From a record-breaking field of 10,043 entries, just 1,518 remain heading into Day 4 of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship at the 2023 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. With only 1,507 spots getting paid, bubble play is set to commence right out of the gate as each player looks to secure a minimum payday of $15,000 along with the honor of cashing in the Main Event. For the short stacks out there, it will certainly be a tense start to the day.
One player who is unlikely to be too worried about falling before the money spots is Spain's Antonio Mallol Heredia, who managed to claim the overnight chip lead by bagging an impressive 1,899,000. Not far behind him is Chance Kornuth on 1,887,000. Kornuth has already enjoyed an extremely successful summer and has put himself in a good position to add to that success in the Main Event. Liran Betito of Israel rounds out the top three with 1,775,000.
Start of Day 4 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Antonio Mallol Heredia | Spain | 1,899,000 | 237 |
| 2 | Chance Kornuth | United States | 1,887,000 | 236 |
| 3 | Liran Betito | Israel | 1,775,000 | 222 |
| 4 | Pei Li | Canada | 1,742,000 | 218 |
| 5 | Nicholas Rigby | United States | 1,719,000 | 215 |
| 6 | Pavel Dyachenko | Canada | 1,706,000 | 213 |
| 7 | Michael Duek | Argentina | 1,678,000 | 210 |
| 8 | Nicholas Lee | Canada | 1,639,000 | 205 |
| 9 | Mason Vieth | United States | 1,602,000 | 200 |
| 10 | Michael Monroig | United States | 1,552,000 | 194 |
As one would expect, many notable players remain in contention. Those with particularly large stacks include last year's third-place finisher in this event Michael Duek (1,678,000), two time bracelet winner and WSOP POY contender Chris Brewer (1,447,000) and popular poker coach Faraz Jaka (1,378,000). It is likely they will all put their stacks to good use on the bubble to accumulate even more chips.
Other high-profile players managed to weave their way through Day 3 but enter Day 4 with much lower chip counts and will have their work cut out for them. Among them is former high stakes regular Fabian Quoss (29,000) with just under four big blinds as well as Yueqi "Rich" Zhu (106,000) with a slightly more workable 13 big blinds.
Play is set to resume at 12 p.m. local time and will continue for five more 120-minute levels. Blinds start in Level 16 at 4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 big blind ante. As has been the case on all of the days thus far, players will have a 20-minute break after every level with a 75-minute dinner break at the conclusion of Level 18. It remains to be seen whether hand-for-hand play will begin right off the bat but in any event, the action from today will be intense from the start.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team continues to provide comprehensive coverage of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship as the march towards crowning the 2023 Main Event champion goes on.
