350,806	567th
John Cynn	16	0	$944,786	$650,000	3,926th
Antoine Labat	2	0	$194,789	$52,842	13,662nd
Aram Zobian	10	0	$110,444	$47,000	1,946th
Michael Dyer	2	0	$95,020	$65,905	179,657th
Tony Miles	5	0	$54,333	$18,000	16,766th
Nicolas Manion	1	0	$16,739	$9,850	32,585th

Player	Chips	Progress
Nicolas Manion	112,775,000

Michael Dyer	109,175,000

Tony Miles	42,750,000
John Cynn	37,075,000

Alex Lynskey	25,925,000
Joe Cada	23,675,000

Aram Zobian	18,875,000

Artem Metalidi	15,475,000
Antoine Labat	8,050,000

07-12-2018 07:37 UTC-8

Seat 1: Artem Metalidi (29) - 15,475,000 (8/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	1
Chip Count:	15,475,000 (8/9)
Hometown:	Kiev, Ukraine
Age:	29
Twitter:	@Artem205_

Artem Metalidi has become the second player from the Ukraine to reach the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event, following in the footsteps of Anton Makiievskyi, who finished in eighth in 2011 for $1,010,015.

Metalidi started playing poker around 2011 when he found a poker strategy forum where they gave away $50 for players to get started. He used that to spin it up playing cash and tournaments. Now, he already has more than $2.1 million in career earnings, not including the $1 million he has locked up in the Main Event. What is even more remarkable about the deep run of Metalidi, is the fact that he started Day 3 with just 11 big blinds (66,000) and cruised from there all the way to the final table.

“It's been a new experience for me, I am not really intimidated and just play this like any other tournament,” he said after making the 2018 WSOP final table. “I don't like to think about the payouts and stuff, and just try my best.”

With plenty of deep runs in other events, Metalidi was well-prepared for the things to come. However, his WSOP final table run in Las Vegas still stands out on his poker resume.

“It is special because it is such a big field and it is so tough to get through, and I actually never made it past Day 2 in the previous years,” he revealed. “This year I realized how fantastic this tournament really is because there are so many good spots where you can gain chips and don't have to risk too much.”

Metalidi, who was a part of Team Ukraine in the 2015 Global Poker Masters, started Day 7 second in chips but it wasn't exactly a smooth run to the final nine as he suffered early setbacks and even dropped to the bottom of the counts when eighteen players remained.

“It was not really difficult,” he said. “It was disappointing to lose a lot of chips early and get stuck with a medium stack on the bubble of the final table, so I had to play kind of passively and tried to get through some pay jumps.”

He continued: “I came in with a really good stack and I had big expectations, but I lost some pots along the way and was kind of getting a bit short, but knowing how this tournament plays, it’s still a really good stack. People have been busting pretty quick so... let the fun begin!”

Before his deep run, Metalidi had $2,131,437 in live tournament earnings, which put him seventh on Ukraine’s all-time money list. With a win, he would surpass Eugene Katchalov atop his country’s all-time money list. With $1 million locked up, Metalidi has nearly tripled his best prior cash of $350,806 for finishing second in the 2012 WSOP Event #23: $3,000 NLHE 6-Handed.

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1b	102,700	298/1,794
2ab	119,700	603/1,131
3	66,000	1,073/1,182
4	1,518,000	100/310
5	6,525,000	10/109
6	30,845,000	2/26
7	15,475,000	8/9

KEY HAND

One hand that helped get Metalidi to the final table, was knocking out Omaha’s Ryan Phan in 11th place.

It happened when Metalidi limped with jacks from the hijack and Phan moved all in for his last twelve bigs on the button. Both blinds folded and Metalidi called. The jacks held and Metalidi chipped up to 21.4 million, which was enough to get him in the top nine.

On Day 6, Metalidi chipped up when got kings against ace-king, which put him on the right track.

“After that, I was unstoppable. Everything was going my way," he said. “I played a lot of tournaments to prepare for the Main. I wanted to test some strategies and test some things I was not confident in, so I tried to grind a lot. That was my preparation."

