From a starting field of 666 players, it’s down to the Final Table in the Harrah’s Tunica Main Event.
On Friday this four-day $1,675 buy-in event got underway. Now only nine remain. Along the way, several notables came and went including 2003 WSOP Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker, reigning Tunica Main Event winner Kurt Jewell, Claudia Crawford, John Dolan, and WSOP Circuit host Bernard Lee, who took a break from commenting on the action to take part in the event. Those notable names all fell short of the money. Of the field of 666, the top 72 earned paydays.
Andrew Rothfolk leads the final nine with 4,575,000, while Michael Sanders, who maintained the chip lead for much of Day 2, will come to the final table second in chips with 3,055,000. These two are way out front of the rest of the field, whose chip stacks range from 1.5 million to just 400,000. When play resumes, blinds will be at 15,000/30,000 ante 5,000.
Sanders, who finished 3rd in the WSOP Circuit Main Event at Choctaw last year is the most accomplished among the final nine players and will have experience along with a sizable amount of chips to put him at an advantage over his remaining opponents.The largest WSOPC Main Event field in its eight-year history, the $1,675 buy-in championship event at Harrah’s Tunica boasted the largest prize pool since 2008, $999,000. The winner will take home $204,795 a WSOP Circuit gold ring and automatic entry into the WSOP National Championship Presented by Southern Comfort 100 Proof.Flights A and B yielded 99 survivors who returned for Day 2. After the money bubble burst just after two hours into play, the rash of eliminations began, including those of notables Wade Woelfel (61st), Allen Kessler (54th), David Clark (43rd), Cary Marshall (40th), Ari Engel (34th), Kyle Cartwright (23rd), and Aaron Massey (12th).With the elimination of Daniel Blakeman in 10th place just after 1am, the official final table was set. The final nine are guaranteed $19,161.John Holley, who leads the Harrah’s Tunica Casino Champion points race remain secure in that lead through the Main Event. With 37.5 points so far, Final Table short stack Mark Maletic poses no threat to Holley as a second place finish would leave him 2.5 points short of Holley while a win in the Main would itself earn Maletic an automatic seat to the National Championship while yielding Holley the Casino Champion’s seat.Final table play resumes tomorrow at noon local time (10am PT/1pm ET) The final table will be streamed live on ESPN3 with commentary from host Bernard Lee. Lee will be joined in the booth by Aaron Massey to kick off tomorrow's action.Here are the chip counts and seat assignments for Monday's final table:Seat 1: Jerry Barlow - 800,000Seat 2: James Watkins - 980,000
Seat 3: Michael Sanders - 3,055,000
Seat 4: Ryan Stevenson - 1,505,000
Seat 5: Jonathan Cary - 460,000
Seat 6: Norman McKeldin - 1,035,000
Seat 7: David Kruger - 505,000
Seat 8: Andrew Rothfolk - 4,575,000
Seat 9: Mark Maletic - 400,000