Start of day chip leader Zachary Hall has been nursing a short stack as of late and he decided to raise to 1,100,000 from under the gun. This left him with just 1,000,000 behind.
Yaroslav Ohulchanskyi, also a short stack, agonized over the decision before letting his hand go. Action folded to Joshua Payne, who made it 2,500,000 from the hijack.
Daniel Holzner, who was in the small blind, had just 2,150,000 himself and he went into the blender before allowing Hall and Payne to duke it out.
Zachary Hall: K♦Q♥
Joshua Payne: 10♥10♠
Hall was pleased to see he was flipping, but the 8♣4♥3♥ flop kept Payne ahead. The 5♣ turn and 2♥ river confirmed Hall's exit and he fell late on in Day 6.
Clement Richez was down to 2,500,000 and moved all in from middle position. Action folded to Jack O'Neill in the big blind who called to put him at risk.
Clement Richez: A♣9♣
Jack O'Neill: 5♠5♥
Richez was racing for a spot in Day 7 and picked up a straight draw on the 4♥2♠10♠3♠ board in addition to his overcards, but O'Neill dodged the 3♦ to send him to the rail near the end of the night.
On the last hand of Day 6, Masato Yokosawa raised to 450,000 with 2♠2♥ and Carlos Henrique Da Silva defended his big blind with 6♥6♣.
The 8♣10♠6♠ flop gave Da Silva a set and he led out for 425,000. Yokosawa called as the 2♣ spelled disaster for the Japanese star who made a lower set.
Da Silva bet another 1,100,000 and Yokosawa called to the K♥ river. Da Silva then shoved for 3,325,000 and Yokosawa snap-called, only to discover the bad news as Da Silva's raucous Brazilian rail erupted in celebration.
Eric Schneider called bets by Anirban Das on the J♠6♣4♠ flop for 375,000 and the 2♥ turn for 525,000. They checked the 3♥ river and Das showed the Q♥J♣, which Schneider had beat with the K♦J♦.
Soon after that, a three-bet pot between them emerged to the Q♦6♣3♣ flop. Schneider bet 1,200,000 only for Das to move all-in and force a fold.
Only 49 hopefuls remain from a record-breaking field of 10,043 players in Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) after another five levels of play on a Day 6 marked by bad beats and the dropping of big names.
Leading the way is Joshua Payne with a stack of 47,950,000 after a late-night surge that included felting Day 5 chip leader Zachary Hall. The 23-year-old, who played much of the day in a pair of sleek cyborg sunglasses, is after just his third WSOP cash, including a 553rd-place finish in last year's Main Event for $25,500.
End of Day 6 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Joshua Payne
United States
47,950,000
192
2
Juan Maceiras Lapido
Spain
40,500,000
162
3
Daniel Weinman
United States
24,375,000
98
4
Richard Ryder
United States
22,650,000
91
5
Tim Van Loo
Austria
21,700,000
87
6
Alec Torelli
United States
21,075,000
84
7
Daniel Scroggins
United States
20,800,000
83
8
Pierpaola Lamanna
Italy
18,875,000
76
9
Nicholas Gerrity
United States
18,075,000
72
10
Ryan Tamanini
United States
17,325,000
69
Next in line is Spain's Juan Maceiras Lapido, who is looking to add to his $1.1 million in live earnings and to improve on a fifth-place finish in the 2011 EPT Madrid Grand Final that brought him a career-best $467,532. A result of 13th place or better will do that for him.
Others toward the top of the counts include Conscious Poker founder Alec Torelli (21,075,000) include Daniel Scroggins (20,800,000), who mentioned on Day 5 that he was wearing a watch worth somewhere around $150,000. The Kentuckian would be able to buy another 80 of those watches should he win the record-breaking $12,100,000 first-place prize.
Other's still alive in the biggest WSOP Main Event in history include popular Japanese poker vlogger Masato Yokosawa, esteemed British pro Toby Lewis, and bracelet winner Daniel Weinman, who took a break from the action to pose with his friend Josh Arieh as he won his second bracelet of the series across the room.
Masato Yokosawa
Rigby's Reign Ends, Last Two Women Standing Depart
With several short stacks among the 149 players who started the day, it didn't take long for the eliminations to pile up and for tables to break inside the energetic and relatively packed Horseshoe Events Center.
Among the first to exit on Day 6 were France's Lorenzo Santos Rodriguez (149th - $67,700), Americans David Mzareulov (147th - $67,700) and Tony Dam (144th - $67,700) and Day 1a chip leader Yehuda Dayan (135th - $67,700).
Another Day 1 chip leader, Nicholas Rigby, who has been a prime source of entertainment throughout each day of action, had his second deep WSOP Main Event reach an end as he took a tough beat on a feature table.
The "Dirty Diaper" lover found himself all in and at risk with jacks against the Big Slick of Diego D'Aquilio, a classic flip as the flop landed 10♥J♣2♠ to give Rigby a big lead with top set. But as fate would have it, the board finished out 6♠Q♠ and D'Aquilio spiked the four-outer on the river to end Rigby's reign of terror.
Yet another chip leader had a no-good Day 6. Day 5 chip leader Hall had a tumultuous day that included jamming into a set to double up Torelli. Hall spent the rest of the night short and was eliminated shortly after the floor announced the final four hands.
Meanwhile, statistician Nate Silver, the highest-profile player in the Day 6 field, lost a sick one that no pollster could have predicted when his set of sixes was pipped by Henry Chan's set of sevens.
Nate Silver
Popular players taking beats was a familiar storyline on Day 6. Renowned poker commentator Tony Dunst spent most of the day under the feature table cameras until he was shown the light by Andrew Hulme, who managed to river a straight flush to crush the regular straight of Dunst.
There was plenty of attention on the last two women in the field, India's Nikita Luther and France's Estelle Cohuet. Luther, a bracelet winner who took down 2018's Tag Team event, bowed out in 96th place to win $78,900 and confirm Cohuet's title as the last woman standing.
Estelle Cohuet
The Winamax pro laddered a bit before getting all in with king-ten and failing to improve against the ace-queen of Raj Vohra. The 68th-place finish brought Cohuet a career-best $130,300 in what she told PokerNews was her first WSOP Main Event.
Others who fell late in the day include 2010 Main Event runner-up John Racener (53rd - $188,400), Allen Chang (56th - $156,100), James Jeffrey (60th - $156,100) and Andrew Dea (62nd - $156,100)
Day 7 of the Main Event is slated to kick off Thursday at noon local time as it moves closer to a winner. The plan is to play another five levels, each slated for two hours in duration with a 75-minute dinner break after the third level.
Stay with the PokerNews live reporting team tomorrow and the rest of the tournament as the record-breaking Main Event inches closer to crowning a champion.