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Metalidi enters the final table as the second shortest stack with 26 big blinds. The good news is that it’s twice as much as the short-stacked Antoine Labat, on whom he has position.

His stack could also do some damage to the two players on his immediate left – John Cynn and Alex Lynskey.

Player	Chips	Progress
Artem Metalidi	15,475,000

Tags: Artem Metalidi

07-12-2018 07:35 UTC-8

Seat 2: John Cynn (33) - 37,075,000 (4/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	2
Chip Count:	37,075,000 (4/9)
Age:	33
Hometown:	Indianapolis, Indiana

While John Cynn might not have the distinction of final tabling the WSOP Main Event twice, he has pulled off an amazing feat in poker by finishing in 11th in 2016 and bettering that finish with a final table appearance just two years later.

Cynn’s 2016 Main Event run fell short when his stack dwindled to under ten big blinds and he got it in with queen-ten, running into (eventual runner-up) Gordon Vayo's ace-king in the big blind and failing to catch up.

That bittersweet run earned Cynn $650,000 — his previous best score being just under $20,000 for a 59th-place finish in the 2015 Millionaire Maker.

In the two years since his 2016 Main Event run, Cynn has added $200,000 in tournament winnings to his credit and he shared with PokerNews during a break that he’s happy to be back under the lights of the Thunderdome. His experience this time around has been a bit different, having been here before.

“I’m definitely more comfortable than before, which is nice. It could be either because it’s my second time, or because I have a bigger stack.

“Both experiences were incredible, but [I'm] definitely having a lot of fun this time.”

Cynn’s Main Event trajectory has seen him chip up substantially on every day of the tournament besides a stagnant Day 2, as you can see below.

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1c	133,000	215/3,480
2c	138,900	700/1,655
3	709,000	121/1,182
4	1,931,000	58/310
5	5,155,000	26/109
6	14,750,000	13/26
7	37,075,000	4/9

KEY HAND

On Day 6 with blinds at 100K/200K/30K ante, Cynn was sitting with just over 4 million chips on the button and saw a very active Nirath Rean open to 450,000 under the gun before Daniel Tang flat-called. Cynn shipped with ace-jack and Rean tank re-shoved.

Once Tang folded, Cynn said, “this is really bad for me,” but was relieved to see he was flipping against pocket nines. The ace came right in the window, though the three-heart flop gave his opponent a flush draw, and Cynn told the table, “I’m very nervous right now.”

He followed up with, “I’ve never run this good in flips in tournament, anything. It’s insane how good I’m running. So I can’t complain no matter what happens.”

A clean runout followed and Cynn scored a big double up that got him going. He would end the day right in the middle of the pack with 14,750,000. By the second break on Day 7, Cynn had more than doubled what he started the day with, sitting at 32,200,000 and we asked how he got all those chips.

“By getting really lucky, I mean, this has been easily the best seven-day stretch of cards I’ve had in my whole entire life. And for that to come during the Main Event is like unreal.”

At the end of the night, he really only recalled one major hand that propelled him on Day 7, and he wasn’t involved in many big confrontations throughout the day.

"I picked up pocket sevens against pocket fives early on and that gave me a stack to work with. From there, I was just able to play my game and kind of coasted the rest of the way."

Coasting in the Main Event: every poker player’s dream.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

When asked how it feels to make the final table after getting so close in 2016, Cynn responded:

"Honestly, I don't even know what to say. It's pretty surreal. It hasn't really hit me yet."

For Cynn, after losing a chunk of his stack in the final level of the day, he was ready to burst that final table bubble that eluded him last time, and move on to Day 8.

"I'm happy the bubble popped when it did. It wasn't a great level for me so now I will have some time to rest."

In one of the biggest moments of his career, Cynn will be sure to do everything possible to give him the best chance, and he knows this final table will be no cake walk.

"Ya, we'll probably be reviewing some stuff tonight. Everyone is at the final table for a reason. They all have their strengths so of course you're going to need a little luck."

Already having outdone his previous best 11th-place finish in the Main, Cynn is surely looking to capture his first WSOP gold. And the $8.8 million would be nice too.

