Dominating for much of Day 5 today in Venice, Sexton finally settled back to just over a million in chips to be the third-biggest stack at the final table.
The other five stacks joining him?
All belonging to Italian players as fellow American Matt Salsberg - a three-time WPT final tablist in the last six months - hit the rail in seventh to be the unfortunate bubble boy.
Hero Call Hurts Salsberg, Bracelet-Winner Palumbo Hangs In
Salsberg, one of the leading candidates for WPT Player of the Year, looked primed to make his fourth final table before a hero call against Giuseppe Pastura dropped him down to just 10 BBs.
Correctly sniffing out a bluff until the river when Pastura hit a Queen for second pair, Salsberg made a valiant comeback afterward but had to settle for seventh when another river card - this time giving Marcello Montagner a straight - sent him packing.
Salsberg heads home with €20,800 for his run while Montagner will take the chip lead at 1.8 million into tomorrow's TV table.
Joining him and Sexton will be Robert Begni (1.2 million) and a trio of small-stacked Italians in Day 4 chip leader Erion Islamay (406,000), WSOP bracelet winner Rocco Palumbo (406,000) and Xia Lin (309,000).
The official WPT Venice Grand Prix final table and seat assignments.
Seat 1 - Xia Lin - 309,000 Seat 2 - Rocco Palumbo - 406,000 Seat 3 - Mike Sexton - 1,079,000 Seat 4 - Erion Islamay - 406,000 Seat 5 - Marcello Montagner - 1,805,000 Seat 6 - Robert Begni - 1,203,000Final-table action picks up again at 2:30 local time with live updates and a live stream available on WPT.com here.
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