Franco Spitale Leads Final Day of Event #54: $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold'em

Today is the final day of Event #54: $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold'em at the World Series of Poker, where the remaining players will play down to a champion at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas. The winner will receive not only the first place prize money of $1,250,125 from the whopping $14,603,565 prize pool, but also the coveted gold WSOP bracelet. 

Out of a massive field of 10,938 entrants, only seven made it through to Day 5. Leading the pack at the top of the counts is Argentina’s Franco Spitale with 83,600,000 chips. Spitale catapulted himself into the chip lead with two tables remaining after his ace-queen of diamonds came out on top in a three-way all-in against Larry Quang and Ramon Rivera. Since then, he has remained at the forefront of the field.   

Day 5 Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Franco Spitale	Argentina	83,600,000	42
2	Stephen Dauphinais	Canada	68,700,000	34
3	Justin Carey	United States	63,900,000	32
4	Harvey Jackson	United States	25,200,000	12
5	Paul Saso	United States	22,600,000	11
6	Charles Kersey	United States	9,800,000	4

Coming into the final day second in chips with 68,700,000 is Canada’s Stephen Dauphinais. When the unofficial final table of ten started, Dauphinais came in as one of the biggest stacks, but a cooler between him and Justin Carey resulted in a rollercoaster of emotions for Dauphinais, ultimately ending in jubilation at a split pot.

Carey starts today with 63,900,000 chips, just a few big blinds fewer than Dauphinais. Harvey Jackson (25,200,000), Paul Saso (22,600,000), and the short-stacked Charles Kersey (9,800,000) each have much work to do if they want to secure a seven-figure score by the end of the day. 

The tournament will resume at 5 p.m. local time in the Horseshoe Events Center, with 47:34 minutes remaining on the clock in Level 41. Blinds will be 1,000,000/2,000,000, with a 2,000,000 big blind ante. Levels will be 60 minutes long, with 15-minute breaks every two levels and a dinner break to be determined.  

Streaming will begin at 6:00 pm on PokerGO (subject to change), and PokerNews will be providing updates on delay in sync with the stream so as not to spoil any of the tournament as it progresses.

Payouts 

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1			$1,250,125
2			$1,001,169
3			$651,039
4			$500,109
5			$376,469
6			$289,630
6			$224,270
7	Jason Hickey	United States	$174,800
8	Alex Kim	United States	$137,150
9	Owen Savir	United States	$108,320
10	Adam Croffut	United States	$108,320