Player	Chips	Progress
John Cynn	37,075,000

Tags: John Cynn

07-12-2018 07:33 UTC-8

Seat 3: Alex Lynskey (28) - 25,925,000 (5/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	3
Chip Count:	25,925,000 (5/9)
Hometown:	Melbourne, Australia
Age:	28
Twitter:	@lynskey_99

“Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi.”

Those words haven’t echoed at the Amazon Room's ESPN Main Event Final Table Stage since Joe Hachem took down the World Series of Poker Main Event back in 2005. On the final table of the 2018 WSOP Main Event, they may be heard against as Alex Lynskey has become the first Australian to make it to the final nine since Hachem.

Prior to his deep run, Lynskey had $1,769,666 in live tournament earnings, including a prior best of $426,663 for finishing second to Joseph Rojas in the 2017 WSOP Event #23: $2,620 Marathon. Other highlights on his poker resumé include a fourth place in the 2016 Aussie Millions for $311,530, winning the 2016 Australasian Poker Challenge Sydney for $165,308, and placing sixth in the 2015 World Poker Tour Choctaw for $135,504.

“[I'm] mostly relieved, I’m absolutely exhausted,” Lynskey said after making the final table. “I’d like a day off, but it is what it is. It was a bad last level, but I’m still sitting alright.”

Lynskey had quite the rail cheering him on including girlfriend and fellow poker player Angelina Rich. In 2015, Lynskey and Rich rented an RV and traveled across the United States, which is when he final tabled the aforementioned WPT event.

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1c	67,100	1,482/3,470
2c	270,500	135/1,655
3	211,000	674/1,182
4	1,635,000	86/310
5	3,655,000	46/109
6	22,045,000	5/26

KEY HAND

Early on Day 7, Lynskey dispatched Eric Frohlich in a cooler hand. Lynskey four-bet with kings and Froelich, who had queens, five-bet all in. Lynskey called and held as the board ran out nine high.

In another hand, which was blind on blind, Michael Dyer limped the small blind, and Lynskey checked his option. Lynskey called a bet on the ten-high flop and then another when a king appeared on the turn. Dyer fired a third barrel on the jack river, and Lynskey called with ten-eight for a pair of tens. It was good as he’d picked off Dyer’s bluff with four-three.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Lynskey is one of the more experienced players remaining as he has some final tables under his belt. He’s got the short stacks to his right and bigger stacks to his left, so his position isn’t the greatest. However, with a 43-big-blind stack expect him to play patient and pick his spots carefully.

Player	Chips	Progress
Alex Lynskey	25,925,000

Tags: Alex Lynskey

07-12-2018 07:31 UTC-8

Seat 4: Tony Miles (32) - 42,750,000 (3/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	4
Chip Count:	42,750,000 (3/9)
Hometown:	Jacksonville, Florida
Age:	32
Twitter:	@Storm253

An avid dancer and Seattle Seahawks fan, Tony Miles brought his infectious enthusiasm all the way from Jacksonville, Florida. He's been playing tournaments since August 2011 and had two modest scores this summer in The Colossus (for $2,358) and the Millionaire Maker (for $4,038). His career tournaments earnings will change dramatically now that Miles is guaranteed at least $1,000,000 for making the final table, which he'll enter with the third-biggest stack.

"I got off to a pretty slow start," Miles said on Day 1. "But, as players know, this tournament is a marathon, not a sprint, and I'm not worried at all.”

Indeed, Miles had little reason to be worried. He consistently built his stack during the tournament and, along the way, has had a supportive rail that cheered him on.

“It's critical, in life and at the poker table, that people are there to pick you up when you fall down," Miles said. "Those are the most important people in the world to me. My mom, my dad, my brother, and all of my closest friends are here. Everybody that I love is here.”

Miles's rail closely watched the action on the outer tables. When Miles sat down in the Thunderdome, you'd better believe that they made a ruckus.

Coming into the unofficial final table last in chips, Miles never lost his composure and doubled up twice.

“There was never a rush," he said. "I take one hand at a time and do my best to stay at an elite level. I think that this final table is one of the toughest final tables that has ever been composed. There are a ton of sickos. It's going to be really competitive and really fun to watch."

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	Enbd-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1c	72,800	1,258/3,470
2c	123,800	955/1655
3	790,000	700/1,182
4	2,358,000	183/310
5	5,600,000	68/109
6	14,945,000	12/26

KEY HAND

On Day 4, Miles competed on the ESPN Feature Table alongside David Kitai, a Belgian pro and a tough competitor.

Kitai raised to 35,000 under the gun. Miles three-bet to 115,000, Kitai shoved all-in for about 350,000, and Miles snap-called with two aces. Kitai's two queens couldn't catch up, and the bracelet winner from Belgium was eliminated. In the meantime, Miles bagged Day 4 with 2.358,000 in chips and kept up the pace all the way to the final table.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

The plan for tonight and tomorrow, Miles said, is to sleep well, meditate, eat healthy, and come to Day 8 focused and ready to execute.

In previous days, Miles has been sporting a Seattle Seahawks jersey. There may be a wardrobe surprise in store for the final table.

“You're gonna see [the jersey of] an athlete that I respect on the field and off the field," Miles said. "I'm not sure which one it will be—and I am not going to reveal that at this time—but I'm really big on promoting athletes who are really good people off the field.”

Player	Chips	Progress
Tony Miles	42,750,000

Tags: Tony Miles

07-12-2018 07:29 UTC-8

Seat 5: Nicolas Manion (35) - 112,775,000 (1/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	5
Chip Count:	112,775,000 (1/9)
Hometown:	Muskegon, Michigan
Age:	35
Twitter:	@spewzata

Manion may be a small-stakes grinder per usual, but hey — so was Ryan Riess.

Manion has mostly built up his tournament chops playing smaller online events, but has very little live tournament experience and only a few small results on Hendon Mob. After bagging the ninth biggest stack of the remaining 26 players on Day 6, he told PokerNews:

“Recently I’ve just been doing really well, playing well, and running even better. And that’s what’s been going on in the Main Event. So it’s been great.”

Manion’s first WSOP event ever, he wouldn’t normally have made the trip out to Vegas from Michigan, but his friend made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I had a buddy that was out here from Muskegon, [Michigan,] and a couple months ago he asked me if I wanted to play two $2,175 mega satellites that he would put me in. I played both of them, qualified out of both, and he said, ‘let’s play this,’ because I told him I was playing really well.”

The first day of the tournament was going smooth and he was building, but then he flopped the nut straight with jack-ten on seven-eight-nine, and got in stacks with an opponent who held top two with nine-eight. A nine on the turn left Manion down to 20,000 and he ended the day very short.

He didn’t let that stop him though, and Manion would spend the next four days of the tournament grinding a small to medium stack. Never with a big stack until the middle of Day 6, Manion didn’t really feel the full effects of the pressure of going deep in the Main Event. At the end of Day 6, he told PokerNews:

“The craziest thing about this tournament is [that] I really haven’t had many chips to have to have big decisions. So it’s either, I’m going with my hand or I’m not. And now that I’ve got chips, I’m a little bit more nervous, but I think I’m playing well so it kind of cancels that out.”

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1c	11,500	3,361/3,470
2c	66,800	1,267/1,655
3	-	-/1,182
4	1,051,000	152/310
5	1,395,000	95/109
6	17,630,000	9/26
7	112,775,000	1/9

^{* Day 3's count missing on official chip count list}

KEY HANDS

Manion started Day 6 as one of the shorter stacks of the final 109 players with 23 big blinds and was just bleeding chips, getting no hands to work with. But that all changed in the second level of the day:

“I think blinds were 40K/80K and I had 650,000 and had pocket sevens vs. ace-king and rivered a seven. And a guy said he folded a seven, so that was pretty good too.”

Manion proceeded to chip up from there for the remaining few levels of the day, and made a huge laydown with pocket kings preflop at the very end of the night to preserve his stack and finish the day ninth in chips.

Manion opened to 500,000 with blinds at 100K/200K/30K and Alex Lynskey three-bet to 1.5 million. After Barry Hutter moved in for his last 580,000, Manion four-bet to 5 million. Lynskey moved in the rest and the decision was for a large chunk of Manion’s remaining stack. Manion filled us in on his thought process just after the hand.

“I’ve shown nothing but nut hands today, and he shoved all in for 16 million. To me, that’s just one hand and one hand only, so I’m not going to put my tournament life on kings when I’m 99 percent sure he has aces.”

On Day 7, Manion chipped up early and stayed near the top of the counts all day. Then, a privotal hand went down after the final ten took their seats at the unofficial Main Event final table.

In the hand, Manion looked down at pocket aces under the gun and raised to 1.5 million at 300K/600K/100K. Antoine Labat flat-called in middle position and Yueqi Zhu moved all in for 24.7 million from the hijack. The action folded around back to Manion:

“So I try to tank a little bit and make it look like I don’t have a huge monster, but I eventually shove and seat nine [Labat] tank-calls and they both have pocket kings. And somehow, this is real life.

“When I got both calls, I flipped over my hand and I didn’t even stay to see what they had. I went straight to my rail and looked up at the T.V. and they had set up pocket kings and my aces. So the only way to lose the hand is a flush and luckily the turn card did not put a flush draw on the board, so it was all over.”

With Zhu as the shortest of the three, he was eliminated in the hand and Labat was knocked down to short-stack status, while Manion took over the chip lead long-held by Michael Dyer.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Though Manion is not accustomed to playing for such high-stakes, he’s keeping his cool and says that being chip leader won’t change up his game.

“That will not affect my play at all. I’m still gonna stick to my game plan of playing the hands that I’m dealt and trying to just chip up and win the pots that I’m entering.”

As a mostly $1/2 casino and home game player, Manion doesn’t have any aspirations of straying from his lifestyle back home in Michigan, where he also enjoys hanging out with his dogs at the beach near his home.

“This is great, but I mean, I will not change what I’m doing. I’m not gonna go play big tournaments and blow my bankroll. I’m gonna play with all my friends just like before and enjoy life now.”

Some of those buddies will undoubtedly be cheering Manion on, railside, just as they did when he charged into chip leader status in that fateful, final hand on Day 7.

Player	Chips	Progress
Nicolas Manion	112,775,000

Tags: Nicolas Manion

07-12-2018 07:25 UTC-8

Seat 6: Aram Zobian (23) - 18,875,000 (7/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	6
Chip Count:	18,875,000 (7/9)
Hometown:	Cranston, Rhode Island
Age:	23
Twitter:	@AramZobian

Aram Zobian is enjoying every minute of the Main Event. The Cranston, Rhode Island-native and dolphin-lover had $110,903 in lifetime tournament earnings prior to this tournament, including a $47,000 score in Mashantucket, Connecticut.

Zobian's journey to the final table began with a hot streak before Day 6's dinner break.

"Do you have it?" Antoine Labat asked Zobian during a hand on Day 6.

"I always have it," Zobian replied.

Shortly after that, Zobian won a big three-way pot besting Jeff Trudeau and online legend Henrik Hecklen with flopped trips holding ace-king.

“I can't even comprehend how good I'm running right now," Zobian said on Day 6. "Definitely blessed. Never ran this good in a tournament, not even close. Hopefully, that'll be true for tomorrow as well."

Zobian ended Day 6 by bagging up an impressive 41,585,000.

On Day 7, as he approached the final table, Zobian added: "This gives me a lot of confidence in life moving forward. There have been many times in my live tournament career when I've thought about quitting and playing primarily cash games. So this validates that I do well in this format."

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1b	171,000	33/3470
2ab	436,800	24/2786
3	770,000	95/1,182
4	2,464,000	27/310
5	5,450,000	22/109
6	41,585,000	1/26
7	18,875,000	7/9

KEY HAND

On Day 6, with the board reading , four-time WSOP Circuit Event ring winner Jeff Trudeau check-raised all-in. Zobian tanked and folded . Trudeau showed a pair of fives for an audacious bluff. Instead of getting rattled or going on tilt, Zobian composed himself and forced himself to focus.

"It sounds weird, but I kind of enjoyed getting bluffed on TV," Zobian said. "I had the guy that much on tilt that he tried to spew his chips to me. Kudos to him, because he ended up getting a fold, but his play was pretty ridiculous, from a theory standpoint."

