WSOP Main Event final table set; poker pro Cliff Josephy leads
Professional poker player Cliff Josephy will have the chip lead when the World Series of Poker’s $10,000 buy-in No-limit Texas Hold ’em World Championship resumes in 3½ months.
Josephy bagged up 74.6 million chips when Day 7 of the Main Event completed minutes before midnight on Monday night at the Rio Convention Center with the elimination of Joshua Weiss in 10th place.
The tournament resumes Oct. 30 at the Rio’s Penn & Teller Theater when the final nine players compete for the $8 million first prize. All the members of the final table are guaranteed a minimum $1 million payout.
Josephy, 50, is the most accomplished player at the final table. The resident of Muttontown, New York, was one of the original online poker giants playing under the screen name “JohnnyBax” and has two WSOP bracelets.
He also was the financial backer for Joe Cada when he won the Main Event in 2009.
“This is the greatest. This is my own accomplishment. This was the dream,” Josephy said. “The dream isn’t to have a piece of somebody at the final table or to win it. But the dream is to win it myself.”
Las Vegas resident Qui Nguyen ended in second place with 67.925 million after he was nearly eliminated with 21 players remaining. Nguyen went on a massive rush after the dinner break, eliminating three players during a seven-hand stretch at one point.
Gordon Vayo of San Francisco is third with 49.375 million and was one of the biggest movers late on Day 7. Vayo, who was second in the $3,000 buy-in Six-handed No-limit Hold’em event in 2014, had only 16 big blinds at the dinner break before he picked up several big hands during the evening session.
Professional poker player Kenny Hallaert is in fourth place and is the second Belgian to make the Main Event final table following Pierre Neuville in 2015.
The top four players have nearly 70 percent of the chips in play at the final table.
Poker pro Michael Ruane of Maywood, New Jersey, is fifth, followed by fellow pros Vojtech Ruzika of the Czech Republic, Canada’s Griffin Benger and Jerry Wong of Brooklyn, New York.
Spain’s Fernando Pons, who won his seat to the Main Event through a €30 online qualifier, will be on the short stack when play picks up in October.
CHIP COUNTS
1, Cliff Josephy (Muttontown, New York) 74,600,000
2, Qui Nguyen (Las Vegas) 67,925,000
3, Gordon Vayo (San Francisco) 49,375,000
4, Kenny Hallaert (Hansbeke, Belgium) 43,325,000
5, Michael Ruane (Maywood, New Jersey) 31,600,000
6, Vojtech Ruzicka (Prague, Czech Republic) 27,300,000
7, Griffin Benger (Toronto) 26,175,000
8, Jerry Wong (Brooklyn, New York) 10,175,000
9, Fernando Pons (Palma, Spain) 6,150,000
