The Californian has already recorded a handful of cashes dating back to 2008 but he’s guaranteed to make his biggest score ever here at the 2012 WSOP.
Day 5 began with 282 players chasing the WSOP dream but after five levels that number had been cut down to 97 with Keranen leading everyone.
While the lesser-known players are starting to take control of this year’s Main Event there are still some notable stories in the mix.
French player Gaelle Baumann is still proudly representing the females in the field with 3.9 million chips while Norway's Elisabeth Hille is not far behind with 3.3 million. Vanessa Selbst is also still in the tournament with 1.3 million.
Uruguay’s Fabrizio Gonzalez continued his feel-good poker story with a top 10 stack at 3.9 million. Don’t be surprised if he becomes Uruguay’s all-time money leader with a deep run in this event.
Eric Buchman also continued his bid for a second November Nine appearance by finishing with 1.5 million chips.
Here’s a look at the top 10 chip counts:
1. Kyle Keranen – 6,935,000 2. Robert Salaburu – 6,195,000 3. Taylor Paur – 5,820,000 4. Erik Hellman – 4,715,000 5. Wilfried Haerig – 4,505,000 6. Shahriar Assareh – 4,395,000 7. Charles Coultas – 4,015,000 8. Gaelle Baumann – 3,980,000 9. Fabrizio Gonzalez – 3,935,000 10. Nicco Maag – 3,895,000
Daniel Negreanu, Actor Kevin Pollak Eliminated
The Daniel Negreanu show came to an end Day 5 despite the Canadian’s valiant efforts to stay alive.
Negreanu lost the majority of his chips with two-pair against Kyle Bowker’s full house. Kid Poker then commited the last of his stack with king-queen, which he had the misfortune of smashing into actor Kevin Pollak’s ace-queen.
Pollak didn’t last much longer than Negreanu as he busted in one of the most horrific bad beats of the day. Pollak got all in with Q♦ Q♣ against Kirill Rabstov’s Q♠ Q♥ but Rabstov four-flushed him by the river.
The actor laughed it off and joked in his exit interview it was a memorable way to bust a tournament.
Incredibly Jarrett Nash never showed up to play his 525,000 stack today and let himself be blinded off.
Apparently Nash was recently married and decided to skip playing today because it was Sabbath to respect his wife’s beliefs. That’s some strong conviction. It potentially cost him a shot at $8.5 million.
Also hitting the rail on Day 5 were Alessio Isaia, John Juanda, Brent Hanks, JP Kelly, Freddy Deeb, Andrew Lichtenberger, Craig McCorkell, Scott Montgomery, Dan Shak, Matt Marafioti and Sorel Mizzi.
Here’s a list of the notable players still in the tournament
Jan Heitmann (3,410,000) Amnon Filippi (3,400,000) A.J. Jejelowo (3,340,000) Yuval Bronshtein (2,775,000) Eric Buchman (1,550,000) Jason Somerville (1,400,000) Amit Makhija (1,400,000) Vanessa Selbst (1,350,000) Erik Cajelais (1,180,000) Isaac Baron (1,165,000) Leo Wolpert (940,000) Kyle Bowker (855,000) Sam Holden (765,000) Tristan Clemencon (725,000) Gavin Smith (675,000)Tomorrow is the penultimate day of the 2012 WSOP this summer and the remaining 97 players will likely attempt to get to at least 24 for the final table playdown.
Despite some rain over the last few days the action has never been this hot at the 2012 WSOP and we don’t expect it to let up tomorrow. Check in at 12 p.m. tomorrow as we get one step closer to the final table.
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