WSOPE Main Event - Ho keeps the lead

After ending Day 4 as the chipleader Maria Ho ended the last day with the biggest stack as well - she has 7,830,000.

Chipleader Maria Ho

Some big names failed to make it through the day as defending champion, Kevin MacPhee, eliminated in 10th place for €74,737. In his final hand he opened to 115,000 in first position, Maria flatted from the cutoff and the blinds came along as well. Both the blinds folded on the flop of Qh 7c 4h to MacPhee's 210,000 bet so Maria and Kevin were the only two players to see the 9d on the turn. MacPhee continued with a 430,000 bet and after some tanking Maria put him all in for his last 950,000. Kevin called.

Maria: Jh Th
Kevin: Kd Ks

Maria had plenty of outs holding a straight and a flush draw against the overpair of MacPhee's and managed to hit one of them as the king of clubs fell on the river, sending the reigning champ to the rail.

Defending champ Kevin MacPhee

However, despite of her healthy stack she can't take a break since Marti Roca De Torres is pretty close to her with 7,260,000. Marti qualified online winning a €250 satellite and now already has €174,365 locked up with a great chance to win even more. He won a a big pot in a cooler situation when his Ah Ac ran into the As Kd of Stepan Osinovski's. The players were all in before the flop and after the aces held Stepan busted out in 9th place, earning €74,737.

 

The Spanish isn't the only win with some room to maneuvere given that the average stack is about 43 big blinds. After winning a flip against Maria - when his AcQs beat her 3s3h - Niall Farrell doubled up to 30 big blinds. Despite his shorter stack he's still a force to be reckon with and considered by many as one of the favourites.

With Luis Rodriguez and Jack Salter busting out in 8th and 7th place for €97,344 and €129,121 only six players have a chance to win the trophy and the €1,115,207. The play continues Friday at noon local time with 50,000/100,000/15,000 blinds.

 

End of day chip counts: