A long day of poker saw the returning 62 players culled to just 13 who will play down to the final eight tomorrow then move to the TV table and find a winner.
Gruissem, a high-roller specialist who won the $50k event at WSOP APAC this year, looks primed to make a good go at this one too with 1,296,000 in chips.
He's the only player over 1m but with several marquee names including Negreanu, Erik Seidel and Scott Seiver behind him it's still anyone's game tomorrow.
Negreanu Needs 8th or Higher to Take POY Lead
The secondary story of the day was the rapidly dwindling opportunity for WSOP Player of the Year points and the chase to catch current leader Matt Ashton.
With Ashton busting out well before the cash today (which starts at 9th) Negreanu needs an 8th-place finish to take the lead.
Holding the chip lead at times during the day Negreanu eventually settled back to 411,000 (7th overall) so he still has work to do.
Also throwing a wrinkle in the plans is November Niner Marc McLaughlin, who's still in the event too and can win the Main Event to grab the POY title himself.
Seiver, Seidel, Koon, Adams, Laak All with Chips
Making matters tough for all of the above mentioned players is still an elite field of grinders looking for their own stab at the €725,000 first-place prize.
Esteemed pros Seiver, Seidel, Timothy Adams, Jason Koon, David Peters and Phil Laak are among them as is 888 Poker's Nicolau Villa-Lobos. The final 13 and chip counts:
Philipp Gruissem – 1,296,000 Scott Seiver – 770,000 Jason Koon – 702,000 Erik Seidel – 610,000 David Peters – 538,000 Nicolau Villa-Lobos – 527,000 Daniel Negreanu – 411,000 Marc-Etienne McLaughlin – 304,000 Byron Kaverman – 273,000 Timothy Adams – 240,000 Phil Laak – 144,000 Tom Bedell – 124,000 Joni Jouhkimainen – 113,000Check our WSOPE Live updates for a full recap of the day's action. Tune in tomorrow at 7 am ET for coverage as they play down to eight then switch over to a live stream with hole cards on a 30-minute delay.
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