Final Table in Sight as Kevin Davis Leads on Day Seven of the WSOP Main Event
Those who join the throngs of hopefuls each year putting down five figures to enter the World Series of Poker Main Event can hardly dare dream about making the final table, let alone taking down the tournament for a life-altering score. Yet here on Day 7 of the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, anyone who still has chips to wager has a decent shot at making poker's biggest stage as just 59 players remain in the hunt for the $10,000,000 top prize and a place in history.
The current chipleader, Kevin Davis, returns with a stack of 26,250,000, good for 105 big blinds. Davis is no stranger to success at WSOP events, having won six rings to go along with 122 cashes for a total of $555,524 in earnings. He has yet to win a bracelet, but now finds himself in pole position to capture the most coveted one of all. Still, just as you cannot win a multi-day poker tournament on Day 1, in the case of the Main Event it is also not possible to take it down on the seventh day, so Davis cannot rest on his laurels just yet.
Davis faces some fierce competition down the leaderboard. Shundan Xiao is his closest competitor, sitting on 23,925,000. While Xiao does not have the live poker resume to stack up against those of many of her competitors, one need only recall that Chris Moneymaker's first recorded cash on Hendon Mob was a victory in the 2003 Main Event that not only reshaped his life but also changed the trajectory of poker across the world. It would be reductive to focus solely on the fact that Xiao is a woman when considering the potentially monumental implications of her winning. Nevertheless, given that is has been almost thirty years since Barbara Enright became the first and, to-date only, woman to make a main event final table, the significant impact were Xiao to make the final table or even go the distance cannot be ignored.
Rounding out the top three counts is Frenchman Malo Latinois, who has already secured a payday worth more than the entirety of his career live earnings. He will be looking to extend his stay in the tournament long enough to put himself in contention for a seven or even eight-figure score.
Start of Day 7 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Davis | United States | 26,250,000 | 105 |
| 2 | Shundan Xiao | United States | 23,925,000 | 96 |
| 3 | Malo Latinois | France | 22,375,000 | 90 |
| 4 | Guillermo Sanchez Otero | Spain | 21,975,000 | 88 |
| 5 | Yake Wu | China | 20,875,000 | 84 |
| 6 | Yegor Moroz | United States | 20,575,000 | 82 |
| 7 | Daniel Zadok | Israel | 20,325,000 | 81 |
| 8 | Orson Young | United States | 18,350,000 | 73 |
| 9 | Jason Sagle | Canada | 17,350,000 | 69 |
| 10 | Adrian Lopez | United States | 17,025,000 | 68 |
As mentioned, plenty of notable players remain. Online legend Niklas "Lena900" Astedt (15,800,000) returns with an above average stack and, after a couple of runner-up finishes in online bracelet events, will be continuing his quest to capture his first piece of WSOP hardware. Four-time bracelet winner Kristen Foxen (14,500,000) also returns as the only other woman left besides Xiao. Foxen said at the start of Day 6 that things were starting to get real. If that was the case yesterday, then it is even more so now.
Stephen Song was chipleader coming into the past few days but suffered a rough day of play to be cut down to just 2,175,000. Still, a player of his caliber should not be counted out as Brian Kim can attest, having spun his own short stack of less than a million up to 9,975,000 to enter the seventh day.
Play resumes at noon local time in the Horseshoe Event Center in Level 31 at blinds of 125,000/250,000 with a 250,000 big blind ante. The plan is to play five more two-hour levels at which point the remaining players will bag for Day 8, which is slated to be the last day before the final table.
Our reporting will be on a one-hour delay to align with coverage over on PokerGO.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team continues comprehensive coverage of the 2024 World Series of Poker Main Event.