Lewis, who recently signed on with the burgeoning crew at IveyPoker.com, had an impressive day among a stacked field to bag up 1.8 million in chips.
He'll start Day 5 and the playdown to the final six tomorrow a good 200k ahead of second place Paul Klann (1,581,000) and third place Paul Volpe (1,562,000).
Lewis, a $2m+ winner online under the name 810ofclubs who also has a list of live cashes a mile long, is looking for his first WPT final table.
Ausmus, Kihara Stick Around
Benjamin Zamani (1,380,000), David Tuthill (1,086,000) and Day 3 chip leader Jeremy Ausmus (1,053,000) hold down the other current spots in the top six.
Japan's Naoya Kihara also managed to squeeze into the final 18 with 654,000 - good for 12th spot overall.
The top 10 in chips heading into Day 5:
1. Toby Lewis 1,816,000 2. Paul Klann 1,581,000 3. Paul Volpe 1,562,000 4. Benjamin Zamani 1,380,000 5. David Tuthill 1,086,000 6. Jeremy Ausmus 1,053,000 7. Blake Barousse 954,000 8. Garrett Greer 793,000 9. David Fong 733,000 10. Bruce Kramer 731,000Notables busting just shy of the end of the day included Noah Schwartz (19th - $43,180), Ana Marquez (20th - $43,180), Jennifer Harman (21st - $43,180), Galen Hall (22nd - $38,710) and Eric Froehlich (23rd - $38,710).
Also falling by the wayside but in the money today were David Peters, Scott Clements, Chris Klodnicki, Mohsin Charania, Joe Hachem, Sam Razavi, Dan Shak, Scott Seiver, Phil Laak and Carlos Mortensen.
Play resumes at noon tomorrow from the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles and will play down to the final table of six; follow along with the WPT Live Updates.
Just over $1 million awaits the winner who will be crowned on Thursday night.
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