Faraz Jaka Seeking First Major Title, Bags Lead at Official Final Table
Faraz Jaka has had a long, fruitful career of live tournament poker, but he's never managed to nail down that elusive major title. He's racked up $5.5 million in cashes but has fallen just shy with a number of top-five finishes.
After already coming close to one World Series of Poker bracelet this summer when he finished sixth in the The Marathon for $123,105, Jaka has another great shot here in Event #36: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed.
Jaka has the lead, albeit narrowly, with six players left and the official final table ready to rock on Wednesday. He bagged 3,150,000, and he's followed by 2016 November Niner Kenny Hallaert (2,960,000), Nadar Kakhmazov (2,925,000), Sam Soverel (2,200,000), Chris Hunichen (1,860,000) and Christian Rudolph (1,305,000).
Eighteen players sat down for the start of Day 3, with formidable names like Mike Leah, Jonathan Jaffe, and Giuseppe Pantaleo among those falling before the two-table redraw.
Jaka got coolered with 11 players left when he ran kings into Dan Abouaf's aces, but a king on the river sent the pot Jaka's way, and he didn't slow down as the tournament wound down toward the unofficial final table.
James Obst — who is having quite the WSOP thus far with six cashes, his first bracelet, and two other top-eight finishes — found himself deep once again but fell on the official final table bubble. He played as many big pots as anyone on Day 3 but ultimately found himself as the short stack with seven left. He got his remaining 20 big blinds in with ace-jack against the pocket sixes of Hallaert, failing to improve and going bust.
The last six players will convene for the final table at noon on Wednesday, and the final table will be streamed live online and covered hand-for-hand here on PokerNews. For the final table seat draw, visit WSOP.com.