‘Unproven rookie’ Loosli leads WSOP in pursuit of final nine spots
Sunglasses covered his eyes, but Sylvain Loosli is not working undercover anymore. When he took over the chip lead in the World Series of Poker, information about his background was revealed.
Loosli was labeled a “complete unknown” by Seth Palansky, vice president of corporate communications for Caesars Interactive Entertainment, which owns the WSOP.
“In most people’s minds, he’s an unproven rookie with no live tournament experience,” Palansky said Monday, when the Main Event field was cut to 12 players at 11 p.m. at the Rio Convention Center.
Loosli was sitting behind almost 28.7 million in chips. JC Tran was in second position with 25,250,000, and Jay Farber, Amir Lehavot and Marc McLaughlin each had more than 20 million.
A 26-year-old from Toulon, France, Loosli resides in London. He’s considered the least-accomplished tournament player remaining, with zero WSOP cashes before this event and only $3,198 in recorded earnings worldwide. The Main Event will mark his first cash in a poker event outside of France.
The seventh day of play in the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Texas Hold ’em World Championship began at noon with 27 players and continued late Monday, when the final table of nine players, who advance to competition Nov. 4 and 5, was to be set.
“You are not seeing wild plays,” Palansky said. “No one wants to make the crucial mistake or put themselves in harm’s way unnecessarily.”
Anton Morgenstern, from Berlin, Germany, was the chip leader with almost 22 million going into Monday. But he was eliminated by the 6:30 p.m. dinner break.
Lindh-sanity ended around 10 p.m., when Chris Lindh, who moved to Las Vegas from New York three years ago, was busted. He started the day with 12,035,000 in chips and topped 18 million at one point.
“I lost a pretty huge hand with aces. I lost 6 or 7 million on that hand,” said Lindh, who earned $357,655 for finishing 16th.
Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.
