Andres Korn Leads International Final Table of Event #56: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em
The stage is set! After three days of play in Event #56: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em, nine players will come back on Sunday, July 2nd at 1 p.m. local time to play it out for $618,285 and the WSOP gold bracelet.
It took a litte over six hours on Day 3 to get from 32 to nine. It will be an international affair on Sunday, with no less than six different countries represented at the final table. With most of the $2,896,950 prize pool still up for grabs, it's promising to be an interesting final day.
Andres Korn from Argentina, leads the way with 4,040,000. Korn holds a small lead over his nearest rival, Thomas Boivin (Belgium), who finished the day with 3,190,000. Hungarian Marton Czuczor sits in third with 1,750,000, followed by Americans Mike Sowers (1,630,000), Simon Lam (1,450,000), and Mark Zullo (975,000). Pete Chen, from Taiwan, has 910,000, and Spain's Sergio Cabrera has 890,000. Rounding out the final table is the fourth American, Andy Spears, who will start the final table with 740,000 in chips, or 15 big blinds.
Final Table Seat Assignments
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pete Chen | Taiwan | 910,000 | 18 |
| 2 | Andres Korn | Argentina | 4,040,000 | 81 |
| 3 | Mike Sowers | United States | 1,630,000 | 33 |
| 4 | Thomas Boivin | Belgium | 3,190,000 | 64 |
| 5 | Andy Spears | United States | 740,000 | 15 |
| 6 | Sergio Cabrera | Spain | 890,000 | 18 |
| 7 | Mark Zullo | United States | 975,000 | 20 |
| 8 | Simon Lam | United States | 1,450,000 | 29 |
| 9 | Marton Czuczor | Hungary | 1,750,000 | 35 |
At 12 p.m. local time, 32 players returned to play a relatively short third day toward the final nine. The short stacks refused to bust in the first level of the day, and it took the better part of Level 21 before Guy Pariente busted as the first casualty. Aditya Agarwal quickly followed him to the rail after losing ace-four to Juha Helppi's king-jack.
In Level 22, the bustouts ramped up in quick succession. Julian Stuer, Carlos Chang, Matt Stout, Huihan Wu, Dong Zhao, and Dietrich Fast all fell in the second level of the day. Fast was among the big stacks at the start but trended down during the second hour. With ace-king, Fast failed to improve against Pierre Neuville's pocket nines, and he finished in 25th place.
Damian Salas got his aces cracked in the third level of the day to finish 24th. Salas got it all in against Simon Lam's king-jack and saw Lam spike two jacks to knock him out. Finnish high-stakes regular Juha Helppi followed him in 23rd place by losing king-eight to ace jack.
One of the pivotal hands of the day followed shortly thereafter. Barny Boatman opened the action, Andres Korn called, Simon Lam three-bet, Yaron Zeev Malki four-bet, Pierre Neuville tank-folded, Boatman tank-folded, Korn five-bet shoved, Lam folded, and Malki called. Korn held pocket kings and doubled through Malki's pocket jacks. After the hand, Neuville claimed to have folded pocket queens, Boatman claimed pocket tens, and Lam claimed ace-king!
Barny Boatman busted shortly thereafter against Korn, followed by Yaron Zeev Malki, Mike Watson, Pascal Hartman, [Removed:14], and Ravi Raghavan. Matt Affleck busted in 16th place after shoving ace-queen into the ace-king of Mike Sowers.
Pierre Neuville's run ended in 15th place. The 2015 November Niner called all in with king-six in the big blind after Marton Czuczor had open-shoved. Czuczor had jack-deuce and got there when a jack hit the flop. Neuville was quickly followed to the exit by Mike Vanier.
Ari Engel, who started off the day second in chips, fell in 13th place. Darren Rabinowitz limped in from the small blind with ace-queen, Engel raised himself committed from the big blind with king-four, Rabinowitz moved all in, and Engel had to call it off. No help on board spelled the end for the Canadian.
Donis Agnelli missed out on the final table after suffering a bad beat with pocket kings. On a seven-high flop, Korn check-raised all in, and Agnelli called. Korn held just nine-seven for a pair of sevens but hit a seven on the turn to send Agnelli to the payout desk.
After busting Ari Engel, Darren Rabinowitz found himself on the downward slope, and he ended up busting in 11th place. Rabinowitz was all in with king-ten against Thomas Boivin's pocket eights, and the latter spiked a set to end Rabinowitz' run. The final table was set when James Hughes was eliminated at the unofficial final table. Hughes lost a crucial coin flip with ace-king against Korn's pocket tens, which settled Korn into the end-of-the-day chip lead.
Action will resume at 1 p.m. local time with 52 minutes left in Level 27. Blinds are at 25,000/50,000 with a running ante of 5,000. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be on the floor to provide live updates until a new WSOP bracelet winner is crowned.