Which notable players are still in hunt at WSOP Main Event?
It’s getting down to crunch time in the World Series of Poker Main Event, with less than 80 players remaining on Day 6 at the 7 p.m. dinner break Wednesday at Horseshoe Las Vegas.
The field still included multiple past WSOP champions, several notable professionals, one poker television personality and a YouTube sensation.
Estelle Cohuet of France was the last woman standing, but was nursing a short stack.
Nate Silver, the political polling analyst and founder of the data-based website FiveThirtyEight, was eliminated when his flopped set of sixes (three-of-a-kind) ran into an unlikely set of sevens. He finished 87th for $92,600.
The $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em World Championship continued late Wednesday, and a lot was likely to change over the final two levels of play as the blinds climbed.
Here is a look at some of the recognizable faces who were still alive at the dinner break with a chance at the $12.1 million first prize:
Tony Dunst: The host of the World Poker Tour, he also is a successful tournament player with two WSOP bracelets and three Circuit rings, which are awarded to players for tournament victories, in addition to a WPT title. Dunst was 50th in the 2010 Main Event and has more than $4 million in live tournament earnings. He won a huge pot on Day 5 with pocket aces to build his chip stack but was stuck in neutral during the first three levels of play Wednesday.
Maurice Hawkins: The resident of West Palm Beach, Florida, is the WSOP Circuit’s all-time leader with 15 rings. But on the WSOP main stage in Las Vegas, Hawkins has had only moderate success.
He made the final table of the $1,500 buy-in “Millionaire Maker” No-limit Hold’em event in 2014 and the “Monster Stack” in 2017, along with a ninth-place finish in the $2,620 buy-in “Marathon” No-limit Hold’em tournament in 2017.
Toby Lewis: The longtime tournament pro from England has more than $8.2 million in career earnings, which includes three online Circuit rings. He showed his experience recovering after being shown a crazy bluff during Day 5 and was in the top 20 at dinner.
Lewis was third at the 2021 Wynn Millions for $1.2 million, and he won the 2018 Aussie Millions Poker Championship Main Event for $1.18 million.
John Racener: Arguably the most successful player remaining, he won a bracelet in the $10,000 buy-in Dealers Choice Six-Handed Championship in 2017 and has $9.1 million in career WSOP earnings. Racener also knows how to run deep in the Main Event, finishing second to Jonathan Duhamel in 2010.
Sam Stein: He was a highly successful pro from 2010 to 2016, winning a WSOP bracelet in 2011 when he took down a Pot-limit Omaha event for $420,802. But Stein largely disappeared from the live poker scene following the birth of his son in 2018 and puts in most of his volume online. He did return last year to finish fourth in the $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha (Eight-Handed) for more than $465,000.
Ryan Tosoc: A respected poker pro, Tosoc had the chip lead after Day 4 of the tournament and was near the top 20 at dinner Wednesday. His resume features two seven-figure scores on the World Poker Tour, including a victory in the 2017 Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event for $1.96 million.
Alec Torelli: A high-stakes cash game player and online poker coach, Torelli finished second in the WSOP $10,000 buy-in Heads-Up No-limit Hold’em Championship in 2008 for his largest career tournament cash ($336,896).
Torelli might be better known for an incident in 2017 on “Poker Night in America” when he was accused by many in the poker community of “angle shooting” an amateur player when his large denomination chips weren’t clearly visible during a big hand.
— Daniel Weinman: The professional poker player had almost 11 million chips at the break and was comfortably in the top 20.
He won the $1,000 buy-in Pot-limit Omaha Eight-Handed event last year for his first career bracelet to go with the Circuit ring he earned in 2015 at the Harrah’s Cherokee $1,675 buy-in Main Event.
Masato Yokosawa: The Japanese YouTuber known as “World Wide” has almost 780,000 subscriptions on his channel. He entered Day 6 just outside the top 20 and was able to hold steady. Yokosawa has more than $1 million in career live tournament earnings, but this is his first big score at the WSOP.
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.