Reality TV Star Princess Love Among 45 Left in WPT World Championship
The $40 million guaranteed World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship, which started with 3,835 players, has dwindled down to just 45, one of whom is reality TV star Princess Love Norwood.
On Day 4 (Monday), 132 players returned to Wynn Las Vegas still hoping to win the $5,678,000 first place prize. But that dream died for about one-third of them, including Igor Kurganov (48th place for $111,300), Upeshka De Silva (76h place for $60,800), WPT ambassador Brad Owen (88th place for $53,500) and 2009 world champion Joe Cada (108th place for $41,900).
Husband Shows Love for Reality Star Wife
Princess Love appears on the reality TV show Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood. She is married to singer Ray J (real name is William Ray Norwood Jr.), and formerly dated boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. Ray J was at the Wynn supporting his wife and briefly chatted with PokerNews during a break.
"She's never played in this kind of atmosphere, so we here supporting," Ray J said. "I'm squatting in the room, coming down and coming back up. But, hey, she feels good, so we might be lucky this year."
Ray J will be back at noon PT for Day 5 on Tuesday showing continued support for his celebrity wife. She'll need all the support she can get as her chip stack has dropped down to 3,625,000, good for 38th place out of 45 remaining players. But she's already locked up a minimum payout of $111,300.
No Runaway Chip Leader
In most tournaments, especially this deep, there's a player or two at the top who hold a massive lead over the rest of the field. But that isn't the case in the 2023 WPT World Championship. In fact, the race heading into Day 5 is so close that there's a strong possibility the leaderboard will look much different early during Tuesday's session.
Mark Mounsey bagged the biggest stack at 18,725,000, but he's followed closely by five other players, and every player in the top 10 is one big pot away from first place. Maxime Chilaud is second in chips with 17,900,000, and then Ren Lin is in third at 17,750,000, barely above the 17,450,000 chips Raphael Blouet bagged. Ben Heath rounds out the top five with a healthy 16,600,000 stack.
2023 WPT World Championship Day 4 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Mounsey | 18,725,000 |
| 2 | Maxime Chilaud | 17,900,000 |
| 3 | Ren Lin | 17,750,000 |
| 4 | Raphael Blouet | 17,450,000 |
| 5 | Ben Heath | 16,600,000 |
| 6 | Ben Jacobs | 16,425,000 |
| 7 | Naj Ajez | 14,600,000 |
| 8 | Noel Rodriguez | 13,925,000 |
| 9 | Mario Navarro | 12,225,000 |
| 10 | Alex Jauregui | 12,075,000 |
Both Foxen's are also still in it, and the couple was seated at the same table on the WPT live-stream during Day 4. Kristen Foxen finished the session with 10,300,000 chips, while Alex Foxen has a smaller stack at 4,425,000.
Andrew Lichtenberger (11,100,000), Daniel Sepiol (2,800,000), and the smallest stack of them all, Viet Vo (2,200,000), are all still in the hunt to become World Poker Tour champions. When play resumes, the blinds will start at 150,000/300,000 (300,000 big blind ante), which means Princes Love will only have about a dozen big blinds.
*Image courtesy of World Poker Tour.