WHAT TO EXPECT

As Zobian looks ahead to the final table, he's still processing the incredible aces versus kings versus kings hand that rocked the Thunderdome and burst the bubble. "The last hand leaves one guy short," Zobian said, "so it definitely affects my strategy."

For the time being, Zobian plans to celebrate with his friends, prepare for Day 8, and take things from there. "Making the final table hasn't quite registered," he said. "But I feel fine. I feel all right."

Player	Chips	Progress
Aram Zobian	18,875,000

Tags: Aram Zobian

07-12-2018 07:23 UTC-8

Seat 7: Michael Dyer (32) - 109,175,000 (2/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	7
Chip Count:	109,175,000 (2/9)
Hometown:	Houston, Texas
Age:	32

Michael Dyer has over $130,000 in live tournament earnings, including an eighth-place finish in a 2009 WSOP event for $65,905. After gaining most of his experience playing online, the Houston, Texas native wondered how he would fare if he returned to the Main Event. His sole appearance came in 2016, when he was eliminated on Day 1.

"I haven't been playing live poker for a while," he said, "and I was curious to see how I'd do. The tournament has been going well so far."

It certainly has. Dyer has been atop the chip counts since Day 5, when he finished with 12,180,000 to give him a wide lead over second place, the two-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon.

“It was pretty swingy early on,” Dyer said about Day 5, “but then I moved to the Feature Table and [my stack] skyrocketed.”

When asked to reflect upon his massive chip lead during most of Day 7, Dyer said that playing a big stack simplified his decisions. "I got rolling when I won with a combo draw, the eight-nine of spades," he said. That pivotal pot came after a jack of spades, eight of diamonds, five of spades flop, when Dyer made a large reraise with his pair and flush draw and found himself against Paulo Goncalves’s off suit ace-jack. The king of clubs turn kept Goncalves ahead, but the ten of spades river gave Dyer a winning flush.

As the final table loomed, Dyer moved to the Feature Table. During much of the action, he hunched in his seat; impassive and focused, with a box of Bite-Sized Shredded Wheat within arm’s reach. "You've gotta fuel up, somehow," he explained.

Dyer's dad, David, also offered support from the rail. He flew from Houston to Las Vegas on the morning of Day 7, and Dyer's mom plans to join them for Day 8. "There's no pressure," he said, "but I was hoping to make the final table so my mom wouldn't fly out for no reason."

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1b	74,600	632/3470
2ab	502,400	4/2786
3	693,000	693/1,182
4	1,767,000	74/310
5	12,180,000	1/109
6	26,515,000	4/26
7	109,175,000	2/9

KEY HAND

On the Day 5 Feature Table, Dyer squared off against Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, who raised to 110,000 under the gun with 3.8 million chips. Dyer three-bet to 315,000 with ace-king suited and Josephy, after some thought, four-bet to 815,000. Dyer shoved, barely covering Josephy's stack, and the former November Niner called with kings. The ten-six-three flop didn’t help Dyer, and neither did the turn five. But the river was an ace, which sent Josephy to the rail and boosted Dyer's stack to over nine million.

"It’s a trap hand," Dyer explained. "Josephy has so many chips that he can have whatever he wants to have. He had a really good hand, so I got lucky [but] that just happens sometimes. I just play hands. Whatever happens, happens.”

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Throughout the Main Event, and especially in the later stages of the tournament, Dyer has shown a willingness to enter lots of pots and put pressure on his opponents through bold bluffs. Dyer's aggression and hefty 109,175,000 stack—only three million behind chip leader Nicolas Manion—should make him an exciting to watch player at the final table.

Player	Chips	Progress
Michael Dyer	109,175,000

Tags: Michael Dyer

07-12-2018 07:19 UTC-8

Seat 8: Joe Cada (30) - 23,675,000 (6/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	8
Chip Count:	23,675,000 (6/9)
Hometown:	Shelby Charter Township, Michigan
Age:	30
Twitter:	@cada99

After Day 1C of the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event, which started players with 50,000, former champ Joe Cada bagged up just 16,500. He was near the bottom of the counts. Obviously, you can call it a comeback as he now finds himself at the final table.

