WSOP Main Event gets down to last 26 - Aram Zobian is in the lead

Day 6 has ended in the Rio All-Suit Hotel & Casino, with a former Main Event champion and a November-Niner still in the field.

109 players started Day 6 of the Main Event, but only 26 of them reached Day 7. The current chip leader, Aram Zobian praised his fortune after the day ended: "I can't even comprehend how good I'm running right now. Definitely blessed. Never ran this good in a tournament, not even close. Hopefully, that'll be true for tomorrow as well."

Even though he build the biggest stack, Aram too saw himself on the wrong end of a cooler, to double up the eventual second-biggest stack, Artem Metalidi when they were all-in preflop. Artem's Kings managed to hold against the Ace-King of Aram's for his tournament life. "I wasn't really too distraught after that hand. Early in the day I actually lost a massive pot where I was bluffed and I made an incorrect fold. After that hand, I was also very calm and very cool. I was just very patient and stayed calm."

When asked about his strategy for the next day, Aram gave a rather simple answer: "Same as every day. Stay cool, confident and try to play my best. Do my morning routine and take it one day at a time, one hand at a time."

Frenchman, Antoine Labat finished the day 3rd in chips, with a stack of 28,445,000. Regardless of his result, this will be the biggest ever score for Antoine as the current guaranteed prize is $282,630, while his total live earnings stood at $194K before entering the tournament. However, Labat is not the only Frenchman left in the field. Sylvain Loosli is also among the remaining players.

Sylvain is no stranger to the late stages of the Main Event, as he finished 4th in 2013 for a huge $2,792,533. "It feels pretty amazing to be bagging up again ahead of Day 7. It's been a swingy day. I had a very good start, moving up to 15m from 3.6m at the start of the day. But coming back from dinner break, I lost every pot. I managed to just keep my composure and be patient, and then I got moved to another table. I lost a few more chips there but won some of them back. Overall I'm very happy with how I played and my strategy." The seasoned pro will return to the tables with 11,635,000 in chips.

Another player who is certainly familiar with the Main Event deep runs is 2009's champion, Joe Cada. Cada ended Day 6 with a chip stack of 8,850,000.

The three shortest stacks are Jeff Trudeau (5.09 million) Bart Lybaert (3.8 million) and Barry Hutter (2.25 million). Jeff might have some room before playing push-or-fold, but the latter two are certainly in the danger zone, with blinds of 100K/200K/30K.

The day saw several big names falling. Shaun Deeb (105th; $57,010), Benjamin Pollak (42nd; $189,165) and Brian Yoon (41st; $189,165), Shannon Shorr (39th; $189,165) were all amongst the victims. The play will continue on Wednesday, July 16th.

End of Day 6 chip counts:

Player   Chips
Aram Zobian   41,585,000
Artem Metalidi   30,845,000
Antoine Labat   28,445,000
Michael Dyer   26,515,000
Alex Lynskey   22,045,000
Yueqi Zhu   19,245,000
Kao Saechao   18,985,000
Martijn Gerrits   17,790,000
Nicolas Manion   17,630,000
Eric Froehlich   15,285,000