"It was a lot more of a grind this time," Cada told PokerNews. "I knew that it was a long eight days and I felt like I had room to come back. I had 9K at one point in this tournament and I just grinded a short stack. I was like maybe one-fifth of average almost the entire tournament. I just had to pick my spots and try to shove on people that were raising too much and just try to pick up some hands."

It marks the second time he’s been in this spot as nine years ago, he topped a field of 6,494 players to win the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $8,547,044. At the time, he was 21 years and 11 months old, and became the youngest player in WSOP history to win the Main Event. Not only that, he did it by besting a final table that included Phil Ivey, Jeff Shulman, and Darvin Moon.

"It feels unreal. What other feelings are there?" Cada said after returning to the final table. "We'll see how it turns out. I don't know...cards...you never know."

An online poker player before striking it big, Cada, born November 18, 1987, still resides in Shelby Charter Township, Michigan.

He made headlines earlier this summer for two reasons. First, he bested a 363-player field to win the 2018 WSOP Event #3: $3,000 NLHE Shootout for $226,218 and his third bracelet. His other gold hardware came back in 2014 when he took down Event #32: $10,000 NLHE 6-Handed Championship for $670,041.

The other headline he grabbed was around Father’s Day, which is when he put his father, Jerry Cada, into the $1,000 Super Seniors Championship. The story was heartwarming as not long before Jerry spent over a month in a coma after suffering a stroke. During his recovery, Joe spent time teaching his dad the poker ropes. Joe was on his dad’s rail, but now it’s time for the father to root on son once again.

As for playing it out in the coming days as opposed to the defunct November Nine break, Cada's all about it.

"I like it better. I'd rather just get this thing over with and see where it lies. The three months...you toss and turn a lot thinking about where it's going to end."

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1c	16,500	3,252/3,470
2c	93,800	1,032/1,655
3	211,000	672/1,182
4	559,000	249/310
5	2,965,000	56/109
6	8,850,000	19/26

KEY HANDS

One of Cada’s pivotal hands came with 15 players remaining in Level 34 (200,000/400,000/50,000) when he three-bet jammed for 6.875 million holding ace-six suited. The initial raiser, Frederik Jensen, called with ace-ten and Cada was in trouble. Fortunately for him, the board ran out with three hearts, including one on the river, to give him new life.

Cada on the hand: "I don't know if I would have been as patient back then. I was a little bit more patient this year. I mean I got lucky with that ace-six of hearts but honestly, if I didn't ship that, for the next two hours, I wouldn't have won a hand. I would have just been blinded out. He actually made a really good call with ace-ten. That's a tough spot there. I got lucky with that and I was able to get in some really good situations where I was able to run my stack up."

In another big hand, Cada executed a three-barrel bluff against Alex Lynskey, who had flopped top pair on a king-high board. Cada’s river shove sent his Australian foe into the tank and eventually, he folded. Cada’s brazen bluff lit up the Twitterverse and showed that he was willing to put it all on the line for another shot at the title.

"It was just situational. I was lucky enough for a jack or a queen to come off because that was the only way I was going to continue with the bluff," Cada said of the hand. "That board's my range. They're playing tight and I'm raising into the two chip leaders. There's no reason why I can't have a straight or two pair there. It's so hard to have any bluffs besides an ace, which I did but it's not often. It's just situational."

If Cada were to win the Main Event, he would join the ranks of Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Stu Ungar as repeat winners. Similarly, a fourth bracelet would put him in a company that includes Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Brian Rast, and Amarillo Slim, just to name a few.

Finally, Cada is the first Main Event champ to return to the final table since 1995 winner Dan Harrington went back-to-back in 2003-04.

Cada has a favorable position at the table. The two big stacks are to his right, and the two short stacks are to his direct left. Cada has the experience and knows how to close the Main Event out, which just might be the edge he needs to make poker history.

Player	Chips	Progress
Joe Cada	23,675,000

Tags: Joe Cada

07-12-2018 07:15 UTC-8

Seat 9: Antoine Labat (29) - 8,050,000 (9/9)

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Yori Epskamp

Seat:	9
Chip Count:	8,050,000 (9/9)
Hometown:	Vincenna, France
Age:	29

While France gets ready to play Croatia in the World Cup final on Sunday, France’s Antoine Labat is happy for his country but is more focused on another competition. The lone Frenchman standing in the 2018 WSOP Main Event, Labat says he feels the support from his home country.

“The French community is really beside me; even if they don’t really know me.”

A mostly online player, using the monicker 'Mpiyavv' to collect $623,363 in earnings, Labat has just under $200,000 in live cashes to his credit. His only two WSOP cashes, both coming from this summer, make for a total of $6,857 prior to the Main.

Really into all kinds of board games and competitive chess growing up, Labat naturally transitioned into poker as soon as he could, around age 17. Once he could go to casinos at 18, he did so, and pretty soon Labat was playing live cash and online MTTs for a living, which he does to this day.

With one brother and one sister, Antoine was always the gambler in the family, "[l was always] willing to put my ass on the line.”

That's exactly what he did in the final hand of the night, even though it didn't work out this time. The monster cooler of a last hand of the evening saw Labat commit most of his stack with pocket kings, only to be up against Nicolas Manion’s pocket aces and another pair of kings, held by the shorter-stacked Yueqi Zhu. Manion’s aces held up and, while Zhu’s elimination got them down to the official final table, Labat was left as the short stack.

Understandably, Labat was feeling a bit sad right after bagging up for the final table, but the feelings were mixed.

“I’m really happy to be here. Really really, I just wish it would not be that way at the end.”

Though he wondered in the moment if he could fold the kings, he decided he kind of had to go with it. “If I fold, it’s going to look so crazy. But I had this feeling like, he has it. The way he did it, it’s just like, it’s just a feeling.”

But even though it didn't go down exactly the way he'd hoped, Labat stayed positive and kept perspective.

“It’s amazing, it’s amazing. I know I’m a lucky guy to be here.”

HOW HE GOT HERE

Day	End-of-Day Chip Count	Rank
1c	168,500	63/3,470
2c	218,000	282/1,655
3	185,000	726/1,182
4	1,359,000	113/310
5	2,015,000	79/109
6	28,445,000	3/26

KEY HAND

On Day 6, Labat caught a massive heater to soar from 2.015 million to a third-place stack of 28.445 million to end the day.

The pivotal hand came in the third level of the day when Labat picked up aces against Michael Feil’s pocket kings and Brent Ballentine’s queens. All the chips went in preflop, and Labat’s aces held to vault him up the counts with 18 million as he sent two to the rail. Labat was emotional after the hand and called it, “the best thing I ever won in poker.”

“It really upset me from my feet to my head and then when I went on break I was like crying almost. I felt really bad; really good and really bad at the same time.”

He caught fire with that pot, flopping a boat with jack-nine against Jeff Trudeau, and then going runner-runner Broadway against Andres Jeckeln, who had flopped a set of fives. A bit later, Labat flopped a set of queens when Jeckeln flopped another set of fives, and Labat won that significant pot which put him into the chip lead for the first time.

With players dropping on Day 7, Labat was feeling the pressure and was focusing on his breathing, making sure the oxygen was getting to his body and brain. His goals as the final tabled approached?

“Just play hand by hand, and see what happens. Stay focused, play my best.”

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

It’s fun for Labat to be playing at the WSOP final table after watching it with his brother on TV in France a decade ago.

“We imagined ourselves; one day we’d be there, so now it’s my turn. I hope it’s going to last more than five minutes, that’s all, since my girlfriend is joining tomorrow. I hope she’s not coming just for seeing me bust in five seconds.”

His friends and family in France likely stayed up all night watching Labat make the final table, and his sister is also flying in but will be late. Again, Labat hopes he can build up his stack and stick around, so they get to watch him play.

While Labat was disappointed to take the big hit at the end of the night and come into the final table short, he is confident that he will find a double up and build back.

“They don’t know it, but I will. I know I’m going to make it. I feel it. I just had to lose that hand to make them feel that I am human, that’s all.”